jamesp
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Feb 23, 2017 9:30:59 GMT -5
Well melhill1659 have you tried looking for anything used you may get lucky? try your local craigslist and sale sites, i picked up some nice saws for pennies on the dollar. I tried that a year ago and that how I ended up with my vintage 1969 Highland Park combo unit. Even though I learned a lot having to refurbish it I'm not mechanically inclined. Hard to trust people trying to unload used equipment when I don't have a jamesp or one of you guys to help tweak it 😂so I purchased a new one. Plus if there are people here in Ms that does lapidary work They Must Be Hiding! Now one day when my hubby decides to build my real shop and I want to add a Big Boy Saw I will look around and even travel to get one used. Yea Mel, get a used one and save a bunch. An average mechanic can overhaul one if it needs it. I was green and bought new. Nothing I could not fix on that saw blindfolded. Cost 4 times more than used. It has cut thousands of rocks and behaves like a new unit. Live and learn. But don't wait too long. If in MS I would be attacking the Louisiana petrified palm. Spectacular stone. Venture to your close by Texas too, the place is a treasure trove. Try Craig's List Texas, lots of lapidarian's in Texas. |
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Post by melhill1659 on Feb 23, 2017 23:11:42 GMT -5
I tried that a year ago and that how I ended up with my vintage 1969 Highland Park combo unit. Even though I learned a lot having to refurbish it I'm not mechanically inclined. Hard to trust people trying to unload used equipment when I don't have a jamesp or one of you guys to help tweak it 😂so I purchased a new one. Plus if there are people here in Ms that does lapidary work They Must Be Hiding! Now one day when my hubby decides to build my real shop and I want to add a Big Boy Saw I will look around and even travel to get one used. Yea Mel, get a used one and save a bunch. An average mechanic can overhaul one if it needs it. I was green and bought new. Nothing I could not fix on that saw blindfolded. Cost 4 times more than used. It has cut thousands of rocks and behaves like a new unit. Live and learn. But don't wait too long. If in MS I would be attacking the Louisiana petrified palm. Spectacular stone. Venture to your close by Texas too, the place is a treasure trove. Try Craig's List Texas, lots of lapidarian's in Texas. I'll do that from now on ( Texas Craigslist). I'm planning on Rockhounding both of them. They are so close to me an yet I've studied them the least. |
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mikeinsjc
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2010
Posts: 329
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Post by mikeinsjc on Feb 28, 2017 12:23:33 GMT -5
I prefer not buy a new saw- not because they are necessarily of poor quality, but because you will find yourself wishing for a larger saw very soon and you just don't get much bang for your buck buying new. A new large saw (18" and larger) is prohibitively expensive for most hobbyists.
You will naturally accumulate material too big for your 10,12, or 14" saw. My advice is whatever saw you have now, always keep an eye out for a bigger one. I was looking for a 24" saw for a long time. Over that two year period, I saw a lot of 24's that were hacked up, missing major components, etc. Then, within a month I found two nice 24" HPs, and bought them both. Then I found myself glomming on to material I couldn't cut when I only had an 18. Build it, and they will come, right?
Later, I happened upon a 36" Frantom, and picked that up. Now my yard seems to accumulate some really sweet specimens I could not cut on my 24s.
I would never turn down a nice 24" saw, and am always on the lookout for them.
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Post by captbob on Feb 28, 2017 12:31:28 GMT -5
I just wish I had the room for more saws. And a couple sphere machines, and ... and ... and ...
Keep threatening my wife that I'm gonna buy the house nextdoor and turn it into my shop. Be an expensive shop, but easier (to me) than buying a new house with the land to build a large shop out back.
Wife wants the new house with land to build shop on. SHE isn't the one that would have to move all these darn rocks!
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