Post by goldfinder on Jun 24, 2024 16:07:07 GMT -5
Howdy all, I'd been looking for a quality midsized slab saw for a couple years now. I got lucky and snatched up this old HP at a great deal, it was too good of a price so I just impulse bought it without even measuring the blade size lol. I figured it was a 16" but ended up being an 18".
It was in pretty nasty shape and had obviously not been used in a lot of years as there was caked up rock gunk everywhere. About 1" of cemented gunk in the bottom. I found a few slabs cemented in there along with a midsized Montana agate lol. I completely disassembled it to fully muck it out and grease everything back up. It took way longer than I originally expected.
It's one of the vintage Highland Park J3 saws where they were still made in America. I'm blown away at how well thought out and over engineered everything was and the high quality machining and components that were used. These old HPs are tanks and will last many lifetime's. I figured it's close to 60 years old and all the bearings are still smooth as butter. Super tight tolerances and fit on everything.
The acrylic lid was all busted up and taped together lol.
This is after mucking everything out and putting it back together, I was able to use an acrylic weld glue on the hood and it fixed the cracks great.
The original blade was toast. I wanted an MK301 blade but with MK out of business I couldn't find any. After some research I found out Covington is making their version of the 301 called the C-series blade. Unfortunately, the box got crunched in transport by UPS and slightly bent the blade. The website I bought the blade from was no help, but Covington stepped right up and sent out a replacement blade super fast. It shipped within hours of me contacting them. Man this blade cuts great! Super quiet and smooth cuts. The saw hardly sounds like it's even working. Breezes through hard agate and jaspers. I was blown away with their customer service and going above and beyond to stand behind their product, even though it wasn't bought directly from them.
With Lortone out of business, I think Covington is the last remaining American made saw manufacturer. I think it's important that we keep some USA made lapidary manufacturers and not just outsource the entire industry. After this experience, I'll gladly give Covington my business moving forward and highly recommend this blade.
Thanks for looking!
It was in pretty nasty shape and had obviously not been used in a lot of years as there was caked up rock gunk everywhere. About 1" of cemented gunk in the bottom. I found a few slabs cemented in there along with a midsized Montana agate lol. I completely disassembled it to fully muck it out and grease everything back up. It took way longer than I originally expected.
It's one of the vintage Highland Park J3 saws where they were still made in America. I'm blown away at how well thought out and over engineered everything was and the high quality machining and components that were used. These old HPs are tanks and will last many lifetime's. I figured it's close to 60 years old and all the bearings are still smooth as butter. Super tight tolerances and fit on everything.
The acrylic lid was all busted up and taped together lol.
This is after mucking everything out and putting it back together, I was able to use an acrylic weld glue on the hood and it fixed the cracks great.
The original blade was toast. I wanted an MK301 blade but with MK out of business I couldn't find any. After some research I found out Covington is making their version of the 301 called the C-series blade. Unfortunately, the box got crunched in transport by UPS and slightly bent the blade. The website I bought the blade from was no help, but Covington stepped right up and sent out a replacement blade super fast. It shipped within hours of me contacting them. Man this blade cuts great! Super quiet and smooth cuts. The saw hardly sounds like it's even working. Breezes through hard agate and jaspers. I was blown away with their customer service and going above and beyond to stand behind their product, even though it wasn't bought directly from them.
With Lortone out of business, I think Covington is the last remaining American made saw manufacturer. I think it's important that we keep some USA made lapidary manufacturers and not just outsource the entire industry. After this experience, I'll gladly give Covington my business moving forward and highly recommend this blade.
Thanks for looking!
