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Post by Tweetiepy on Mar 4, 2008 12:48:44 GMT -5
On my combo unit I'm using a 6" diamond blade - they're either extra hard to find or extraordinarily expensive - my dad found some at an auto body shop (wet diamond blade) for $4.00 each - he bought one then asked if it would fit my machine - I said I thought so - but am unsure of the size of either arbor or hole - but could i use it to trim (cuz I can't use that thing for cutting anything thicker than a slice anyways) I hope it fits!  Now to get that darn machine up & spinning again! I hope this all works |
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 4, 2008 13:57:23 GMT -5
If your combo is anything but a Lortone the arbor should be 5/8" as are most tile blades. The tile blade won't cut hard rock very well. If it is a cut-off wheel for an angle grinder the hole could be several sizes or a 4 screw hole mount Most blade guards are adjustable for smaller blades. The reason 6" blades are hard to find is you are looking for tile bldes which don't come in 6". 6" is a very common lapidary blade and available from about $10 (cheap Chinese plated blade) to about $40-$50 (good sintered blade). Sintered blades sound expensive but are not really when you factor in how long they last compared to plated blades. I have production shops that get 6 months to a year of full time use and hobby cutters a lot longer.
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 4, 2008 13:57:51 GMT -5
If your combo is anything but a Lortone the arbor should be 5/8" as are most tile blades. The tile blade won't cut hard rock very well. If it is a cut-off wheel for an angle grinder the hole could be several sizes or a 4 screw hole mount Most blade guards are adjustable for smaller blades. The reason 6" blades are hard to find is you are looking for tile bldes which don't come in 6". 6" is a very common lapidary blade and available from about $10 (cheap Chinese plated blade) to about $40-$50 (good sintered blade). Sintered blades sound expensive but are not really when you factor in how long they last compared to plated blades. I have production shops that get 6 months to a year of full time use and hobby cutters a lot longer.
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Post by Tweetiepy on Mar 4, 2008 15:23:38 GMT -5
It's a Lortone combo unit - does that meant it won't work? (I always get shafted!)
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 5, 2008 23:43:45 GMT -5
Lortone units have a 1/2" arbor hole. You can probably buy a bushing from a hardware store (look in the hardware drawers). Measure the hole size of your blade (that will be the "OD"). Buy a bushing that says 1/2" ID x whatever your OD is and as thick as the blade core. Also take your blade washers along. Buy 1/2" shims that are 1/2" ID and OD to fit in the recessed washers and thickness to fill the recess. These will keep the bushing in place. This sounds more complicated than it is.
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Post by deb193redux on Mar 7, 2008 0:06:29 GMT -5
The RPM is not going to be right for a 4". The blade has to turn faster just to get the same inches per second sliding along the cut. Also, how the diamond is bonded (plate, notched, slintered) is going to be important, and the amount and quality of the diamond. The 6" blades you do find will be engineered for hard rock, while many tile blades will not be. The lopacki ones might be a good choice at about $22, but you will need a bushing. McMaster has them pretty cheep. I pay $25 to $30 for 7" MK 225 Hot DOg blades. There are 7" blades cheap as $10 but the cut hard rock very poorly. There are a lot of 6" blades for less than $30. I had 6" blades on my ROckRascal, which is also 1/2 inch. I got a gorilla blade for about $29. I was able to trim slabs and cut small nuggets upto to about 1" thick. It was slower than the WF, but it is turning at 1725 instead of 3400, so that makes sense. ALso WF is a lot more messy. How about this blade from a Canadian company? www.bladeexpress.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BE&Product_Code=AB212-601S&Category_Code=06The porcelian one would be for the hardest material, but the ceramic grade one is even cheaper. Good luck, I know you struggle with blade issues. |
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Post by johnjsgems on Mar 7, 2008 1:01:41 GMT -5
Most lapidary saws run 1725 rpm and will work with any blade diameter that fits. The super thin blades require enough speed to keep the blade rigid. People commonly run smaller diameter blades to get thinner cuts (6" blade on 8" saw for instance) when they have only one saw.
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Post by deb193redux on Mar 8, 2008 21:06:35 GMT -5
I thought the small 4" ones ahd a faster RPM so that the pi*DIAM inches/sec was still as fast as a larger balde. We had one in our thin section lab that had faster RPM, but maybe that was special for thin section. I think it was Ameritool, and could be varied from 400 to 3250 RPM.
John's point about thinner cuts is good. TO see the logic, consider that the biger the blade the easier it is to bend it. So, 4" blade can be thinner and still be stiff. You need a thicker blade to be equally stiff when 6" or 8"
Tweety, I have not checked the conversion rate recently (too depressing) nor do I know the Canadian postal rates, but the 6" Italian blade crom the Canadian company I linked looked like a good deal.
Of course, with the crumbling dollar, this may be a great time for Canadians to stock up on tools and supplies form American companise.
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dshalldms
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2008
Posts: 113
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Post by dshalldms on Mar 21, 2008 10:18:14 GMT -5
Hi,
The short answer is yes. However, for the most efficient use the
following criteria should be observed.
As a general rule diamond saws are best set at 3,150 surface feet per minute.
(Divide 12,000 by the diameter of the blade to give the shaft speed).
Whilst your 6" blade might run at 2000rpm...
... the 4.5" blade should be set to run at 2666rpm
Using the above criteria the 24" Highland Park that I used to run
would need to be set at 500rpm. However, the factory setting for
a 24" blade is 700rpm. Thus you can see that there is some leeway.
Hope this helps,
Derek
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Maybe you can post some pictures here