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Post by jakesrocks on Nov 8, 2013 23:39:34 GMT -5
I used to charge 50 cents per inch, but that was in the early 90's. You should be able to get at least a buck per inch now. If someone has super nice material to slab, get a slab or 2 for yourself.
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Post by 1dave on Nov 9, 2013 10:10:54 GMT -5
The saw was slightly used. Came with a spare blade (new). The guy ran it some with water but my garage is not heated so oil it is. The 2nd problem is that I need to get at least a little return on my investment. So I am looking to find some paying jobs with it. Still have some rewiring to do in the garage before I can spin the motor. Once I get it up and running will post some videos. I once gathered all the basanite I could get and slabbed it into 2mm slabs with my new HP 16". Advertized it through the Lapidary Journal in pound lots as black backing for doublets and triplets. First month, 1 sale. Second month, 2 sales, third month people seeing the add still running decided i was serious. 15 sales. From then on When the add appeared, lots of sales. Dead in between. Red backing would have been interesting, but 10-12 hour shifts on new power houses two hour drives from home for the next 10 years stopped all kinds of side projects. The secret to selling is getting the word out.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Nov 9, 2013 10:12:51 GMT -5
Congrats on the new saw! I can't imagine hounding material for it. :-)
Maybe you can team up with some masons to cut sidewalks, fireplace surrounds, counter tops, entry ways, etc. Commercial work would pay much better than lapidary.
Chuck
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2013 23:37:35 GMT -5
I used to charge 50 cents per inch, but that was in the early 90's. You should be able to get at least a buck per inch now. If someone has super nice material to slab, get a slab or 2 for yourself. Two years ago I had quotes from shops at $0.50 per SQUARE INCH. They squared the oval. a 6" by 8" rock was 48 sq inches no matter is triangular or oval. So they wanted $20 to make ONE cut! All told to get the cube I asked for, they wanted $145 plus the pound weight of the ENTIRE rock. They were keeping the cutoffs and could sell them too, but made me pay for the entire rock. Needless to say, they did not get that order.
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Post by DirtCleaner on Nov 10, 2013 0:13:06 GMT -5
I will gladly accept overpayment but would rather have years of happy, repeat customers. Especially from the members of RTH!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,560
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Post by jamesp on Nov 10, 2013 11:01:25 GMT -5
What a great time you will have w/the bigun. Lucky you. Extreme envy for you. Keep us posted
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Post by Rockoonz on Nov 10, 2013 11:37:48 GMT -5
Our rock club charges by the linear inch, as in saw travel, since what you're really charging for is mainly time. The way to insure that you get a fair price for your time is to insure that you don't try cutting things too big for your saw. On a blade that size you should see a minimum of an inch of blade over the top of the rock at the end of the cut. Don't let anyone talk you into the cut and flip routine, you WILL bend a blade and put yourself in the hole cash wise.
Lee
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Post by beefjello on Nov 10, 2013 16:04:35 GMT -5
Wow!! Congrats on your new baby!
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Post by DirtCleaner on Nov 13, 2013 19:17:30 GMT -5
UPDATE: Great Frustration. Brought the electrician in today to check out the power in the garage. Saw is set up for 220V and the garage did not have any 220V outlets. Checked in the 60A fuse box and the feed wires are only 12 gauge. This isn't even enough to run the garage as I use it now. Fortunately the ground has froze here already and digging a 35' trench for the new wire will be difficult at best. Then the good news. The 200A service in my basement has run out of room and needs to be upgraded as well. This, my luck, leads to the next project. The elec. meter might be too close to the gas meter and one of the two may have to be moved. Now for the good news…While looking at the feed wires in the bsmt. box the electrician discovered that they have been heated up and could have caused a fire. So I am blessed with the luck that my house didn't burn and this problem will only take way too much cash to fix. Don't mind my mildly sarcastic rant, I am happy and this will work out.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 20:20:15 GMT -5
UPDATE: Great Frustration. Brought the electrician in today to check out the power in the garage. Saw is set up for 220V and the garage did not have any 220V outlets. Checked in the 60A fuse box and the feed wires are only 12 gauge. This isn't even enough to run the garage as I use it now. Fortunately the ground has froze here already and digging a 35' trench for the new wire will be difficult at best. Then the good news. The 200A service in my basement has run out of room and needs to be upgraded as well. This, my luck, leads to the next project. The elec. meter might be too close to the gas meter and one of the two may have to be moved. Now for the good news…While looking at the feed wires in the bsmt. box the electrician discovered that they have been heated up and could have caused a fire. So I am blessed with the luck that my house didn't burn and this problem will only take way too much cash to fix. Don't mind my mildly sarcastic rant, I am happy and this will work out. :::speechless::: talk about a cascade of events. That's what you get for buying a bad@ss saw!
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Post by johnjsgems on Nov 13, 2013 20:26:37 GMT -5
Any saw that large will be 220V (at least from Covington). Better to find electrical issues before they become serious problems. What are you running that a 200 amp panel can't handle? If it is a matter of being out of spaces for breakers you can buy "piggy back" breakers that have two breakers in the space of one. Or are you going to install a sub panel in the garage wired from the basement?
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Post by DirtCleaner on Nov 13, 2013 21:36:44 GMT -5
I am still stoked.
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Post by DirtCleaner on Nov 13, 2013 21:40:04 GMT -5
Any saw that large will be 220V (at least from Covington). Better to find electrical issues before they become serious problems. What are you running that a 200 amp panel can't handle? If it is a matter of being out of spaces for breakers you can buy "piggy back" breakers that have two breakers in the space of one. Or are you going to install a sub panel in the garage wired from the basement? The house panel is full. Code here won't allow for double breakers. So I am going from a 20 place to a 40 place. (There are a couple double breakers in the house so they have to go.) Then a new sub-panel in the garage to replace the 60A fuse box.
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Post by catmandewe on Nov 14, 2013 11:30:39 GMT -5
I want to Thank You for posting this because you made me get off my duff and get mine working again.
There are a couple issues with mine that I addressed that you might want to take a look at before you get this thing going. The rear leg is a motor mount and is pretty flimsy which causes the leg to flex as the motor runs so I removed the motor off the leg and bolted a frame to all 4 legs at the same height as the motor. The frame is now the motor mount and it is pretty bullet proof, nothing moves now. That should solve some of the pulley problems and belt eating problems.
While I had the motor off I was checking out the wiring. The wiring going into the shut off switch on the back is 14 gauge wire (not big enough for a 220v motor) the wiring going from the switch to the motor is 16 gauge wire, also not big enough. Explains why the motor would overheat and reset the thermal breaker fairly often. I removed the wiring and rewired it with 10 gauge wire. The shut off switch is rated at 10A and is a cheap chinese switch that I broke in half trying to rewire so I replaced the switch with a 30A 2 pole switch and reworked the shutoff to work with that switch.
I think I will have it running by the end of the day, and will let you know if I find anything else you might wanna upgrade before it costs you more money.
Sounds like you better just run a new sub panel into the garage, you are gonna have to add more stuff later ya know!
Have fun with it! Tony
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Post by DirtCleaner on Nov 14, 2013 19:35:26 GMT -5
Dug through a couple inches of mild frost and have the trench down to 20" (18" to run underground conduit.) Now to get the bid back from the electrician. Also made a cool find while digging. Will post photos later.
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robsrockshop
has rocks in the head
Member since August 2012
Posts: 715
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Post by robsrockshop on Nov 14, 2013 20:09:26 GMT -5
You could always try redneck engineering. I am not responsible for your actions. LOL. Or burning your house down. If you're completely broke now that you've spent thousands on a saw there's always the option of running a heavy extension cord thru the attic to the laundry room and taking turns with the dryer. You could opt for advanced redneck engineering and somehow wire them both together with a double pole switch on each one and installed in a box with a padlock so no one can try turning on the dryer while the saw is running.
Keep in mind I leave in the sticks and don't have to deal with moron inspectors, codes etc. Most of the time I try to do things proper but now and then some of things I do might leave you scratching your head. At least most of my 'special' projects are relatively safe compared to a lot of old time farmers out here that think they can run the NYC xmas light display off a powerstrip behind the tv.
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Post by catmandewe on Nov 15, 2013 0:59:25 GMT -5
Dug through a couple inches of mild frost and have the trench down to 20" (18" to run underground conduit.) Now to get the bid back from the electrician. Also made a cool find while digging. Will post photos later. Run your own, you can do it legally, you just need to get a permit and get it inspected. It is really easy to do, just make sure you get the grounds in properly. Tony
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 12:17:04 GMT -5
Dug through a couple inches of mild frost and have the trench down to 20" (18" to run underground conduit.) Now to get the bid back from the electrician. Also made a cool find while digging. Will post photos later. Run your own, you can do it legally, you just need to get a permit and get it inspected. It is really easy to do, just make sure you get the grounds in properly. Tony And if you are not comfortable with making the terminal connections, just run the cable and let the pro do the connections only. That's what I do. The breaker boxes scare me!
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Post by DirtCleaner on Dec 3, 2013 8:21:30 GMT -5
HAPPY NEWS: The elec. project has been finished. The frozen earth made it a real bas*^%$ of a job. Both the house and the garage received upgrades. The trench: Here is a chunk of the trench nearly filled in: The old 60 amp box: The new outlet with extra wiring to add a welder: And, although no oil yet, she turns like a champ:
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bsky4463
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2013
Posts: 1,696
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Post by bsky4463 on Dec 3, 2013 9:29:51 GMT -5
Nice effort - way to go! Amazing what will motivate us. Cant wait to see some slabs coming off that saw.
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