spencerponds
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2022
Posts: 3
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Post by spencerponds on Apr 9, 2022 14:58:42 GMT -5
There's also a forum member in southern Idaho who might have a saw... .
I have about 20 saws but I have a backlog of rebuilding them, I have 5 on deck right now, so lead time might be a while. Tony When you say five on deck, what do you mean there? I would love some more info about what you may have for sale, as well as lead times. I completely understand if I have to wait, but as there's no guarantee that I'll be able to find anything locally soon, I figure it can't hurt to gather information. In the meantime, I'll take some of the others advice here, and check CL as well as FB, and I'll see when the local rock clubs are meeting up next. |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,494
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 9, 2022 17:07:41 GMT -5
Hate to sound like a cranky old geezer but I'm with Rockoonz. I've had a number of saws, the last one I bought is a Covington 10" and quite frankly, it is one of the main reasons I don't slab anymore. It's almost like the folks who designed the saw don't even cut rocks. First off, it's super difficult to change belts or blades. Tiny inconvenient screws on the table. Table design lets all your oil go all over the place. Clutch system is cranky to use, vice is small, and worst of all, the freaking motor overheats on every hot day here in Texas so you definitely have to have shorter cutting sessions and let it cool down. Used to have a used Beacon Star that cost a couple of hundred bucks and it was twice the saw. Until the motor finally croaked it was cutting larger slabs, faster, rarely broke down, and it was super easy to change belts, or blades etc.
In my humble opinion, I'd definitely go with a used saw. Larger saws are super expensive, as are the blades, and larger saw blades are much easier to dish or wreck in other ways, especially when cutting petrified wood which to me is often one of the toughest materials to cut and can be a real blade breaker. Quite frankly, I'd not expect to make a good deal of profit, if any,cutting and selling pet wood slabs if you buy a new saw. I can sure tell you I spent way way more money on equipment that I could ever get out of it. For fun as a hobby is one thing, for profit another. Just my two cents.
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Post by hummingbirdstones2 on Apr 9, 2022 19:36:31 GMT -5
Sabre52 is right on all counts. We've told MANY people "If you aren't doing this because you love it - don't do it...!".
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Post by catmandewe on Apr 9, 2022 23:11:40 GMT -5
I have about 20 saws but I have a backlog of rebuilding them, I have 5 on deck right now, so lead time might be a while. Tony When you say five on deck, what do you mean there? I would love some more info about what you may have for sale, as well as lead times. I completely understand if I have to wait, but as there's no guarantee that I'll be able to find anything locally soon, I figure it can't hurt to gather information. In the meantime, I'll take some of the others advice here, and check CL as well as FB, and I'll see when the local rock clubs are meeting up next. 5 on deck means that I have 5 saws sold that I have to rebuild/recondition so they can go to new homes. I only have one ready to go and it is a 36" Diamond Pacific hydraulic production saw (TR36) but I have a guy flying in next week to look at it, so it might be gone also. I can put you on the list if you are really interested, as it just keeps getting longer. Tony |
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Post by HankRocks on Apr 10, 2022 9:15:21 GMT -5
Lots of good excellent advice so far...
I agree with finding a good condition, used old saw if you can luck into one. In my case it was a early 60's model 24 inch HP and a completely rebuilt 20 inch, brand unknown. These two have been my workhorses for cutting larger pieces of Agate and Petrified Wood for the 24", cutting Geodes and Brazilian Agate halves on the 20 inch using a couple of nice custom built holders. One down side to old, you don't know how much life is left in bearings or the motor. In theory old motors can outlast new ones.
As far as business of Rocks, I sell for beer and gas money!!. And because I enjoy cutting/polishing/tumbling so much I have an over-abundance that needs to be sold. I am content to do about 5 or 6 shows a year with only one of them being a "Rock Show" with the rest being Craft Shows. I lucked into to the Rock Show as my neighbor happened to meet someone looking for a partner to split a booth in an established 40+ Vendor show and there happened to be an opening. In addition we somehow managed to get a prime location the end booth on the main asile and have kept that for 5 years.
I prefer in person sales and have to this point avoided selling online. For me the complication of online selling out weighs the benefits, that may change as I get older and to the point where loading/unloading setting up, breaking down re-loading and then unloading 600 to 700 pounds of material, I can do it now, 5 to 10 years from maybe not. Sales and Buyers are strange, likes and dis-likes change. Right now, Quartz Crystals are hot and I am lucky to have an abundance and they made up half of the sales at my last two Rock Shows, one was exceptional and the last exceptional plus. That could change, if inflation continues and discretionary spending goes down, it could impact my numbers.
In the 5 years of doing this I have managed to build up a decent group of repeat buyers, they look for me at the Show. It did not happen at the first show but grew over time. Doing 5 to 6 shows a year is perfect for me, keeps me at the Hobby level with minimum of travel. It's fortunate that the Craft Shows are all at a venue 6 miles from the house and serve as fund-raisers for the local High School FFA's or Marching Bands. I have learned which schools bring the crowds and which ones do not.
As you can note I have used the word "luck" and good fortune in my comments quite a bit, without these breaks my sales would be tougher and possibly more dis-couraging. Not that one cannot make his own luck and work hard to earn good fortune, it's just a steeper hill to climb. I say start out small, exploring possible sale outlets, what works and what doesn't, what sells and what doesn't, how to price things, how to market; all of these things will take you a bit of time but they can be done.
Most of all, enjoy what you are doing, if you can do that and make a little money, then it's a win-win situation. Good luck.
Henry
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AzRockGeek
has rocks in the head
Member since September 2016
Posts: 703
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Post by AzRockGeek on Apr 10, 2022 11:22:17 GMT -5
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rixrocks
having dreams about rocks
Member since September 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by rixrocks on Apr 13, 2022 10:34:04 GMT -5
I have a Covington 16 inch combination saw. Though others may dislike Covington saws, mine works just fine. I don't use it as a trim saw though so that feature just doesn't matter to me as I use an Ameritool trim saw for that. I've had this saw for about 4 years and am happy with it so far. One thing about Covington is their customer support is outstanding. For those few issues that I've had, I've called them up and got great technical support from somebody who knows these machines front and back. That's important to me and I have confidence in them.
To be fair, I'm not a commercial user as it's just a hobby for me and I don't crank out slabs every day. If I were doing that I would have purchased their bigger saw. At any rate, maybe I'm the lucky one but it works fine for what I need.
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Post by stardiamond on Apr 13, 2022 13:14:38 GMT -5
I have a Covington 16 inch combination saw. Though others may dislike Covington saws, mine works just fine. I don't use it as a trim saw though so that feature just doesn't matter to me as I use an Ameritool trim saw for that. I've had this saw for about 4 years and am happy with it so far. One thing about Covington is their customer support is outstanding. For those few issues that I've had, I've called them up and got great technical support from somebody who knows these machines front and back. That's important to me and I have confidence in them. To be fair, I'm not a commercial user as it's just a hobby for me and I don't crank out slabs every day. If I were doing that I would have purchased their bigger saw. At any rate, maybe I'm the lucky one but it works fine for what I need. I agree with your comments regarding customer service. I also do very little slabbing. I hate the saw. The blade keeps jamming and the belt gets ruined. I can't walk away from it without worrying. The clutch requires constant adjustment to prevent binding. The carriage drifts to the right resulting in uneven slabs and the blade jamming. The vise kept getting loose and I tightened it so hard I broke it. I could buy a 14 inch HP drop saw for what it would cost to fix the Covington. I think the clutch is an innovative idea but otherwise the saw isn't well designed. I really like my 10 inch HP saw. I cut mainly small rough. The vertical vise and small kerf are ideal for that. It is very slow, but can start a cut and walk away instead of having to babysit the Covington |
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rixrocks
having dreams about rocks
Member since September 2019
Posts: 51
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Post by rixrocks on Apr 13, 2022 18:30:17 GMT -5
I have a Covington 16 inch combination saw. Though others may dislike Covington saws, mine works just fine. I don't use it as a trim saw though so that feature just doesn't matter to me as I use an Ameritool trim saw for that. I've had this saw for about 4 years and am happy with it so far. One thing about Covington is their customer support is outstanding. For those few issues that I've had, I've called them up and got great technical support from somebody who knows these machines front and back. That's important to me and I have confidence in them. To be fair, I'm not a commercial user as it's just a hobby for me and I don't crank out slabs every day. If I were doing that I would have purchased their bigger saw. At any rate, maybe I'm the lucky one but it works fine for what I need. I agree with your comments regarding customer service. I also do very little slabbing. I hate the saw. The blade keeps jamming and the belt gets ruined. I can't walk away from it without worrying. The clutch requires constant adjustment to prevent binding. The carriage drifts to the right resulting in uneven slabs and the blade jamming. The vise kept getting loose and I tightened it so hard I broke it. I could buy a 14 inch HP drop saw for what it would cost to fix the Covington. I think the clutch is an innovative idea but otherwise the saw isn't well designed. I really like my 10 inch HP saw. I cut mainly small rough. The vertical vise and small kerf are ideal for that. It is very slow, but can start a cut and walk away instead of having to babysit the Covington I would feel the same way you do if I had those problems. Fortunately, I don't have those issues. I also don't have to readjust the clutch. In fact, I adjusted it when first purchased and haven't had to touch it since. I've had to tighted up some nuts and bolts but I think that's just required maitenance on any machine. I do feel for you though, I wouldn't want to go through what you describe. Have you modified your machine or is it still stock from the factory? |
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Post by stardiamond on Apr 13, 2022 19:50:22 GMT -5
It's not being used. The last time I used it, I put a clamp over the vise and pushed the rock through by hand to make it small enough to fit in my 10 inch saw. I have only one large rock, beautiful piece of Mookaite. I had already cut some slabs and it is a slow seller so there is no point to slabbing it. I only make slabs to make cabs and am not interested in selling slabs. I would like a nice saw, but can't justify spending $3,000 for something I don't need. Sales have been slow. If they improve, I reinvest.
I don't rockhound and the only large rock I would be interested in is Blue Mountain and they are expensive and a big gamble. Been there done that. I cut up a 9 pound piece of Biggs and have plenty of slabs. I also cut up a bunch of large Willow Creek. I got use out of the saw. I bought large rough because I had the saw, but nothing comes to mind for a wish list.
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JR8675309
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since August 2019
Posts: 807
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Post by JR8675309 on Apr 27, 2022 20:50:21 GMT -5
Used, all the way. Drove to Idaho last year to see Tony catmandewe and brought the 20” saw back in a u-haul. It’s about 7 hr round trip and was worth it. I got a great saw, a great lesson in using the saw, I got to see the rock pile on his property. Tony was willing and able to secure it in said uhaul (thank you Tony) when I was having some issues with arthritis and could not latch or tie down anything. I think buying used has other advantages as well. You are more likely to experiment and fix it yourself vs working on some super expensive saw or relying on vendor support. I wish you luck! |
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