Post by UtahRockHound on Jan 3, 2009 3:33:34 GMT -5
As anyone can tell you, one of the most popular trim saws is the WorkForce THD550 from Home Depot. The saw is designed to cut tile, but works great for small slabbing or trimming cabochons.
The biggest problem I have is I use mine indoors. As anoyone that uses one can tell you, this makes for a big mess. Water and rock chips everywhere. I started out taping pieces of plastic to help contain the mess. This weekend I made and installed permanent guards and drip rails.
In the first picture, you can see I siliconed a strip of soft rubber trim to keep the water from running across the saw body. this will sandwich it between the saw body and table.
The next step was to spot weld a drip shield under the table to prevent the water from dripping through the table drain holes, and onto the table. Needles to say, the water tray underneath is not large enough to catch all the water. The drip rail diverts it just enough to catch the pan.
I then fashioned a guard around the back half of the table, and siliconed all the seams and joints. This stops all the stone fragments and water splash from going all over. I made mine from 1/4 Plexiglas as I had it sitting around. As long as it is waterproof, any material could be used here. The table is made from Stainless Steel, so drilling to mount the guard is out, so I just siliconed and clamped it overnight.
A quick shield in front of the blade as well to keep my T-Shirts white. My wife thanks me for this one.
I also run a thick bead of silicone around the edges to keep the water from running off the edge. I later covered the silicone bead with Duct Tape just to make it more resilient.
I cut several stones after this, and was very pleased with the results. No mess to clean up, and no wet table and carpet.
The biggest problem I have is I use mine indoors. As anoyone that uses one can tell you, this makes for a big mess. Water and rock chips everywhere. I started out taping pieces of plastic to help contain the mess. This weekend I made and installed permanent guards and drip rails.
In the first picture, you can see I siliconed a strip of soft rubber trim to keep the water from running across the saw body. this will sandwich it between the saw body and table.
The next step was to spot weld a drip shield under the table to prevent the water from dripping through the table drain holes, and onto the table. Needles to say, the water tray underneath is not large enough to catch all the water. The drip rail diverts it just enough to catch the pan.
I then fashioned a guard around the back half of the table, and siliconed all the seams and joints. This stops all the stone fragments and water splash from going all over. I made mine from 1/4 Plexiglas as I had it sitting around. As long as it is waterproof, any material could be used here. The table is made from Stainless Steel, so drilling to mount the guard is out, so I just siliconed and clamped it overnight.
A quick shield in front of the blade as well to keep my T-Shirts white. My wife thanks me for this one.
I also run a thick bead of silicone around the edges to keep the water from running off the edge. I later covered the silicone bead with Duct Tape just to make it more resilient.
I cut several stones after this, and was very pleased with the results. No mess to clean up, and no wet table and carpet.