Low-budget rock and fossil cutting/slicing/slabbing

[FranzBernhard]

Ok, I proved it possible to make polished slabs of substantial size (ca. 50 cm²) without any machine, purely by hand, in an acceptable time and of good quality and with things I already had, especially flat plates. Grinding and polishing media had to be bought, of course. All of this can be done on a desk in an apartment, no serious noise or dust production involved, just some sludge .

Only one problem remains - you need an as flat as possible surface to start with. Such flat surfaces are usually produced with rock saws.

 

For rock cutting, I have only experience with professional equipment. However, such rock saws are expensive, heavy, noisy etc.

 

What are the low-cost options for the occasional saw cut?

 

First, forget the angle grinder.

 

Second, what about tile saws? They are cheap, around 50-60 Euro, and far less than that for a used one. Quite lightweight and portable, about 10 kg. But they are made for cutting thin tiles, maximum cutting depth is about 35 mm. I am used to "rotate" specimens on the saw blade, so this can be doubled (Attention, this rotation can be dangerous if not done properly and results also in a surface not as flat as you might desire!)

 

I don´t have experience with a tile saw yet, has anybody of you? And has someone used such a saw in an apartment? Has anyone tried to make parallel cuts with such a saw?

 

Other thing: What about cutting specimens already in the field? Has someone done this with low-cost equipment? Maybe you can use a tile saw with an DC/AC converter connected to your car?

 

I think, that´s all what I like to know at the moment .

 

Thank you!
Franz Bernhard

[Bob Saunders]

Maybe you can use a tile saw with an DC/AC converter, it will depend on the watts rating of the motor. Since you are in Austria it may be 220 volt? where as in the states it would be 110 volt AC. Cars and light trucks today have what was the cigarette lighter is only for charging phone etc. You may be able to find a spare fuse on the panel and add a socket for a lighter plug or or spring clips to the battery which I would prefer. I have a 4 inch tile saw, which does not have a guide. So depending on the table  height from the shaft and minus the center hole and nut and washer I get less than 1 1/2 inches to work with. Plus sprayed with water. It is light weight and bought used. A 10 inch blade saw better and will give around 5 inch of blade. 120 mm. The blade must run wet. Our truck stops sell some big inverters now. 

[Thomas.Dodson]

I've been using a tile saw to trim specimens while I'm repairing my old Lortone and it works pretty well. The blade is smaller so you usually have to rotate specimens but It has handled silicified limestone pretty well on the harder end of things. I've done parallel cuts with it. I haven't tried it in an apartment but it is quieter than the Lortone if that's a concern. Then again, my Lortone is ancient so more recent lapidary saws might be more quiet. As far as mess goes, it is so-so. The tile saw I use has a easy drain so it is easy to drain the water from the basin to the bucket. If the basin is filled too full you get a lot of spray even with the spray hood.

 

For smaller specimens in the field I've used a cordless dremel with large diameter diamond cutting wheels. Bring water. It works decent but when they're that small you can usually just take the whole specimen back and cut it on a saw instead. It works better for undercutting specimens in large matrix pieces but that's a different story... 

 

I haven't tried using a tile saw with my car converter but it might work. It has a higher watts rating than I would expect.

 

[Allosaurus]

I picked up a tile saw from a friend a while back and have been very happy. It can't cut anything too big, but it's perfect for trimming down specimens or slabbing things. However my saw is VERY loud and would never be suitable for use in an apartment. I usually use ear protection when cutting because it's so loud. I've never cut anything in the field, but at one of the Kemmerer quarries I went to a few years ago the guy had a handheld saw that he used to cut people's specimens down in size and that seemed to work well. For parallel cuts, I think the best method is to have a way to hold the specimen perfectly still. I've always done it just holding it with my hands and the cuts have usually turned out just fine, though on very hard material it can be tough to hit exactly parallel. I recently installed some wedges to firmly hold the specimen during cutting, but haven't had time to fire it up and try it out to see how well it works. 

[Phevo]

I bought a used wet-tile saw (similar setup to a table saw with a water container underneath to wet the blade), the blade is roughly Ø15cm and it can cut 55mm or so and works well for trimming. There is a small splash zone on the sides and front but no more than 3-40 cm so you could always throw a plastic bag or something where it falls. In Denmark I used a similar saw and it worked very well, I'm sure Germany will have something similar too

 

I also have a battery driven grinder I take with me, but honestly it has not seen a lot of use as all of my trips this year have been day trips, for longer trips when space can be an issue it will come in handy though. (It only has a cutting depth of 25mm so pretty limited what it can be used for)...

[FranzBernhard]

Many thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences!

Franz Bernhard

[LabRatKing]

I have tile and masonry blades for my table saw, angle grinder, and chop saw. I have a purpose designed wet saw, but I rarely use it as I'm generally only making one or two quick cuts and it gets messy.

 

My dream is to get a waterjet cutter at some point in the future. They are plummeting in price and footprint at the industrial auctions. Then I'll have cut and coarse polish in one pass.