Welcome back to the shop everybody!
So, in today's video we're going to be talking about cutting rocks.
We're going to be talking about the saws,
all of that stuff. I have four saws in the shop right now.
I have a more budget-friendly tile saw, I have a more mid upper range tile saw,
I have a wet lapidary saw that could be either ran with water or oil, and we're
going to be running that one with oil a little trim saw, and then I have the big oil slab saw.
And we're going to be weighing out some of the pros and cons of these and looking at
ways in which you can compare them and you know maybe help
you make some better decisions as to what is going to be right for you.
As kind of a test piece, I have a piece of seam agate here. We're going to be cutting it on all
four saws and then we can evaluate the type of finish that you're going to get on your rocks
and we'll bring that back into the shop and we'll work our way down some of the criteria.
Because I think um most people, most probably look at the price of them without
factoring in all the stuff that we're going to take into consideration in this video.
So stay tuned it's going to be good. I hope it helps you out.
So, a major factor with these saws is going to be the noise: how loud is it?
Is it something that you need hearing protection for?
So, what we're gonna do here is uh I have a decibel meter here on the phone.
We're gonna turn all three of these saws on and actually see how loud they are.
Getting about 60 there, 70.
High-Tech Diamond came in at 60 decibels.
Now we're using the Drill Master.
That came in at about 80. And of course, it would be even louder when you're cutting rock.
Let's check out the Rigid.
And finally, we have the oil saw.
Right now, all three saws are filled up with water to what the manufacturer says.
Let's see how much water and how big of a mess they would make. Turn it up all the way.
Now, these are going to sound a little bit more quiet with the water in them.
Now, you got some little spritzing coming out there. Not bad.
Check out the Harbor Freight Drill Master.
So, it's certainly spitting a lot of water all over the place.
Now, a lot of people will run these without the guard, so that's something to factor in too.
It's going to create a big
rooster tail which means you have to cut backwards, well most people cut backwards.
And finally we got the Rigid.
I think you get the drift.
I would say that's a much cleaner option than these two.
And uh of course, the oil saw is contained and has no water.
So this is going to be the more long boring part of the video where I talk.
So, let's start by looking at the cuts. So, left to right: we have the Drill Master,
the Rigid, the High Tech, and the big oil slab saw.
So, as you can see we had some breakout I was cutting through this way and uh it snapped off.
You can see that finish on it is very...focus...it's very rough.
I would say that the finish on the much newer blade on the Rigid is a little bit nicer.
The grooves left by the blade are not as big but we still had that breakout
as we were cutting this way, it just snapped off.
The High Tech lapidary trim saw:
you can still feel that it has some roughness to it but the ridges are less deep.
And there's a little bit of breakout where it's snapped off but not much at all.
Here is from the oil saw. It is a smooth, almost matte finish.
Sometimes there will be a breakout um where it snapped off. On this case it did not.
And that is the finish on that.
Okay, so let's talk about some of the different categories. Let's talk about the noise.
Clearly the more expensive lapidary equipment is quieter equipment that you don't need to
be wearing hearing protection with. You saw the decibels being produced by them.
I would certainly recommend if you're running a tile saw to wear hearing protection.
Less so with a lapidary trim saw and a lapidary oil slab saw.
We just talked about how clean of a cut you're getting on these pieces.
I think it's a fair assessment to say that a
slower moving lapidary blade will do better at giving a nice finish than a tile saw.
Next, you have to weigh out does that matter and what are you using your saw for.
Um, if you want to pick up a river rock and cut it in half just to see what's going on inside
you can do that with all saws. Well, all tile saws, lapidary equipment.
And I would highly recommend that. Before I ever received a tile saw or even owned a
rock hammer or a chisel, I would literally take two rocks and smash them together or
smash a rock with another rock, caveman style, to see what was going on inside the rock.
It is definitely valuable as far as uh learning about geology, learning about rocks.
Because the thing is with river tumbled rocks, or weathered rocks, what's happening on the inside
and what's happening on the outside can be very different so getting to the inside is important.
The finish: does it, does it really matter?
Well, let's say you're cutting rocks in half to tumble them.
It doesn't matter. Let's say you're shaping a rock somewhat to tumble.
It doesn't matter it's going to get tumbled smooth, right?
Let's say you want to cut and polish a couple of rocks a week
or a couple of rocks a month or whatever.
It probably doesn't matter because you're not doing that volume. Now, once you start to do
more and more volume that amount of time adds up and having a more buttery smooth finish means
you're going to spend less time sitting at a lower grit polishing to get it flat or to get it smooth.
Now, we didn't even approach the topic of rolling a rock. So, one thing that you see a lot of people
do that I have done as well, is let's say you have a rock that is too big for your tile saw.
So, people will roll it into the blade and as you can see what will happen
is the the rock is undulating a little bit and you're creating deep grooves in the rock.
That's why when you see people do that they will never show you the raw, well for the most part,
people don't want to show you the rock not wet because it's going to look really milky, hazy
and you're going to see giant kind of gashes in it from the tile saw blade. So that's a major factor.
And then you come into a table size. Okay, how big of a thing can you cut.
Now, that really matters a lot. Are you wanting to cut little things or really big things?
What do you want to do? Are we doing, are we talking little or big?
You know, some lapidary trim saws have a little tray,
right, that captures all of the water and sends it back into the reservoir below. Versus a saw
like the High Tech here, I have the table top here. You can see, right, that the table top...I
mean you could have a a slab this big and be able to hang hang it off the side and trim that.
Does that matter to you? That's something that you should think about: how do you intend on
using your saw in the future, what does it look like to you? Um, then it comes down to blades.
Okay so, here I have a couple of blades that are...this one's new,
this one's light very lightly used.
A tile saw blade is quite thick, right? Now, why is it so thick?
Well, it spins really fast. Okay, you can see we have a max RPM here of 8730.
Most tile saws are going to be more in that 6000 range.
This blade here, they recommend running it at a 2650 RPM. Why? Because it's a thin blade, right?
Does that matter? Okay, if you're just cutting a rock in half, right?
Like, let's say you have a rock just like this and you just want to do one cut
through it. It probably doesn't matter it probably doesn't...
Oh the lights off. Let's turn the light on. I guess that's a little bit nicer.
Um, it doesn't matter. But, now if you're going to be slabbing up stuff
it really adds up faster than you think.
So here, right? .072
0.022
Significantly thinner blade.
You're going to get cleaner cuts and it's going to go slower removing less material from your rocks.
So, the the kerf, the thickness of the blade is something you want to take into account.
Um, are you planning on doing the big, big slabs versus small slabs. That's going to be a factor.
Your size of your saw is going to determine what you're capable of doing.
Do you want to make jewelry? That's a...there's all these things that you
should be trying to weigh in. Along with the price and the value, along with resale value.
Because most of the time you're not going to die with the saw that you first buy.
So, is that Home Depot Rigid brand
tile saw going to retain a better resale value than the Harbor Freight saw?
I would say yes based upon the things that I've seen in that secondary market.
How clean they are. I mean, you saw from the video
that obviously the oil saw has its own issues with having to clean your rocks and get the oil off,
but strictly looking at tile saw versus lapidary saw the tile saws are more of a mess.
You're probably not going to be running a tile saw indoors, in like the you know at all.
It's an outdoor item. The lapidary saw puts out much less mess which means it can be ran indoors.
I'm running that in my shop. Does that matter to you?
Do you, you know maybe you live in Arizona where it doesn't freeze ever
and you can have that tile saw out year round.
Maybe you live in a northern climate like I do
where having a tile saw running in the winter is, it's an ordeal, you know?
Um, you can't leave it because it'll freeze up. You can't easily let it dry out. So, that means
I take it out of my shop, I set it up with hot water from the kitchen, I do my cuts. Meanwhile,
you're doing it bare handed or with like a rubber glove on and it's 30 degrees out, 20 degrees out
and then you have to wipe it all down and then you have to bring it inside to
dry off so you don't have the issue of like water in the mode, in the pump freezing up.
Or if it's the type that just uh the blade spins in a bath of water that that issue.
So, that's something to factor in. Um, and then really uh I would say
does...will the saw deliver at its price point? I think they all kind of do. right?
The Harbor Freight saws will get you cutting into rocks. They're also like a 50 dollar saw...ish.
The more nice Rigid saws have the sliding table. That means that you can
clamp your rock down right so you're not having to freehand it.
That blade goes up a little bit so you can cut some bigger things, which is really nice. And
it's a big improvement over your standard little table saw.
The trim saw from High Tech, or any trim saw for that matter,
is going to generally be a step above what you could get with a tile saw.
Having a big slab saw, meaning that you can take a rock and cut big slabs off of it and then take it
over to your trim saw and cut shapes and do things like that, is a great, excellent combination.
I hope uh you found this video to be useful, seeing these things side by side.
Maybe I gave some different uh perspective on what
you should be looking at and really ask yourself what do you want, you know?
If you're looking to get into jewelry, if you're looking to tumble rocks,
um all of those things should should really factor in.
Do you want to be cutting something big, you know? I mean I've certainly seen uh lapidary trim saws
that have a little tray table. That if I wanted to cut the edge off of this much bigger slab
I would be hitting into that, so you literally couldn't do it. So, does that matter to you?
Maybe. Maybe it doesn't. But that's something that you're going to have to ask yourself.
Anyways, but anyways uh I know this got a little long-winded.
I hope you found this to be a helpful, useful video. If you did, please consider subscribing
and uh drop a like and a comment down below and we'll be catching you on the next video.