Post by Don B. on Sept 9, 2013 20:39:25 GMT -5
I was starting to think I was destined never to use a slab saw for a while today. I brought home a few motors from my mother in laws house just to be on the safe side luckily. I started off the morning by building a small wooden platform to set my saw on so I could bolt a motor down to the wood. I wired up a really quiet 1/2 HP motor, and flipped the switch and my blade was spinning! My excitement ended though when I realized the blade was spinning backwards. The motor was off a direct drive air compressor, and it didn't occur to me that it would be running in reverse. I looked at the other motors I had brought home, and they all had three pronged plugs, but the saw is only wired with a two prong plug in for the motor so that the front switch kills the saw motor and feed motor. Well, back to the 1 HP motor I got with the saw I figured. I would deal with the noise until I found a smaller one. Went to pull the 2 inch pulled off, and it wouldn't budge. I cut a notch through the pulley, completely through the locking screw. Wouldn't budge. I decided to put a crescent wrench under the pulley and lift up on the motor was tapping the shaft. The pulley moved! But then I realized that I couldn't spin the shaft any more. I managed to get the shaft spinning again, but now it was going *tink* *tink* *tink* as I spun it around. I just wanted to cut one small rock today, just to say I cut something! Again, fortunately I brought home other motors. I bolted on one of the motors with a three prong plug, that also had a switch on it. For the moment, I am just flipping on the motor, then turning on the auto feed. I will probably end up rewiring the switch at some point. After everything was ready, I ran over to Tractor Supply Co to get mineral oil. They only had two gallons in stock. Grrr! I had called Theisens, our other farm supply store in town, and was told they didn't sell mineral oil. I decided to stop by and check, in case the person was only checking the lubricants section, and sure enough, they had gallons of mineral oil in the animal section. They were even a dollar cheaper than Tractor Supply Co! I got home, dumped in four gallons of oil, kept one to the side to top off, and I started cutting some rocks! Nothing special though, just some ones I find in the local rivers and creeks to test out the saw. One was a small geode, but nothing too special, and another had lots of agate bands in it, but they were all around a bunch of little cavities inside the rock. I will take a few pics tomorrow when I don't have oil all over my hands again.
So, more questions came up while I was cutting a few rocks.
1.) I'd say 95% of the time there was no sparks, but now and then I would see sparks. Is that a sign of a dull blade, or some other issue? I did run a cut through an old sharpening stone first to dress the blade.
2.) A couple of the rocks I cut didn't have a nice smooth face. They were mostly smooth, but there was some slight grooves in the faces. The blade doesn't appear to have a wobble in it or anything. What can cause the grooves? Is it a bad thing or normal?
3.) Why is it that I have a saw now that I just clamp in a rock and hit a switch, and yet I spent the last few hours sitting next to the saw shining a flash light through the little window and watching in amazement as it cut through each rock millimeter by millimeter. Will this be a problem in the long run, or will I eventually lose the amazement and do some other things in the garage while rocks are being cut?
So, more questions came up while I was cutting a few rocks.
1.) I'd say 95% of the time there was no sparks, but now and then I would see sparks. Is that a sign of a dull blade, or some other issue? I did run a cut through an old sharpening stone first to dress the blade.
2.) A couple of the rocks I cut didn't have a nice smooth face. They were mostly smooth, but there was some slight grooves in the faces. The blade doesn't appear to have a wobble in it or anything. What can cause the grooves? Is it a bad thing or normal?
3.) Why is it that I have a saw now that I just clamp in a rock and hit a switch, and yet I spent the last few hours sitting next to the saw shining a flash light through the little window and watching in amazement as it cut through each rock millimeter by millimeter. Will this be a problem in the long run, or will I eventually lose the amazement and do some other things in the garage while rocks are being cut?