First saw (technically)

Nice saw. I would echo what Tom Peruano says. It does look like it will take a bigger blade than what’s there. It also looks like it could be set up with a clamp and weight feed.

rolleyholeman1. Any quality sintered blade will be a good bet. I get mine from CabKing. They are durable but don’t have the thinnest kerf. I’m not easy on saw blades but I’ve gotten good service life with reasonably fast cutting speeds.

Cutting corners off of cubes would best be accomplished with a less than thin blade ( to avoid flexing the blade when addressing a less than square face). Buy a moderate or economy blade, not a super thin one. Most blades will cut fast but they will last longest if you goslow and easy instead of pushing hard.

I have been trying to find more info on this saw and have seen only one other online that I can say with certainty is the same as my saw, or at least by looks. Using the google reverse image lookup there was a saw like this for sale on craigslist. They have it advertised as a 10” saw and it was in Colorado. The listing itself is long gone, being deleted by the poster. So I just have a couple pictures to look at.

The downside to the possible rarity is it probably won’t be possible to find the auto-feed mechanism. I did see an old snippet of a catalogue where it shows the parts being sold individually. Running the part numbers came up with nothing besides offerings to buy new saws and people online saying the new saws are junk.

When messing around online I saw some old catalogues that I think had this saw labeled as either model e2 or I think hp12. Something like that.

Now that I think about it, there was a lapidary shop in West Virginia selling the same saw but with limited details. It looks like highland park used paper labels/ stickers that are usually gone.

Regardless it’s exactly what I was looking for in a saw. Cheap. Besides cheap it’s also basic.

Another downside is I can’t find a manual to see how to change the blade. It looks like I have to remove the tray from the tub which doesn’t seem fun. The mating surface is filled with a whole tube of blue RTV so all that will probably have to be scraped off and redone like a valve cover gasket.

Congrats on the saw

Patty

I looked into that model and I'm not sure I have the same saw. They are very close, but mine is weird in how the base also works as the motor mount. With the 6TS it looks like a nice little square footprint, but with my saw it is the same, but the base is a large rectangle due to the built-in mounting area for the motor. Hopefully that makes sense. 

Here is a catalog that I think shows this saw. tucsonlapidary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Highland-Park477.jpg

One thing I just realized is the catalog gives the dimensions of the tray, so I'm going to measure mine tomorrow to see if that helps narrow it down for sure. 

I might try to contact DP and see if they have anything. I'm still thinking about if I want to really bother since the saw does great for what I need. At the same time though, if I ever were to sell the saw, the value would probably be wrecked without the auto-feed. 

I got too into cutting rocks today to take the saw apart, but I did do some measuring with the saw all together. With a 7” blade (according to the previous owner that’s what he installed), I have 1.5” gaps on both sides roughly. Of course I’d measure better when the time comes for another blade.

Seems I’m all out of rocks to cut though. Or all out of anything worth cutting.

Right now the saw is leaking from the screws that hold the tray on, and the “plug” for draining could be better. So the saw is a nasty mess. Since there’s nothing else to cut I might just take it apart and clean it up for storage.

I wish I could get images to upload. I did a ton of cutting again today and have maybe 15lbs alone in scraps. I made some “slabs” as well but without a flat lap I have used sandpaper and then spray clear coat to make them look decent. According to threads online this is a sin against lapidary. In the end though they just need to be good enough for showing people what material is good and bad for marble making.

I have started looking into blades a bit more, though it seems most (if not all) recommended blades from older threads are out of stock, especially MK blades. I did look at UKAM blades a little bit, and then got distracted looking on amazon.

The main issue I have is I don't know about continuous edge blades. I used one for a while and wore it out, and really enjoyed making the switch to the segmented blades due to speed. I don't need hardcore smoothness since I'm just making cubes.

One continuous edge blade that caught my eye was the BOSCH 10" blade on Amazon. Some reviews mention using it for lapidary and that it's a bit thicker, both good for me.

Main thing is I want a good quick cut for cheap.

However I also drive a 35 year old car, and am very aware of "buy cheap buy twice". So now I only buy Bosch. If they make the part I need, they're who I buy from. Maybe this applies to saws.