Felker Tile Saws?

That's a pretty decent rig from the look of it.

Downsides from my view would be that it's only an 8" blade, the "radial arm" style means you'll need a rock vise of some kind, and at the list price of $366 you're almost playing in the league of real lapidary trim saws.

Well the real lap saw is gonna have a much thinner blade- and is designed to cut rock- where a tile saw will have a thicker blade- and is designed to cut tile (generally flat material) but honestly for $88 the Workforce is hard to beat- It has a 7 inch blade- but has a depth of cut the same- Not that that is not a nice rig- it is- but when you start talking $400 your in another league.

When deciding between a tile saw and lapidary saw, you must make up one very important point. Are you wanting it to split/slab rocks, or just for trim work?

See, all tile saws are made with scoring, or nipping slabs in mind. Which keeps the friction and abuse down on your arbor. Slab saws are very heavy duty arbors to handle the load of force generated when slabing a rock.

Now in any lapidary saw setup, you can buy super thin blades(prosilcer), or supper thick blades. YOu dont have this choice with tile saws. They are actually thicker blades in general because they are mint to "score" a tile. and will only ever fit a tile saw.

The abuse a tile saw can handle will be just as much as a trim saw from any lapidary manuf. But that only applies to trim, or scoring a slab. If you try to slab on a tile saw, you will not only were the arbor down fast, you will get blade warpage, and can possible kill the motor as well.

This model you are asking about has a direct drive 3/4 hp motor, you have a much higher chance of killing the motor if you plan to use it as a slab saw. Vers having a motor on a pulley behind the saw. AS this type of setup has give to any binding that may take place when trying to slab/split a rock. Even a trim saw shouldn’t be used to slab rocks, but you can do it, i use a 6inch trim saw to slab small pieces of gem rough, like Holley Blue agate, or Koroit Opals.

But tile saws are meant to only have the blade tip, cutting through the stone. AS soon as you raise this level of depth, by slabing a rough rock. IT can become very dangerous with direct drive motors. Does it have a speed control?

Just think about what may happen if your blade gets bound when slab/splitting a rock. ON a direct drive motor, it will over heat the motor, or break something on the drive. The worst case is the blade may break and send shrapnel at the user.

the workforce looks like a much better candidate in my opinion. I wonder if it direct drive too?

Wow-wow-wow Shain fabulous input, exactly the sort of things I need to know.

Yes, you're right in guessing that I was hoping to both slab and trim with the same saw. But now I see that I would be asking for trouble, and your post pointed out exactly what sort of trouble, if I want to slab with that saw.

Good question about the speed control. I don't know enough about these things that's for sure because I don't know anything about when/why I'd want to be changing the speed. Duh, eh?


I see on the trim saw I've been looking at (4" Ameritool) there's a speed control.

Can you tell me a bit about speed control issues?

-- Con

a speed control is a good thing to have on driect drive motors. As different hardness can and are effected by how fast the balde is turning at the tip. And the tip rotation speed will not be the same as the blade rotation speed, the more you get closer to the shaft(arbor) the more common this speed will be.

The main purpose of having a speed control would be as a fail safe in case the blade begins to slow down due to rock hardness. As you can always back off on the cut, as you cut the stone, if the blade begins to slow. However, with a speed control, you would be able to set it so the rock wont bind. IT would take longer to cut, but will do the job.

As the main problem with a blade getting bound, is to much force on the stone from the user, feeding it through the blade. Having a well located kill swtich is the minium you really need. INcase binding took place, kill the swtich. As well, with the worforce model, since the arbor and motor are under the work surface. If there was a problem with binding at all, it much easier to back off the blade, or stop the blade. When the motor is overhead, you are contored by minual rock space for feeding a rock through properly. So if binding took place, theres a much higher change of getting hurt. Thats gonna be you main concern really.

AS in my opinion, you can used just about anything to rock cutting, its a matter of how safe you want to make it be. So with a speed control on the Felker model, would be more safe than not having one. BUt on the workforce model, you wouldnt really need one for it. But as anyone really knowns, you can make a speed control for a few bucks. Just get a dimmer switch, that you can hook up to a plug. Plug you saw into the box, and the box into the wall, and you got speed control.

YOu could, i suppose, but rolling a rock through to cut it, is a major casue of binding. I do it all the time on my 6inch saw, when the rough is say 4 inches on the cut plane. BUt again, with saws that have overhead mounted motors, these are fixed position. So if you get a rock stuck becasue of space, be very careful. As the motor wont have any or at least much give.

GemKoi the workforce is a direct driv motor- also a 3/4 HP- Conib- the closest thing I can think of to compare the Workforce too would be a small Table saw for woodworking- does that help at all as for slabbing- well the workforce does a good job on smaller rocks (say under 2 inches tall) and a passable job on anyhting under 4 inches- beyond that it is really tapped out- It is not a true slab saw and is not meant to be- But for trimming smaller stuff, trimming slabs, and turning knarled up tumbling rough into managable shapes- Well honestly it is the best 88 bucks I ever spent (actually I got mine on sale for $77)

Yes, a shower curtain arrangement may be the thing to do. There have been several posts on this forum with pictures of various splash guards people have made.

I do all my cutting outside in the backyard - no worries at all about where the water goes. For safety use it on a circuit with ground wire (the third prong on the plug) AND with a GFI. I don't see any reason to use a speed control with the Workforce. I have cut rocks up to 4" thick with two passes without a problem.