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[iwannarock]

Hi all, just looking for some feedback from people who have purchased new slab saws in the past 5 years. I am going to start looking for eventual replacement slab saws for our club as ours are getting worn out and so am I from repairs/maintenance. I guess we would be looking at either Lortone or Highland park or both. The saws we would be looking at replacing would be two 10" Highland Park, one Lortone 12" and a home built 18" Covington.

As I am looking at the HP website and just going by pricing as shown, I would be more inclined to recommend going to two 12" in place of the 10" and a 14" for the existing 12 and then go for their 18". Just by the photos shown on the HP site, it does look like they have made improvements to their carriages from days gone by and their pricing seems to be too good?

The club is looking for good longevity without major maintenance/repairs, but also the way of the dollar we have to be frugal too as the exchange from USA to Canadian is frightful.

Appreciate any and all recommendations

thanks
Iwannarock
Prairie Rock and Gem Society
Regina,SK Canada

[bobby1]

Our club - the Mother Lode Mineral Society in Modesto, California has been supporting the local junior college for the last 30 years. We provide the equipment and maintenance. We have older Lortone 12" and 14" saws. After looking at saws we are going with the Highland Park units. They definitely have addressed the problems with the Lortone units and their prices are quite reasonable. We are also going to buy their ultrasonic drill. It looks like a very useful machine for the classroom use. I just requested a quote from them this morning. Unfortunately, at this time they don't offer a discount for non-profit organizations.
Bob Rush

[iwannarock]

Sounds good, keep me posted when you have purchased and have had a chance to play with them.

This is the only problem with being up in Canada as lapidary dealers are far and wide apart and most do not stock equipment over $300, so all you have is feed back from forums , appreciate any and all comments

cheers
Iwannarock

[jerrysg]

My club in Tucson just purchased 2 12" Highland Park saws for our cab lab. I would not recommend them. It looks like HP, in down sizing their design from their larger saws failed to consider all dimensions. The space between the right side of the case and the vise is very small. It is very difficult to fit an average adult hand into the right side of the saw.  That's where the lever is to release the vise to move it forward and backward and where the crank is to move the vise laterally. For some of the people it is very awkward to get their hand in and turn the crank. I have seen some people resort to only being able to make a 1/2 turn and then have to reposition their hand to get the next 1/2 turn on the crank. The larger HP saws probably don't have that problem but the 12" do.

My home saw is a 10" Raytech and the vise moves 1/16" per turn of the crank or 4 turns for a 1/4" slab + one turn for the saw kerf.  The vise screw on the HP 12" is a 3/8-20 so it is 5 turns to the 1/4" plus something for the kerf. I'm not sure what to do if someone wants a 3/8" slab because the club wants the crank handle to always be vertical when cutting. HP has a very complicated table on their web site for figuring out the amount to turn the crank for blades of different thickness and the various screws used in their saws.

One of the saws has been in use for a couple of weeks and the other one was put into service on Sunday so I can't speak to reliability. So far the cuts have been smooth. There is no vibration. The automatic shut offs work OK but one of the saws has a chain with links that seem a little small and we have to use a tool to get the chain on the hook built into the vise. The saws did come with the inexpensive Chinese blades and we don't expect them to last very long. When they wear out, we will replace them with the MK 303s.

Jerry