Cool nice slam job. I am the builder of the slab saw kits on ebay and have a few comments to make on this thread.
In response to this comment:
"looks cheap to me at a high price and why is the international cheaper?"
1. I'm not here for damage control this is a less than part-time endeavor and i'd like to add the 18" chassis costs nearly $300 to build and pack. So $595 selling price minus 13% ebay and paypal fees =$218 which equates to Mcdonald's wages to put one together. The international question was answered in this thread elsewhere.
Next: I looked at the 20 inch and it looks like there is not enough room to put the rock in place after the blade is on. Travel vs clearance.
2. Do you really think someone could get that far into a project and realize the blade extends past the vise? Maybe that's possible for you I don't know. Furthermore the ONLY reason I offered international was because I had a couple foreigners that wanted them and the 20" design was actually REQUESTED because they wanted a cheaper alternative, a bigger blade, AND it is the maximum size allowed to ship international thru my account at Pitney Bowes. I'm not taking a crash course on customs etc for one saw. Also there's a full 3" from the front of the blade to the first vise rod so next time ask for dimensions instead of using your imaginary tape measure.
One of my favorites:
"Those would self destruct with very little use, very flimsy"
3. Flimsy? They are NOT flimsy they weigh over 100lbs and I have to use an overhead hoist to set them in tanks. Finally aren't you a Barranca dealer I read somewhere? No wonder the nasty comments. I recall reading a couple threads on here about nothing but problems with their NEW Barranca straight out of the box. Since you're all about quality lets review a few saws:
A. I have a 16" Covington Kit. One side of the vise has the 3/4" steel rod it rides thru, the other side of the vise rests DIRECTLY ON TOP of a 1.5" angle and glides metal to metal contact. The ends are made out of 1.5" flat bar. This was over a $1000 probably and didn't even come with a powerfeed. And im pretty sure you can find one complaint after another about covingtons on this board they come up often.
B. One of the Lotones of current build has a folded piece of 18ga that sits directly on top a piece of round steel and then has a roller underneath to hold it there and has the audacity to say it's a roller bearing carriage.
C. I know guys that praise the old Mohave 36" saws. Really? Omg it's got shaft collars on it! Not only that the 2 guide rails aren't even solid and most of them have a V notch out in the rear angle for blade clearance because someone can't read a tape measure. Not only that they used a poly arbor that only had 3" flanges on it and I mentioned that and it was noted you couldn't cut as big as rock with larger flanges yet this guy has a $1000 blade that is bent to hell and now uses a commercial blade that is 1/4" thick. Yep, very cost effective there. In fact.......this saw really was flimsy and had to use a middle support to just hold it up and together and this POS cost several thousand dollars to boot.
4.I looked at:
- Poor materials?
- The linear sled soon will be a problem when cutting
not bad, but it soon will be problems
I recommend just a hobby Purposes
------I personally use this saw and have 2 full boxes of slabs and have ran into no problems. And what saw doesn't eventually have problems? Poor materials? Here's the arbor which shows one piece that I cut out of 1/2" plate with a plasma, one that isn't finished being turned down and the completed arbor. As far as for hobby purposes.....for 95% lapidary is a HOBBY:
5. I think this comment has best described the goal of this project:
"They all can deliver good accuracy for what they were made to do with tradeoffs with cost, accuracy, and time spent on adjustments and maintenance. I think my old 10" Lortone LS10 saw just has a bronze bushing/bearing sliding on a steel rod but it is fairly worn and the carriage has a lot of slop in it. It still cuts rocks with a fairly smooth finish though."
Heaven forbid you might have to actually take 30 seconds to grab a towel and wipe off the laser cut angle the bearings ride on after using the saw. In fact maybe this is why you guys have so many problems? Thinking you can just shut the hood and cut for a year straight and never clean anything lol.
5. Bolt that in a sturdy box and cut away. It's gravity feed so you can add less weight if you are worried about stresses. I do think the price is way too high for a gravity feed. My last criticism is the color. Shoulda made it either canary yellow or statutory grape purple.
I wanted something different so the saw that I use just happens to be yellow with blue racing stripes and has assorted motorhead stickers and an aluminum belt guard. I won't be posting pics of it because it's obviously a piece of junk as we've found out beforehand.
6. Look at the sellers completed listings. He tried to sell a finished saw too, I think what he is selling is successive attempts to design something that might work. Using shaft collars to hold everything together and bush the vice carriage and bolting it all together with grade 5 bolts is a special touch, I am willing to wager he measured and squared everything up with a tape measure and carpenters square and drilled it with a hand drill.
Tried to sell? I've sold saws all over the US, a few overseas and a few to S. America. If they were total junk I'd think it would show up by now. Shaft collars beat drilling 1" holes, are accurate enough and can be replaced easily. Sorry I figured out an easier way to do something. The holes were actually drilled on a milling machine sorry. And yes I do use a tape measure. It beats guessing. Lastly there's an adjustment on the rear of the saw that will slide the whole carriage to the left or right and you can dial it in on accuracy. My slabs don't have saw marks, if yours do I don't know what to tell you except buy a more expensive saw next time which will be discussed shortly.
Conclusion: Would I personally buy one of these kits? Honest answer: If I couldn't find a good used saw in my own 'local' area then yes. Also.......this all gets back to the subject of "I want this feature and that feature, everything has to be perfect". You don't get perfect for $600. And since many of you are obviously rich I want you to immediately go to the Diamond Pacific website and buy ONLY top notch equipment from now on. Don't be going to the new HP site those are made in China and surely garbage as well:
www.4facets.com/Diamond_Pacific_Saws.html#36. You'll only have to pay $9,000.00 for a 24" saw or $17k for a 36" saw but you may not like the 36" saw because it uses pillow blocks in the same place I use bolt on shaft collars so we better throw this saw in the trash as well. Even funnier is that they can't even provide modern day pics and literature for a $17,000 saw.
In the end the average rockhound will NEVER recoup the costs and it's almost a pipe dream to think that you will. Your own wants and needs will justify it one way or another. The difference between what I make and sell is that at the end of the day at the rock show my slabs will have a 25cent cost associated with cutting it while every penny you earn for the next 20 years will go to pay off your Mercedes saw.
These kits are not perfect and the cost of perfection isn't priced in. They were offered to people that aren't rich like most of you obviously are and intended to help people get into the hobby that otherwise would be nothing more than looking at fancy color printed catalogs and day dreaming.
The End.