Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: using water in slab saw  (Read 781 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Phishisgroovin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2967
  • I am here by addiction
using water in slab saw
« on: July 11, 2021, 04:56:04 PM »

So, i want to slab up some of that Teanaway Jasper/pajioclase (always mistaken for jade).
I cant afford to buy 5 gallons of mineral oil right now & refuse to use any other oil in my saw.

Can i use water for awhile?
This stone really messes my saw up too the way it milks out, so a water cleanup would be WAY easier to clean my saw.
How much harder on the blade is water rather that mineral oil (horse laxative) from the farm supply store?
Logged

55fossil

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 849
Re: using water in slab saw
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2021, 05:38:37 PM »

   What kind and size saw are you using?

   I used water in a 14 inch saw for similar reasons and it was a disaster.....  The wear on the blade was not too bad but definitely more than when you use oil. Also was a lot noisier when cutting. The bad part cam after I was done. The water got into every bearing. Even after filling the saw back up with oil and running some rocks through it there was still long term damage to the bearings and everything metal. The saw was never the same again.

NOW:   I purchased a Lortone  TS10-C Stainless Steel Trim Saw.  I made my own base, added a motor etc....  I use this saw all the time for cutting small slabs and it is great. Especially nice for trimming those excellent slabs off of heals.  I have used it for several years and love it. It does use blades up faster but cost savings on oil and clean up more than make up for it.  PS:  I make my big rocks into little rocks I can cut in my 10 inch saw...
Logged

bilquest

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 83
    • Rocks and Stuff
Re: using water in slab saw
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2021, 05:56:15 PM »

5 gallons sounds like a bigger saw than I'm used to.  I have a 12" saw that only uses 2 gallons.  You can get four gallons of mineral from Santa Cruz vet for about $50, shipping included.  If that still blows the budget, I would at the very least treat the water with something that prevents corrosion.  Anti-freeze that is used for storing the potable water systems in an RV is very cheap and does a good job.  A gallon mixed with 4 gallons of water should give you a good enough solution to protect the moving parts.  WARNING Note!!! it's NOT the anti-freeze that you put in your radiator... very different stuff, and very toxic.

Now for another suggestion for when you get a few bucks to spend...

Up until about two years ago, I used nothing but mineral oil in my LS-12.  However, I had acquired some chrysocolla that needed to be stabilized and I didn't wanted it absorbing oil, so I did some R&D on water-based cutting juice.  I landed on this stuff called CRL Diamond Tool Coolant.  It's a water soluble concentrate that you can mix two fluid ounces per gallon of water.  Not only did it have a corrosion inhibitor, but it provided lubricity that I never could find with other water-based lapidary cutting fluids.  My saw runs cool and I haven't noticed any difference in wear on the blade from my mineral oil days.  It's environmentally friendly and can be disposed of easily.  Also, my saw clean-up isn't the ordeal it once was.  I've cut all kinds of material since switching to CRL and don't ever see myself going back to horse lax.  You can order it on Amazon.  I was paying about $20/quart (incl. shipping) but I recently saw a price increase of about $5/quart.



Logged

peruano

  • Retired Zoologist
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 410
Re: using water in slab saw
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2021, 05:16:42 AM »

The responses you have received are likely to have adequately guided you, but I would remind you that oil is for lubrication and . . . cooling.  Bigger blades run by the stone at faster rates and thus generate more heat than small circumferences.  I have always assumed that water can be made to boil off too quickly to adequately cool a big blade working hard.  So too you must consider the boiling temps of water with additives (surely the diamond tool guys have said something about that).  So . . . I' d consider how much am I going to cut, how big are the stones to be cut, how hard is the material, etc.  You could certainly pay attention to blade temp after the first or subsequent cuts.    The totally home grown solution is to add as many bricks, water bottles, etc to your tank to reduce the amount of oil needed to raise the oil to the proper level on the blade (adapted from the toilet tank water conservation school).  Or talk to a machinist as see what they would view as alternatives.  Perhaps one cut with the big saw with water and then all subsequent cuts with a smaller saw would pose the least risk to usage of water.   The old timers used keorsene and that might be preferable to rv antifreeze.  Ponder the situation and do  what's best for you. 
Logged
Combining a love of bikes (pedal and otherwise) with hiking, hounding, lapidary, and the great outdoors

Phishisgroovin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2967
  • I am here by addiction
Re: using water in slab saw
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2021, 06:20:55 PM »

with that i will keep it in mothballs until i get oil.
Its a 20 inch saw, a biggun....
Logged

Phishisgroovin

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2967
  • I am here by addiction
Re: using water in slab saw
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2021, 06:27:40 PM »

my beast
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.065 seconds with 34 queries.