Post by mikeinsjc on Feb 11, 2016 19:02:13 GMT -5
I have cut a ton of slabs, literally, in my lapidary life, all on saws 18" and larger. Early on one eventually has a rock come loose in the vise, often trashing the blade. Then you learn to check the rock, use additional clamps, etc.
A couple of years ago I had a rock come loose in my 18" Covington, severely bending a nearly-new MK303 blade. I refused to scrap the blade, and so I bent and manipulated it and banged on it (nothing sophisticated, I never even took it out of the saw)and said heck with it, I'm going to use it anyway and see what happens.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the trash can- the blade made better and better cuts, eventually cutting as well as it did when new.
Now I'm not a kid, and so I thought I must have embellished this story in my aging mind, that somewhere along the line I DID replace the blade with a new one.
Today I mangled, I mean mangled a 24" MK blade in my Highland Park saw when a Montana agate came loose. The blade is a discontinued blade called an Artisan, which has a thinner kerf than a standard blade. This blade was out about 0.300, maybe more, in about ten degrees of rotation- it actually had a sharp crease at the damaged point. I was disappointed, but not throwing-things angry, so I got out a large Crescent wrench, and spent about 5 minutes bending and tweaking the blade while it was still in the saw, eventually getting it down to about 0.150. I have a dial indicator I use when setting up saws, but I was too lazy to get it out, and the blade looked like it was junk anyway. It didn't seem I was going to be able to get it any closer with a 14" wrench, so I stuck a piece of Arizona pet wood in the saw, just curious as to how bad a cut this kind of runout would create.
The cut was perfect. Not only was the cut that good, but after the cut I visually checked the blade by pulling on the belt and rotating it through a few revolutions, and the blade looked as good as it did before the accident.
Has anyone ever heard of this happening? After one cut, this blade seemed to have "healed" itself. This blade actually trued itself. I'm not making this up.
A couple of years ago I had a rock come loose in my 18" Covington, severely bending a nearly-new MK303 blade. I refused to scrap the blade, and so I bent and manipulated it and banged on it (nothing sophisticated, I never even took it out of the saw)and said heck with it, I'm going to use it anyway and see what happens.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the trash can- the blade made better and better cuts, eventually cutting as well as it did when new.
Now I'm not a kid, and so I thought I must have embellished this story in my aging mind, that somewhere along the line I DID replace the blade with a new one.
Today I mangled, I mean mangled a 24" MK blade in my Highland Park saw when a Montana agate came loose. The blade is a discontinued blade called an Artisan, which has a thinner kerf than a standard blade. This blade was out about 0.300, maybe more, in about ten degrees of rotation- it actually had a sharp crease at the damaged point. I was disappointed, but not throwing-things angry, so I got out a large Crescent wrench, and spent about 5 minutes bending and tweaking the blade while it was still in the saw, eventually getting it down to about 0.150. I have a dial indicator I use when setting up saws, but I was too lazy to get it out, and the blade looked like it was junk anyway. It didn't seem I was going to be able to get it any closer with a 14" wrench, so I stuck a piece of Arizona pet wood in the saw, just curious as to how bad a cut this kind of runout would create.
The cut was perfect. Not only was the cut that good, but after the cut I visually checked the blade by pulling on the belt and rotating it through a few revolutions, and the blade looked as good as it did before the accident.
Has anyone ever heard of this happening? After one cut, this blade seemed to have "healed" itself. This blade actually trued itself. I'm not making this up.