Post by herchenx on Jan 2, 2016 2:12:00 GMT -5
UPDATE: started a new thread:
New Post
Original Post:
Well I've been about a ghost around here for a while, and actually doing any lapidary work has been probably close to a year. My knee surgeries last winter kept me from being on my feet for long, or from going anywhere potentially dangerous (tripping or step hazards etc.) which kept me out of the garage.
I bought a nice 20" saw earlier this year with some help picking it up from rockroller Roland, but it has been in my mess of a garage since untouched.
The past couple weeks, over winter break, I hired my son a few times to do some rock hauling and organizing in the garage, my ulterior motive being to get going again in the new year. He's proven to be a great help, tackling big chunks of projects for a few different days. It's given him some pocket money which is good for him, we've had a chance to connect pretty well on some projects and good father-son time, and the garage is coming together reasonably well. He's really taken it seriously and has gotten into planning on how we can have tools and trash bins and everything else accessible while being able to handle rock work and parking cars in the garage.
After a bumpy fall with him and some school stuff (he is in 7th grade now, and has moved to the high school building and schedule, which he did not handle smoothly) - we've had a hard time finding ways for him to feel successful and connected to what the whole family is doing, so this break and the garage organizing has been really positive for all of us. My wife is thrilled.
I determined that today would be the day (it's near midnight on Jan 1, 2016) - I would start rocking again in the new year. I targeted the big saw, and a big Laguna I've had for a few years that was too big for my 14" saw to handle. My boy and I were in the garage and at Home Depot most of the day, getting things organized and shelving and brackets put up to help with the process.
Sometime around 6 pm I moved some gas cans, and we went in for dinner. After dinner I came back out and the garage reeked of gasoline. I had accidentally tipped one of the almost-empty cans and it had leaked onto some cardboard I kept by the mower and trimmer to catch any drips. It was so bad I was worried about the fumes so we left the garage door and back door open to vent it out a bit. I gave it an hour and came back out, this time realizing that the gas was in the cardboard (didn't see that the first time) and tossed the cardboard out into the snow to dry and closed the doors.
I waited another hour or so and decided to brave the fumes and to get the darn saw going before the first was over.
Back out I went and got to work. I had a new blade from John (johnjsgems ) from this summer, and a new belt, but I figured the saw was cutting before I got it and it could handle one cut. I found a short bucket I thought would work well to catch the oil, hold the pump and fit well under the saw, and opened the drain into the bucket. I played with the pump to get it to work and then did some checking before pouring a few gallons of oil into the saw, which drained into the bucket as expected. The oil level was pretty low so I poured another gallon or so in, and suddenly saw oil running across the concrete under the saw. I thought maybe the bucket was off center a bit and checked to see, but it was fine. I had a near heart attack as I realized my bucket was leaking. I had the pump in it, with the recirculating hose going back up into the saw. Because it is right around 0 F everything is frozen and hard, including the hose that was running out from under the saw. I had no way to get the bucket out easily.
I bit my lip and lifted the front edge of the saw, which let the remaining oil run to the back and stop running into the bucket, but I had no spare hands! I kicked a nearby brick under one of the legs and was able to swap the short bucket for a normal bucket, which only has about 1/2" clearance under the saw when it is sitting flat. Once the new bucket was in place I took the leaky bucket and dumped it back into the saw so it could drain into the new bucket.
Fortunately I had a bag of 50# floor dry close by (I use it to de-oil slabs and had most of a back open right by the saw. I dumped most of it all around the saw and bucket, and it is still soaking up the mess now.
I repositioned the new bucket, got a couple bricks to lift the pump a bit (it is fully submerged otherwise) and put them in the bottom of the bucket. I think I lost about a gallon total in the process.
With everything back to where I'd hoped to start initially, I plugged the saw in and turned it on. I watched through the side window and could see a nice stream of oil running onto the blade, so I turned it off, and got my 12# laguna nodule, and shimmed and cranked it into the vise. I love the horizontal vise, it is so much easier and less picky than the vertical vice on my 14" (where I have to tighten 2 large wing nuts onto to threaded rods to sandwich the rock)
I triple checked everything, and turned the saw back on. I watched through the side window to see it start to cut. Everything was going fine then the saw started to get burdened and the blade started to slow. Slower and slower. Then the blade stopped.
The saw has a cool "overload" switch that raises as the pressure against the blade grows, and eventually cuts off the power. I didn't see this raising, so I threw it up by hand to cut power before I tripped a breaker. I flipped off the main switch and opened the saw up. Pulling the carrier back to me a bit to try another run at the rock.
I flipped the switch on and nothing happened.
Since we've been reorganizing, the breaker box was not easy to get to (of course) - so after digging my way around and getting the fridge back where it belonged, I opened the box but no breakers were open.
I went back to the saw and looked around and realized when I'd manually lifted the overload lever I'd also flipped a physical switch which is how the overload can turn the saw off when it is working right. I turned that back on, and the main switch back on and the saw started again. Predictably the same thing happened, the blade gradually slowed then stopped.
Thus ends my evening of cutting, or trying to cut. An inch or so into a nodule I hope is a real beauty.
Tomorrow, we'll work on the garage some more, I'll swap the belt, the blade and see if I can oil the motor at all. If that doesn't work, my assumption is that I will need to replace the motor. I have a decent motor on my 14" which I might steal, or I have an old air compressor that I don't use, that might have a decent motor. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I'll have at least one cut on the Laguna. We'll see.
Not a complete success, but I got started!
New Post
Original Post:
Well I've been about a ghost around here for a while, and actually doing any lapidary work has been probably close to a year. My knee surgeries last winter kept me from being on my feet for long, or from going anywhere potentially dangerous (tripping or step hazards etc.) which kept me out of the garage.
I bought a nice 20" saw earlier this year with some help picking it up from rockroller Roland, but it has been in my mess of a garage since untouched.
The past couple weeks, over winter break, I hired my son a few times to do some rock hauling and organizing in the garage, my ulterior motive being to get going again in the new year. He's proven to be a great help, tackling big chunks of projects for a few different days. It's given him some pocket money which is good for him, we've had a chance to connect pretty well on some projects and good father-son time, and the garage is coming together reasonably well. He's really taken it seriously and has gotten into planning on how we can have tools and trash bins and everything else accessible while being able to handle rock work and parking cars in the garage.
After a bumpy fall with him and some school stuff (he is in 7th grade now, and has moved to the high school building and schedule, which he did not handle smoothly) - we've had a hard time finding ways for him to feel successful and connected to what the whole family is doing, so this break and the garage organizing has been really positive for all of us. My wife is thrilled.
I determined that today would be the day (it's near midnight on Jan 1, 2016) - I would start rocking again in the new year. I targeted the big saw, and a big Laguna I've had for a few years that was too big for my 14" saw to handle. My boy and I were in the garage and at Home Depot most of the day, getting things organized and shelving and brackets put up to help with the process.
Sometime around 6 pm I moved some gas cans, and we went in for dinner. After dinner I came back out and the garage reeked of gasoline. I had accidentally tipped one of the almost-empty cans and it had leaked onto some cardboard I kept by the mower and trimmer to catch any drips. It was so bad I was worried about the fumes so we left the garage door and back door open to vent it out a bit. I gave it an hour and came back out, this time realizing that the gas was in the cardboard (didn't see that the first time) and tossed the cardboard out into the snow to dry and closed the doors.
I waited another hour or so and decided to brave the fumes and to get the darn saw going before the first was over.
Back out I went and got to work. I had a new blade from John (johnjsgems ) from this summer, and a new belt, but I figured the saw was cutting before I got it and it could handle one cut. I found a short bucket I thought would work well to catch the oil, hold the pump and fit well under the saw, and opened the drain into the bucket. I played with the pump to get it to work and then did some checking before pouring a few gallons of oil into the saw, which drained into the bucket as expected. The oil level was pretty low so I poured another gallon or so in, and suddenly saw oil running across the concrete under the saw. I thought maybe the bucket was off center a bit and checked to see, but it was fine. I had a near heart attack as I realized my bucket was leaking. I had the pump in it, with the recirculating hose going back up into the saw. Because it is right around 0 F everything is frozen and hard, including the hose that was running out from under the saw. I had no way to get the bucket out easily.
I bit my lip and lifted the front edge of the saw, which let the remaining oil run to the back and stop running into the bucket, but I had no spare hands! I kicked a nearby brick under one of the legs and was able to swap the short bucket for a normal bucket, which only has about 1/2" clearance under the saw when it is sitting flat. Once the new bucket was in place I took the leaky bucket and dumped it back into the saw so it could drain into the new bucket.
Fortunately I had a bag of 50# floor dry close by (I use it to de-oil slabs and had most of a back open right by the saw. I dumped most of it all around the saw and bucket, and it is still soaking up the mess now.
I repositioned the new bucket, got a couple bricks to lift the pump a bit (it is fully submerged otherwise) and put them in the bottom of the bucket. I think I lost about a gallon total in the process.
With everything back to where I'd hoped to start initially, I plugged the saw in and turned it on. I watched through the side window and could see a nice stream of oil running onto the blade, so I turned it off, and got my 12# laguna nodule, and shimmed and cranked it into the vise. I love the horizontal vise, it is so much easier and less picky than the vertical vice on my 14" (where I have to tighten 2 large wing nuts onto to threaded rods to sandwich the rock)
I triple checked everything, and turned the saw back on. I watched through the side window to see it start to cut. Everything was going fine then the saw started to get burdened and the blade started to slow. Slower and slower. Then the blade stopped.
The saw has a cool "overload" switch that raises as the pressure against the blade grows, and eventually cuts off the power. I didn't see this raising, so I threw it up by hand to cut power before I tripped a breaker. I flipped off the main switch and opened the saw up. Pulling the carrier back to me a bit to try another run at the rock.
I flipped the switch on and nothing happened.
Since we've been reorganizing, the breaker box was not easy to get to (of course) - so after digging my way around and getting the fridge back where it belonged, I opened the box but no breakers were open.
I went back to the saw and looked around and realized when I'd manually lifted the overload lever I'd also flipped a physical switch which is how the overload can turn the saw off when it is working right. I turned that back on, and the main switch back on and the saw started again. Predictably the same thing happened, the blade gradually slowed then stopped.
Thus ends my evening of cutting, or trying to cut. An inch or so into a nodule I hope is a real beauty.
Tomorrow, we'll work on the garage some more, I'll swap the belt, the blade and see if I can oil the motor at all. If that doesn't work, my assumption is that I will need to replace the motor. I have a decent motor on my 14" which I might steal, or I have an old air compressor that I don't use, that might have a decent motor. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I'll have at least one cut on the Laguna. We'll see.
Not a complete success, but I got started!
