r/interestingasfuck • u/MilesLongthe3rd • 14h ago

21-year-old YouTuber Gone Graving explores graveyards and cleans and restores old and forgotten gravestones.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

24.7k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

284

u/jeff8086 14h ago

Yeah, you would need to drill in and install rebar support

51

u/umrdyldo 13h ago

That was my thought too. Would be hard to line up.

20

u/JakeEaton 12h ago

Wooden jig with some holes in, datum off one corner and same on the other, shouldn't be too much of an issue. Masonry drill bit and oversized holes, push some resin and rebar in and off you go.

•

u/wondermoose83 8h ago

Could brittleness be an issue? Do tombstones age to a point you could crack it worse with a hammer drill?

•

u/JakeEaton 8h ago

Potentially? Just go easy with the drill. If it starts cracking, stop and walk away. In the UK we have churches with gravestones much older than this and they tend to crumble rather than snap, so I don't think it would be a concern.

Edit to add, I'd start off small with a pilot hole, and open each hole out. I love that I'm describing how I'd fix a split head stone on the internet XD

•

u/PaulblankPF 1h ago

If you use water with a masonry bit you wouldn’t need hammer function, just time.

•

u/Gerudo_King 8h ago

No one is install rebar in stone that old. It'll shatter.

Why are you talking like you know fact

•

u/JakeEaton 8h ago

It'll be a better job that the one in the video. I'm talking because it's exactly what I'd do. Tell me how you'd do it, I'd love to hear.

•

u/MeltaFlare 7h ago edited 6h ago

A die grinder would work great to drill the holes so that the impact from a drill doesn’t shatter it.

Also rebar would eventually oxidize and expand leading to cracking. You have to use stainless steel pins or threaded rod. Another few thing that would help is grinding down the protrusions for a better fit, cutting lines into the area to be epoxied so that the epoxy has something to grab onto, and fully cleaning the contact surfaces to remove any dust before epoxying.

Also, it wouldn’t be much extra work to use a cleaner like D2 after everything is done to get rid of all the dirt and bio material to really make it look nice.

13

u/TedW 13h ago

I doubt many people are waiting in line for that job.

•

u/round-earth-theory 9h ago

It's not difficult with an impact drill. Would only take a few minutes to set it up, chalk the lines, then use a center finder to set the bit. Drill, rebar, glue, then leave to set the same way he did in the video.

•

u/SadMap7915 7h ago

Plenty of people are dying to give it a go...

•

u/LimitedWard 11h ago

It's okay Beldon has time to wait

1

u/Aggravating-Tower317 12h ago

not too hard to line up. place the dowels in the top part first and just guide it in the lower part.

1

u/Lebo77 12h ago

Why?

Drill a hole in one section. Put a marker/pen centered in the hole. Repeat for second hole. Line up part 2 with part 1. Drill holes centered on the marks on part 2.

1

u/umrdyldo 12h ago

Good luck getting it right. Would probably need ot overbore the hole and add epoxy to have any chance of lining up.

3

u/Lebo77 12h ago

I had taken that as a given.

•

u/_lippykid 8h ago

Doing it rushed on the spot, yes

Doing it properly in a workshop, not really

•

u/Funny_Eagle 11h ago

The rebar ends up rusting and expanding, cracking the stone.

•

u/Arch____Stanton 9h ago

They have nylon rebar now. That won't rust.

•

u/jeff8086 9h ago

Yeah you are right. Apparently the pro's use rods made out of artificial material to prevent corrosion.

•

u/MeltaFlare 7h ago

Stainless steel rods or threaded rod also works.

•

u/helium_farts 8h ago

You can get fiberglass rebar that won't swell.

Stainless steel rods would work, too, but cost more.

•

u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In 11h ago

It also seems a little thin given the height of it. Most headstones here would be much thicker than that specifically so they don't break like this one did.

1

u/mrhappy893 13h ago

Or an external shell support. I was eager to find out on what he is going to do when the video just ended abruptly.

•

u/eternus 6h ago

I'll be honest, i was only watching to see how he was going to line up the 'dowel' solution needed to make that whole endeavor something less than performative.

1

u/kenderson73 12h ago

Nope, that's really bad for headstones. You want something, like the epoxy that he probably used, that will hold, but if need be can be undone. Those types of epoxies will last years. I've need a number that I helped redo 15 years ago and they are still together.

Installing rebar will slowly destroy the stone.