Thread: Tombstone help

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I'm hoping to get started on my tombstones soon and am trying to decide how I'm going to go about it.

How many of you use dremels and how many of you use a wood burning tool?

Which do you think would be easiest for someone who has never used either?

Opinions and advice will be greatly appreciated!

Originally Posted by Rikki

I'm hoping to get started on my tombstones soon and am trying to decide how I'm going to go about it.

How many of you use dremels and how many of you use a wood burning tool?

Which do you think would be easiest for someone who has never used either?

Opinions and advice will be greatly appreciated!

I use dremels all the time, oh you mean on tombstones..lol

dont forget to post pics

Dremel

You can go as slow as you want with a dremel, heat requires a certain speed and feel, so you can mess up more easily.

Don

You can do more with a Dremel.

Okay, sounds like the dremel it is! Now...I'm completely new to this and don't even know what attachment you guys use. Can someone fill me in?

well some are what are called grinner wheels they are flat disc. and some are barrel sander wheels
here is a good site for you to learn more about how they are used:
you can buy any of these at Lowes or Home depot just wanted to show you pics
Dremel Tools Dremel Accessories Dremel Attachments
the basic started set will have all this attachments in it. for around $40-50.00 buck at lowes or HD
if you need more help just scream,lol Ihave had mine for yrs and it has never let me down also may want to check pawn shops you can find some there for about $20.00 hope this has helped.

LOL! Funny you should ask. I just started doing my first tombstones out of foam this weekend (got 6 done) and I used a dremel. I used a heat tool for shaping my stones, but the dremel works better for the lettering.

I used an engraving bit that is cone shaped with a nice point on it. By controlling the depth that I went, I could easily vary the width of the line I cut.



While we're on the subject....what advice do people have for staking their tombstones to the ground? I've noticed that there are two camps on this too, the "put a PVC pipe mid-stone" camp and the 12" roofing spike camp. What do you guys find works best and how, exactly, do you acheive it. Have you had any problems at all?

If your going for newer looking stones, then the Dremel is the way to go, but for older looking stuff, you can use a cheap soldering iron from the dollar store, sense you want the stone and epitaph to look old and eroded anyway.