Shaping Cabs On A Trim Saw...That's Crazy Talk! - Updated Pics 11/19/21

I’d say it worked just fine, nice job

Thank you so much! 

I wouldn't try it with soft material...as there's NO room for error with those. However, with the harder materials, I can see it being extremely beneficial as a time saver...and there's "room for error" on the harder materials. LOL

That’s fantastic! As if your production volume wasn’t high enough you had to improve it by 20x in one swoop. Not too shabby and the results look as good as your time-consuming method.

That second solo cab is very cool with all of those freckles in the central area.

Nice work. I can see how this works well with a small trim saw blade with fine diamonds. You'll probably wear the blade out fairly quickly, or at the very least, it won't be good for cutting once the rim wears down past the steel core. You can make it a cab grindingly only blade and use it until it dies.

If you can find a thicker tile blade that still has fine diamonds (maybe one of the MK Diamond Hot Dog Blades?) it would last a long time doing this. What you've got look like a fairly thin trim saw blade, maybe 0.02" or 0.032" kerf?

Did it seem like the blade was grinding slower as you got towards the end? I wonder how much of the speed is the simple fact that your lap discs are very worn and that blade had sharp diamonds on the edge? I installed new 80 grit and 220 grit textured wheels a few days ago, and after 10 hard cabs they still grind incredibly fast compared to the wheels they replaced. I am still doming Montana agates with the 220 textured wheel just to break it in, since the 80 grit wheel is way too aggressive right now. Similarly, as we discussed recently, I've been buying cheap 60 grit and 80 grit flat lap discs, and they dome cabs very fast for at least the first 20-30 cabs, before things really start to slow down.

This may prove more difficult with thinner / lower dome cabs.

Thanks Jonathan! 

That "white" piece that's on top of the deck is an old cutting board that I cut down and put a slice in the middle to accommodate for the blade. I put it on the deck, because the deck isn't even right around the blade, so when I'm cutting preforms this allows the preform to be perpendicular to the blade, making the edge a 90 degree edge.

I can remove that cutting board and it would give me another 1/2" of room to work...but I didn't know if trying this would work, so I just left that in place when I was doing it. The board is secured with C-clamps, which are a pain to take on and off...but if I use this method this winter, I'll probably remove that board.

It really worked out pretty good...so thanks for the "push" to try this! 

Wow, the blade looked like a thin lapidary blade to me.  After all that preform shaping with the side of the blade it still cuts straight when used as a saw?  If so, that's amazing. 

jasoninsd

It still doesn't make sense to me, but that's ok. I believe what you're telling me.   Your blade must be very different than my trim saw blades, that's all.

Mine are MK Diamond lapidary saw blades. The sintered rim is almost exactly the same width as the core, maybe something like 0.005" wider when brand new. If I wear the diamond rim down thinner than the core, the first time I try to cut with it the core gets pinched and the blade is destroyed. Your Dewalt blade must have a much thicker rim and/or more durable diamonds.

I've done plenty of grinding with a saw blade but almost entirely on a 10" trim saw that uses 10" slab saw style blades. They hold up to a lot of abuse. I am amazed and impressed that you've shaped 1200 preforms on a smaller trim saw blade and it still domes all those cabs in less than an hour.  When we discussed this I was thinking you were going to try this on your bigger saw.  

Im done rambling for the night.