Review of Ameritool 4" trim saw (updated, see post at end)
Jan 23, 2017 11:17:05 GMT -5
Drummond Island Rocks, Pat, and 4 more like this
Post by Bluesky78987 on Jan 23, 2017 11:17:05 GMT -5
Thanks to those who chimed in on my other thread about what indoor trim saw to get.
I ended up ordering the 4" Ameritool, plus a 5" BD303c (.02) blade, from John/JSGems. The saw has a 5/8" arbor - convenient for the BD blade - no spacers needed. I got the one without the vice.
www.ameritool-inc.com/store/index.cfm/product/1/lapidary-trim-saw-4-inch.cfm
The saw has the same look/feel as the Ameritool flat lap - grey plastic, rounded corners, lightweight but not too lightweight.
The blade they include with it is a superthin blade - definitely get a thicker blade such as the 303c blade, which is about right for sawing most things anybody on this forum would want to cut.
Some thoughts: (where I compare to the tile saw, I am referring to the MK145 with the same BD 303c blade (4" version).)
Power: The saw seems to have good power for its size. At 3500 rpm (max), it cuts slabs (I cut onyx, chrysocolla, montana agate, laguna agate) very fast - probably 90% as fast as the tile saw, which cuts all rocks like butter. Faster than the trim saws at our club (which, admittedly, suck). I could bog it down by pushing harder if I tried, but there's no reason to try. The thickest slab I cut was 1/2", on the needles blue agate with pretty hard but not agate matrix, and it did fine. Oh, also, unlike the tile saw, variable speed. I only used it at max speed (I wonder what speed the 5" 303c is designed for? BD's website doesn't say.)
Noise: It is almost silent running at max rpms, until you start cutting. When you cut, I'd say it's still pretty quiet - there is enough noise that I had the thought "I wonder if my neighbor can hear this through our adjoining wall? Eh, probably not or not annoyingly so." Less noise than my high speed blender by a lot. It makes about 10% of the noise of the tile saw. The cats didn't even look up from their naps 6 feet away on the couch. One could theoretically dial down the rpms if you wanted it to be quieter.
Overspray: None. The instructions are careful to say exactly how full to fill the reservoir, and that filling it more will just increase the overspray without doing any good. It also has a little spray guard on the front which I didn't really need to use. I was standing in front of it wearing a grey sweatshirt to easily show water drops, and there were none after I cut out about 6 preforms. You do need to keep a measuring cup of water at your elbow to top up the reservoir every few preforms.
Blade height: With the blade guard in its normal position, there was about 3/4" of clearance. By raising the blade guard (which doesn't have an obvious knob to lock it in different positions - I think it has a screw though), you could theoretically cut about a 1.5" rock, but that might become a power issue. With a 5" blade.
Table: The table is great. It just lifts out of the well. The table top sits up above the gutter (like a mesa above the desert), so it is easy to clean, and the rims don't impede your hands or the size of the slab you're cutting. It has gutters to collect the chips, although the chips never really made it to the gutters, they just stayed on the table, so I found myself using a paper towel to wipe the table down after each rock. The top of the table is smooth, no grooves, so the chips were a little more annoying than the tile saw. Also, the smooth table made lining up the cuts a little trickier than the tile saw, which has grooves and an alignment marker, so I'll probably scratch/melt a line into it at some point to help on precise cuts.
Edited to Add: I just encountered one disadvantage. The table isn't *quite* as high (by just a hair) as the lip around the edge of the gutter. So on side view it looks like this:
This isn't great because if your slab is long, it can't lay flat on the table. I'll probably grind that lip down a hair soon. Silly design flaw.
Blade slot size: Not sure the right word for that. The opening in the table top the blade sticks up through. The slot is very narrow - only about twice the width of the .02 blade. And the .02 blade sits up against the right hand side of that, almost touching but not quite. Much narrower than on the MK145, which has at least 1/8" of clearance. This is fantastic because it means that you can slice very narrow slivers of rock (like for intarsia) and not worry about them falling down beside the blade into the well. Unexpected bonus.
Cleanup: I'd give the saw a medium grade for ease of cleanup. You need to empty the well after each session (or remove the blade). The well itself doesn't lift up, so you need to tilt up the whole saw (easy) and pour the water out. This is where I found the only annoyance with the saw - they didn't design the lip to pour well. It's like pouring with a coffee cup as oposed to a measuring cup. Water/sludge dribbled all over the place, so you need to pour into a LARGE container - one as wide as the saw itself, even though you're only pouring out like a cup or cup and a half of water. Sucking the water up with some sort of syringe, and then wiping the sludge with a paper towel might be more effective in the future. The well is nicely shaped following the curve of the blade so there aren't any nooks and crannies or corners for sludge or chips to get stuck in (I'm talking to YOU, MK145!), and this also reduces the amount of water needed. It would just be nice if they had either added a drain or shaped the lip so it would pour better. Finally, since the table completely lifts out, you can just carry it over to your water source of choice and hose it down. So that's good.
Edited to add: Pouring from the corner works a lot better. Not completely perfect, but much more workable.
Overall, I'm very pleased. Once I get a better cleanup system worked out, I will be thrilled!
I ended up ordering the 4" Ameritool, plus a 5" BD303c (.02) blade, from John/JSGems. The saw has a 5/8" arbor - convenient for the BD blade - no spacers needed. I got the one without the vice.
www.ameritool-inc.com/store/index.cfm/product/1/lapidary-trim-saw-4-inch.cfm
The saw has the same look/feel as the Ameritool flat lap - grey plastic, rounded corners, lightweight but not too lightweight.
The blade they include with it is a superthin blade - definitely get a thicker blade such as the 303c blade, which is about right for sawing most things anybody on this forum would want to cut.
Some thoughts: (where I compare to the tile saw, I am referring to the MK145 with the same BD 303c blade (4" version).)
Power: The saw seems to have good power for its size. At 3500 rpm (max), it cuts slabs (I cut onyx, chrysocolla, montana agate, laguna agate) very fast - probably 90% as fast as the tile saw, which cuts all rocks like butter. Faster than the trim saws at our club (which, admittedly, suck). I could bog it down by pushing harder if I tried, but there's no reason to try. The thickest slab I cut was 1/2", on the needles blue agate with pretty hard but not agate matrix, and it did fine. Oh, also, unlike the tile saw, variable speed. I only used it at max speed (I wonder what speed the 5" 303c is designed for? BD's website doesn't say.)
Noise: It is almost silent running at max rpms, until you start cutting. When you cut, I'd say it's still pretty quiet - there is enough noise that I had the thought "I wonder if my neighbor can hear this through our adjoining wall? Eh, probably not or not annoyingly so." Less noise than my high speed blender by a lot. It makes about 10% of the noise of the tile saw. The cats didn't even look up from their naps 6 feet away on the couch. One could theoretically dial down the rpms if you wanted it to be quieter.
Overspray: None. The instructions are careful to say exactly how full to fill the reservoir, and that filling it more will just increase the overspray without doing any good. It also has a little spray guard on the front which I didn't really need to use. I was standing in front of it wearing a grey sweatshirt to easily show water drops, and there were none after I cut out about 6 preforms. You do need to keep a measuring cup of water at your elbow to top up the reservoir every few preforms.
Blade height: With the blade guard in its normal position, there was about 3/4" of clearance. By raising the blade guard (which doesn't have an obvious knob to lock it in different positions - I think it has a screw though), you could theoretically cut about a 1.5" rock, but that might become a power issue. With a 5" blade.
Table: The table is great. It just lifts out of the well. The table top sits up above the gutter (like a mesa above the desert), so it is easy to clean, and the rims don't impede your hands or the size of the slab you're cutting. It has gutters to collect the chips, although the chips never really made it to the gutters, they just stayed on the table, so I found myself using a paper towel to wipe the table down after each rock. The top of the table is smooth, no grooves, so the chips were a little more annoying than the tile saw. Also, the smooth table made lining up the cuts a little trickier than the tile saw, which has grooves and an alignment marker, so I'll probably scratch/melt a line into it at some point to help on precise cuts.
Edited to Add: I just encountered one disadvantage. The table isn't *quite* as high (by just a hair) as the lip around the edge of the gutter. So on side view it looks like this:
This isn't great because if your slab is long, it can't lay flat on the table. I'll probably grind that lip down a hair soon. Silly design flaw.
Blade slot size: Not sure the right word for that. The opening in the table top the blade sticks up through. The slot is very narrow - only about twice the width of the .02 blade. And the .02 blade sits up against the right hand side of that, almost touching but not quite. Much narrower than on the MK145, which has at least 1/8" of clearance. This is fantastic because it means that you can slice very narrow slivers of rock (like for intarsia) and not worry about them falling down beside the blade into the well. Unexpected bonus.
Cleanup: I'd give the saw a medium grade for ease of cleanup. You need to empty the well after each session (or remove the blade). The well itself doesn't lift up, so you need to tilt up the whole saw (easy) and pour the water out. This is where I found the only annoyance with the saw - they didn't design the lip to pour well. It's like pouring with a coffee cup as oposed to a measuring cup. Water/sludge dribbled all over the place, so you need to pour into a LARGE container - one as wide as the saw itself, even though you're only pouring out like a cup or cup and a half of water. Sucking the water up with some sort of syringe, and then wiping the sludge with a paper towel might be more effective in the future. The well is nicely shaped following the curve of the blade so there aren't any nooks and crannies or corners for sludge or chips to get stuck in (I'm talking to YOU, MK145!), and this also reduces the amount of water needed. It would just be nice if they had either added a drain or shaped the lip so it would pour better. Finally, since the table completely lifts out, you can just carry it over to your water source of choice and hose it down. So that's good.
Edited to add: Pouring from the corner works a lot better. Not completely perfect, but much more workable.
Overall, I'm very pleased. Once I get a better cleanup system worked out, I will be thrilled!
You make me want to get one!
