Lapidaryforum.net
Gadgets, Gizmos, and Dohickeys => Cutting, Grinding, Polishing => Topic started by: melvinrose on March 13, 2023, 05:24:44 PM
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Me again. My 18” Highland Park lapidary saw has three different pulleys for three different feed rates based on the harness of the material being sawed. I’m not in production to saw as much stuff as possible so I intend to just saw everything, hard and soft, at the lowest feed rate. Will this be an okay thing to do, or will I need to saw faster for softer stuff? Tx, Melvin
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I've heard contrary opinions, but slow works for me and in my eyes saves blades, less likely to leave saw marks, and I never shift to higher speeds. Good blades last for years even with high use.
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Thanks for the advice. I agree. I only saw for myself and I’m not afraid to do other things and just let the saw do its thing. I stay within earshot in case something goes wrong but so far it hasn’t.
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The thinking goes that slowing the feed rate (and thus lowering the radial force) too much below optimal values leads to unnecessary wear on the blade, possibly glazing-over as well.
In my opinion, it's a small price to pay to ensure that you are avoiding a much more problematic situation where feed rate is too high, leading to dished blades, stressed carriage and feed system, and expensive catastrophic failures. Better too slow than too fast.