Opinions on High Tone saws

I have a 10 and a 14 (still in the box). The 10 has been reliable and slow. HP had a father's day sale for 10% off rocks and equipment. I bought slab at their zoom meeting. They even said that they would honor it for alleady placed orders when the buyer was willing to pay in full instead of having only a deposit. Worth a call or email.

If you're looking for a new 16" saw you really don't have many options to consider other than Highland Park and Covington. The HP at $3167 and the Covington at $2995.

I do not own these saws but I know people with them and I have seen them in person, that said I have very limited first hand experience with them but if I had $3k to spend on a saw right now I would go with the HP purely based on the box of the saw. Covington makes their saws out of 16g steel and HP uses 7g steel. The Covington saw shipping weight is 165lbs and the HP is 460lb.

Covingtons feel like an under-built machine and HP feel like something that has been overbuilt.

I too debated between Covington and HP when I bought my saws a couple years ago.   I ended up getting a 10 inch trim saw and 16 inch 1100 Series saw from Covington.  The clutch on the 10 inch saw gave me a lot of problems from the start.  Then one day it just started working well and has been pretty much ok since then.  The 10 inch saw has a few other things about the layout and design I don't like including difficulty of cleanout.  

I have never touched the clutch on the 16 inch (nock on wood).  I did have an issue with the 16 inch with the arbor set screw coming loose and blade stopping in the middle of a cut.  Other than that, haven't had it stop in a rock.  I have also had an issue with leaking of oil out around the shaft.  I think it is probably a bad seal.  The staff at Covington has been very helpful and they either answer the phone when you call or get back to you in a short time.  

The weight difference does seem like a lot.  I was thinking my 16 inch was more than 165 pounds but will have to check if I have that.  My floor isn't exactly even so when I leveled the saw, I had to use some shims under legs.  I did notice a little bit of flexing in the legs or box when I did this so the overall weight might be a good thing to consider.  On the other hand, it is a lot easier to move 165 pounds vs 460.  

Currently they have a vintage 18" Lortone that they restored for $4897... I mean it looks good but that price....

Covington vs HP.  One thing I forgot to mention that could be very important is what it takes to align the blade on each saw.   When I got my Covington 16 inch saw, the blade was not perfectly perpendicular to the arbor.  Hence it was chewing up a lot more material and probably using up the blade faster.   Blade alignment was not covered in the O&M manual.  After calling Covington, I adjusted the blade but it is a real @$!% to do.  You have to loosen a set of nuts and adjust attached set screws, one of which is behind the arbor where you have to do everything by feel because of the stuff in the way.  You have to take the blade off (to get to the set screws) each time you make an adjustment and then put the blade back on to see if it worked.  I finally got it close enough for what I do.  But if I were cutting expensive stuff, I would be a lot more concerned about it.  

I found a video (link below) that shows how HP adjusts their blades.  Seems a lot less difficult than the Covington saw I have.   If you go with one of these two, it would be worth trying to figure out how you do the blade adjustment for each specific saw.  

On one of the HP videos, they make the point that Covington saws have a very small drain hole for getting oil and sludge out during cleaning.   It is true on my saw but I was able to get it out without a lot of trouble (or most of it).   One nice thing about the weight was that when I was draining the oil and sludge I was able to prop up the end opposite the drain to allow more out by gravity.  This would be more difficult on a heavier saw.  

On the more expensive refurbished saws.   I would think they would be a lot better but obviously, it depends on how much you are going to use the saw and what you can afford.  I really love the older equipment but went with new stuff based on my circumstances.  You might ask if I had it to do over again what would I do.  Probably not a fair question because I now know all the little things about Covington and not other saws.  

By the way, speaking of O&M manuals, you will be glad to know that the manual that came with my Kingsley North cabber is the best manual that I have gotten with any piece of lapidary equipment that I have bought.   Not perfect, but pretty darn good.  Every time I get an O&M manual, I end up marking it up and adding to it.   I often think I should offer my services to rewrite some of the terrible manuals that companies offer.   My general impression is that most of the lapidary equipment manufacturers think everyone buying a piece of equipment is very experienced and knows how to do everything.  Or maybe there are liability issues that they are trying to avoid.  

Hope this helps

Chris

I bought the 14 (still in box) and thought it came with a vertical vise like the 10. On the 10 the clutch handle is a lever to the right of the carriage and the clutch is a spring attached to a curved threaded piece of metal that sits on the feed rod. My spring broke I waited more than a month for the spring to arrive. I am not particularly handy and when I replaced the spring there wasn't enough tension so the carriage wouldn't advance. I put a threaded metal clip from my Covington behind the clutch assembly and the feed works.

Did you get the discount?

It expired. I posted it on this topic on the 17th and it expired on the 18th,