Taurus Ring Saw is IN THE HOUSE!

So, Mother's Day was the day I devoted to trying out my new toy- the Taurus Ring Saw. Imagine a saw with a diamond blade, but the interior of the blade was cut out, leaving only the rim coated in diamond. That's how this saw works. And because it's got a smaller profile, it can cut curves. I tried it out on some stones that I'd mostly cut out on my slab saw- so they needed just a bit of trimming. Setup of the saw itself was very quick, and it needed about a gallon or so of water to make it work. It's easy to drain- I just remove the operable saw portion and dump the water from the tray below. I did have one mishap when the rubber belt came off the saw blade, but it was easy to fix. If that keeps happening, I'll have to look into tightening things up. The other thing that they recommend is to put ice packs into the water bath- I noticed that after about 10-15 minutes of use, the water was lukewarm. It helps with cooling the blade down.

Above you see the stones I needed trimming. It probably would've been easier to start with slabs, because trimming these stones was a bit problematic- the edges were very close to the exterior edge and that caused some problems, especially because I'm a newbie. It will take some work to get used to cutting with this blade. Practice will allow me to get to know how it cuts, how far from the marked edge I need to be, etc...

But all in all not too bad for my first time. A bit messy, but these should now be a lot easier to clean up on my grinding wheel. I was also able to grind edges using the saw, which is helpful. And the blade has 7 total blade-types available for purchase- including one that allows you to saw an interior section (it comes apart!) so I'm excited to get to know it better!

It also seems like a pretty safe saw, too- very little of the blade is visible, and I wore my safety goggles. I could definitely tell a difference in speed between softer and harder rocks- it is important not to push too hard!  The water splash also seemed pretty good- I'll have to try it again just to make sure I won't need to place a towel under the tray.

I think my new saw and I will be very happy together....