Where ART and METAL are Brought Together

Stonelique Inc., LLC - The Stonelique Company
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Welcome to The Stonelique Company.  I am Angelique LaFontaine and I

handle the book keeping and marketing for the company and my husband

David Stonaker is Owner, Co-Founder, Designer and Fabricator.

David is AWS certified and has been welding for over 30 years.  He has an

Arc Stick welding Rig that he takes onsite for his large projects.  For the

projects he can do here in our shop, he uses a Miller Brand MIG welder.

We have a 1900 sq ft shop In Kaufman, TX.  Our equipment

consists of a sandblasting box, a Miller MIG welder and a Miller Hand

Torch Plasma Cutter.  We also have a hydraulic bender along with the

dyes and attachments, a Drill Press, a roller, and a metal saw. 

The one thing that all of these machines have in common is that none

of them are intended for mass production.  There are no jigs in this shop

or conveyer belts.  Every piece is made one at a time.

David and myself have a wealth of knowledge, with him being

an experienced seasoned fabricator and myself being an design

engineer, together we would like to educate our customers.  We want

you to buy smart, not cheap.

Now the importance of our material selection is simply this,

would you make a sandwich from a piece of meat that you didn’t know

what it was or how long it had been sitting out?  Probably not.  So when

I say we want our customers to buy smart, we want you to know exactly

what it is that you are getting.  A lot of places can provide a much

less expensive product and it may look similar to ours but what are

they using for materials? I can assure you that some are using scrap. 

Scrap can include Tin, Brass, Cast, and other types of metals and

metal alloys.  Some of which you absolutely do not weld.

We do not nor will we ever use scrap.  We select material directly from the

steel yard where the tempering process can be validated.  We will know

if it is cold rolled round bar or oiled and pickled plate metal.  With

that knowledge base, David is able to properly select what material he

wants to use and for what function.

Bending is a labor intense process and as well, takes a great deal of

knowledge in metal behaviors.  What do I mean by metal behaviors?

There is an actual science that focuses on the how metals react to

temperature, pressure, impact…things like that.  Now with what David

is doing, every time he is putting a bend into the bar or tube, he is actually

deforming the metal on all surfaces.  As the metal is pulled through the bender,

forces increase and are released through the metal, ultimately, the metal

experiences deformation and elongates.  Why is this important? A skilled

fabricator is going to know how to work around this behavior and

calculates his geometry accordingly to avoid lop sided pieces.

Moving on to the welding.  Now this is an important facet.  Folks, let’s be

clear on something.  Anybody can go into their garage, strike up an arc

and melt some metal and treat it like an adhesive.  That DOES NOT

make you a welder.  Just like how a painter develops a relationship  with

his brush, paint and canvas to get it to behave in a way that delivers a

desired result,  that is what welding is.  It is not just melting metal to

create a joint. Welding is defined as combining and forming a harmonious

or effective whole, it isn’t using molten metal to glue 2 pieces together. 

What does that mean?  It means you are taking 2 completely independent

pieces of metal and joining them together to create 1 piece that has

the same, uniformed properties throught out. This is a very skilled

technique, an understanding of proper heat penetration and an understanding

of how to properly size your weld.  Kids, more is not always better when it

comes to welding.

Folks, here’s the point, I said earlier that we want to educate our customers. 

We want you to buy smart, not cheap.  With proper selection, this

should be a onetime investment.  David and I have a rocking chair set of

our own and it is over 30 years old and we still use it.  Do the math. one of

our rocking chair sets is $750 and let’s say that you keep it for as long as us. 

Now let’s say that you spend about $400 on a set that you have to replace

every 2 years.  Over a 30 year period, you just spent $6000 when you could’ve

spent only $750 and had been done with it.

You get what you pay for and it’s just that simple.  If you want quality,

reliable products, then you are going to have a pay a bit more upfront, but in

the long run, it is going to last you and save you a lot more.  At any time,

we are fully prepared to answer any questions regarding the material used. 

Our main goal is to make sure that you are satisfied.  We would love to hear

from you so if you have comments, suggestions or want to share your

experience, please do so below!  Thank you for visiting and come back again!