Apparatus for cutting stone panels

Apparatus for use in manufacturing composite surface elements having a lamina of stone bonded to a backing layer, comprising a stone-cutting saw having at least one disc blade adapted to cut in a vertical plane, conveyor means for conveying a stone slab beneath the saw blade, at least one slab gripping device mounted on said conveyor means and adapted to support the slab upwardly on one longitudinal edge of the slab, and means for tumbling the partly-cut slab onto its opposite longitudinal edge after a first pass through the saw, the tumbling means comprising a body portion having two spaced-apart parallel channel-shaped bearings lying in a substantially horizontal plane, a frame which is adapted to receive and support a slab of stone and which is provided with a pair of spaced-apart parallel axles which are adapted to engage with said channel-shaped bearings, the arrangement being such that the frame may be pivoted from a first position in which it is disposed in a substantially vertical plane on one side of said body portion with one of said axles located in one of said channel-shaped bearings, through approximately 90.degree. about said bearings, to a position in which the frame is disposed horizontally on said body portion with an axle engaged in each of said channel-shaped bearings, the frame then being pivotable about said other channel-shaped bearing through a further 90.degree. until it is again disposed in a substantially vertical plane on the opposite side of the body portion.