Thread: I Found It Over There

Long shaft and or a belt drive or such would be nice, distance the electric from the blade possibly

That is going to help for sure. Shielding and redirecting the spray will be a big saver too. Even some of the manufactured wet saws I have used have reduced un-nescary amounts of water spray. You shouldn't need a rain coat to use a wet saw.

You could eliminate the need for the water to cool the disc by using the correct blade. Then all your doing is spraying to keep the dust down.

My issue with safety isn't the disc. It's the spindle. The disc should be balanced so it's not going to wobble much, but making a spindle that can be split with multiple bearings that have to operate wet, all connected to a base plate that cannot allow for movement means that your looking at some pretty hefty materials. And a sizeable time investment to get everything working.

That hack saw style power tool seemed interesting, kinda curious if there would be a way to cut long wise rather than just the ends though...really wanting a way to cut a 3 inch wide slab in 1 swipe, with a consistent cut for minimal lapping. But making hones need a way to cut out the 3 inch slab first...then cut it to shape.

Basically, need a way to slice out a rough hone efficiently from a large/larger rock...

Then an efficient way to cut it to shape with a minimal amount of lapping

Im curious, could the hacksaw method work, but in reverse....rock self feeding from above with saw blade facing up? Pretty sure it would bind though

as long as the machine was tight and the rock in a vice the hacksaw machine should produce very smooth cuts. They work amazing in steel, so maybe it should be the same with rock. I had give a bandsaw hacksaw a shot but it was a failed experiment with the blade that was on it and the hardness of the rock. I'm sure with a different blade it would have been ok. I have never seen one that the material fed on to the blade though.

what if you had a method of turning the hack saw blade through 90 degrees so you can cut horizontally. A standard blade is 12" long, you need some movement on that say 3" total travel. That means you could cut almost 9" of rock.

The feed method in the horizontal would be a trolley, with a big weight on a wire and pulley over a table edge.

There are also much longer power hacksaw blades available. I have not found an 18" blade suitable for stone yet, but I'm still looking.

the big lapidary saws the big circular blade is in a fixed position and the vice travel on two shafts and is pushed by a threaded rod thats is turned by a small variable speed motor. With the hacksaw blade vertical and traveling straight up and down you could push the rock past the blade. A small water pump would add cooling and flush the slurry away without requiring much volume or pressure and the motor would be well above. A do able design.

I found an 18" hacksaw blade that should work

Hitachi 752042 18" Carbide Tipped Reciprocating Saw Blade for Brick and Abrasive | eBay

It's supposed to be for one of those brick eating reciprocating saws... so it shouldn't need the top support, A guide or pair of rollers to keep the blade true would work.

I want to try one.