24" Wet Saw Plans

In order to come up with 215lbs I wonder if they included your inner frame and arbor support. Your vice looks closer to 100#

Yes the inner frame and arbor support and vice plate etc all of it is 215. Everything in the plans. Oh actually I had three 30x1.5" strips cut for hinges, they probably add a couple pounds and won't be sitting on the rails so the entire vice and carriage assembly is less than 200. I can add it up tomorrow and put an accurate weight.

Ok good to know. 0.25 inches of sag on 10 feet is acceptable. On a 4 foot something span that will be under 1/16th.

I just don't want the blade binding up if there is too much sag. Trying to overbuild this thing so it lasts me another 50 years.

I was interested in seeing the amount of deflection in the O1 tool steel rails at various sizes (since larger diameter rods are more expensive I wanted to see if it was necessary to get 1.5" dia rails).

My vice weighs 200 lbs, and I figured the largest possible rock I could ever pick up and put into the vice would be about 200 lbs, so I calculated my max load as 400 lbs.

I believe that a 400 lb load on two 1.5" diameter rods will deflect the rails by 0.0945 " or 2.4 mm when the load crosses the middle of the rods. This assumes the 400 lbs is evenly distributed over both rails and they both take an equal amount of the weight.

Will this amount of deflection in the vertical direction cause binding of the blade with the rock or should it be ok?

Here is a summary of the deflection of 1.25", 1.5", and 2" diameter rails and the cost per rail from mcmaster:
Rail Diameter | Max Deflection of 1 rail w/ 400 lb load in center of rail | Max Deflection w/ 2 rails | Price/rod
1.25" 0.391" or 9.9314 mm 0.1955" or 4.9657 mm $93.61
1.5" 0.189" or 4.8006 mm 0.0945 " or 2.4 mm $128.79
2" 0.06" or 1.524 mm 0.03" or 0.762mm $203.37


PDF of my work for reference:
drive.google.com/open?id=0B9nQUARu47-OdWJNdHk0UFNMMTg

It looks to me as if your deflection figures are calculated on a 400lb. point load at the center of the rails, not spread out over the 4 contact points that are 15" apart [2 points on each rail] on your drawing. If I'm right, your deflection would be much less than the 3/32" on the 1 1/2 " rails.

What load model are you using? The numbers look like what I would expect if you took the rod at full length and applied the load at the other end.
When you have 2 point suspension and 2 load points the load and deflection should be greatly reduced.
The only way deflection would become a major issue is if it's uneven when you hang a rock way out of the vice, but even if the .0945" were correct I doubt it could create problems, you would need a lot more than that.

I still think your vice assembly is maybe 115 lbs tops, the 200 would include the steel for the blade arbor supports and the rail supports at the front and rear of the saw. Cubic inches X .283lb is steel weight.

Thanks for the reassurance. I did use the formula for 2 ends with support, the link above has the equations and work in it. I used a point load of 400 lbs. It would have been better to use a spread out load for better accuracy.

I don't have too many 200 lb rocks to slab but I'm just thinking max weight possible under the most intense circumstances possible.

I was surprised at the weight of the vice as well but it is accurate, it was modeled on CAD. I picked the parts up and they are very heavy, I believe 200 lbs for sure.

I did the feed rate calculation a while back but I think I set it at 11.75 inches per hour if I remember correctly. I'm using a gear motor with 125 lbs of torque if I remember right. I hope this will be enough force to move the vice.

Got the rails, will be putting them all together soon.

I am a little worried about the lid weight. It is frighteningly heavy. I might have to reorient the lid so the hinges are along the edge rather than the back. That might help reduce the weight needed to open the lid? Or at least make it a little less terrifying to do that.

Not sure.

Are there any issues you all can think of if the hood opens with the hinge on the long side of the saw box rather than the short side? I think the hood would clear the blade, and it wouldn't be hanging overhead or bumping into the ceiling in that orientation.

My concern with hinging that heavy of a lid on the blade [heavy] side of the saw is that it might pull the saw over; support foot from floor would prevent it from happening. To load a rock of the max. size mentioned, the lid will have to be opened very wide.