Saw woes .... I really need some cutting advice !

[Andrea Goodsaid]

Hi all~

I could really use some saw/cutting advice. I've been struggling with different types of saws for awhile now and would like to find a better way.

What I'm doing is making 3/8" square beads by firing them in 3 layers 7-8" long 'sticks' first, then cutting them into appx 3/8" squares and then fire polishing.

The first saw I used was a Taurus 2.2 ~~~ which was tough to get a straight cut on (I know; it's meant for curves ... duh), fairly slow and is a real pain in the neck to service.

The second saw I tried was a Speedster ~~~ which was hard to adjust the wheels on 'just so' (I couldn't even get the bolt loose at first and ran it the way it arrived for a time, which was probably a mistake) and I proceeded to break blades left and right. At this point, there is enough of a path dug in at the back of the top wheel for it to be impossible to 'center'. My Dad's feeling here was 'you get what you pay for' and that a saw with a better adjustment mechanism would be good.

So, after searching the archives here, I decided to order a tile saw..... but am finding that the cut isn't as clean as I want it to be (the back bottom corners are getting chipped with a lopacki blade that I am using), ALSO I neglected to catch the point that 7" blades are tile industry specific (I temporarily modified the bed for the 6" blade that I have) and so have sent for a 6" and an 8" pro-slicer in hopes of using this saw for some work I have to do ASAP.....

However, I am really getting frustrated and am even considering outsourcing the work .... have been poking around and looking at other options .... would waterjet? laser? be cost prohibitive or even advised? Please help me resolve this production problem .... it is driving me CRAZY!

Thanks in advance,
Andrea

[charlie]

why are you trying to cut these with a machine?

i'd use one of these

http://delphiglass.com/index.cfm?page=i ... o=itemList

try one out at a stained glass shop.

[Barbara Muth]

Charlie, with 3/8 inch thick, 3/8 inch wide it might be hard to get a 3/8 inch long cut that wasn't curved (at least that's been my experience)

Andrea, tile saws are the way to go with straight cuts of thick glass, or use some guides with the Taurus to make sure you go straight. What you could try to avoid the nicks on the glass squares is to add a strip of glass on the end so that the last piece of glass the saw goes through is not your bar for the squares. That, and go verrrryyyyy slow.

good luck!

barbara

[charlie]

a saw kerf is going to use up a good percentage of the bar if cutting off 3/8" pieces of a 3/8" thick bar.

i'd cut them off with nippers or a glass cutter. touching up the sides with a wbs or a grinder head may be necessary.

[jerry flanary]

Also try HIS glassworks http://www.hisglassworks.com/, Bob stephens has very good customer service and he may have a source for smaller blades. Chipping or blow out will always be a problem. The thinner the blade the less chipping But then the blade is more delicate... Also some people use tape on the back of the cut to help hold that little bit of glass together. Also substantial slowing at the end is good IE don't push through fast at the end of the cut.
If you want to try the nippers, I recommend searching grainger's catalog for their tile nippers. They have a set with a couple of gears in them that multiply the force that your hand makes. They are 100-200 dollars but they are soooooo worth it especially if you cut a lot of cane murrini. You don't even notice using strength any more than you do with a pencil. Amazing and Smart tool.
Out-sourcing is good too; I hear China has a special right now!

[jim simmons]

Hi all.

What I'm doing is making 3/8" square beads by firing them in 3 layers 7-8" long 'sticks' first, then cutting them into appx 3/8" squares and then fire polishing.Y!

Thanks in advance,
Andrea

What you might do, is to go to your local lapidary or rock shop and look at theie trim saws.
These babys are small. have a thin diamind blade and seems like made to order for your operation.
Jim

[Andrea Goodsaid]

Wow! I can't thank you all enough for the great and quick replies!

One correction though, I'm using thin BE ... so these things aren't quite as thick as I had you all imagining... sorry.

As far as the nipper idea goes, I'm trying to avoid having to do any touch-up/grinder work since I'm doing these in batches of two to three hundred at a time ... is it possible to get 'good' enough with nippers to make a really clean cut? or is that not the nature of the tool? I've never tried them before.

I like the idea if finding a local rock shop .... trim saws seem to mostly be cooled with oil though, will that suit glass? And then would that need cleaning off before fire polishing? Or would it burn off I wonder?

The tile saw that I have will work beautifully for other thick glass applications, but I think it's probably just too big for these beads.

And so, nobody's particularly fond of the bandsaw idea? Except for the blade breakage (the first one lasted for about 500 cuts, the forth one hardly 100) which was a bit expensive ... it really gave me the nicest cuts and was about twice as fast as the ring saw.... and I was being really careful not to force the cuts by the time I got to the fourth blade, trust me. I did send the two unbreakable blades that I broke off to be replaced and they did replace them without any fuss, but the idea that the first one (which came with the saw) and the last one (an unbreakable one) had a drastically different lif span suggests to me that I had something wrong in the alignment of the blades which has now damaged the wheels?

Outsourcing (maybe a tad closer than China) might actually be an idea if I can find info on pricing ... that or hire someone once I get this figured out. I was planning for this to be my morning production so that I can have my afternoons free to do the fun stuff and not starve at the same time. So far my grand plans are being foiled....

Appreciate all the replies!
Andrea (off to the yellow pages to look up rocks)

[charlie]

the nipper will give you a break cut, which would be far better quality than any saw blade. you may not even need to do much firepolishing at all, except it will be a sharp edge. you just want to round the edge slightly. there won't be any ground surface that you have to fire out.

again, try them at a stained glass store.

[Bev Brandt]

I cut BE rods with tile nippers to make "dots" and I do have two caveats:

- Practice. It takes some doing to get any sort of precision with the nippers. At least for me with the smaller rods it does.

- Rest a lot. I call anything I use my "dots" on part of my Repetitive Stress Syndrome Series. Maybe I just need new nippers...

Oh and one more thing. Nip the glass into a box or something. Nothing like smallish pieces of glass flying around the shop.

- Bev

[Cynthia]

So, if you are using 3 layers of BE thin...then your finished piece would be 4.5 mm thick. As simple as this sounds (too simple?), couldn't you just score and run these pieces off of your strip? Seems like it's the fastest and cleanest way, particularly since you have to fire polish anyway to soften your edges. Score dead center and snap. Score those dead center and snap...better success if you cut and break with equal amounts of glass on either side of the score (use a morton with a button fulcrum on the table and it seems that it would go very rapidly), less loss of glass that way and nice clean breaks.

Am I missing something here?

[Andrea Goodsaid]

>Am I missing something here?

Maybe just that I am tool inexperienced .....

[jim simmons]

So, if you are using 3 layers of BE thin...then your finished piece would be 4.5 mm thick. As simple as this sounds (too simple?), couldn't you just score and run these pieces off of your strip? Seems like it's the fastest and cleanest way, particularly since you have to fire polish anyway to soften your edges. Score dead center and snap. Score those dead center and snap...better success if you cut and break with equal amounts of glass on either side of the score (use a morton with a button fulcrum on the table and it seems that it would go very rapidly), less loss of glass that way and nice clean breaks.

Am I missing something here?

DUUUHHHH!!!! Now why didn't I think of that.
Jim