Diamond band tile saws....

[smokingtable]

Glad to be a part of yalls place! I'm an artist here in south Texas, I've been using a 4 1/2 diamond blade grinder for a few years, and am ready to move up to a diamond band saw. Carving the tile is the meat of my work, and I need something strong and a blade thin enough to give me a good amount of curves. I've used an Diamond Laser 3000, but just not enough power to make it worth my time. Does anyone have advice and experience with these?
Jerimiah

[jadnashua]

No experience with them. I've also heard about waterjets. Probably expensive, but have great flexibility.

Another thing to consider from an artistic viewpoint is a laser. I've seen some really impressive stuff on stone - pictures and pretty much any graphics can be applied.

[Marge]

Jerimiah,

I have the DL5000.

What type of work are you doing and what are your issues with the DL3000? I don't have experience with it to make a comparison between the two. The 5000 makes tight cuts but not sure what you would consider a speed detriment.

Another forum regular, Bill Vincent, uses the 5000 regualrly. I'll PM him to visit this thread and make his opinion known.

Marge

[Bill Vincent]

I didn't even KNOW there was a 3000 model. The following logo was done with the 5000, and didn't give me a bit of problems. That's glazed porcelain. In addition, I also know someone in the Seattle area that uses hers for glass tile on a pretty much constant basis for doing design work, and also swears by it.

[smokingtable]

I cut lots and lots of curves in ceramic and porclin tile to make my murals and mosaics. The DL3000 cuts painfully slowly, just under what I can do with the grinder, not worth the money. I've heard Gryphn makes a good one.
From what I saw, the dl3000 cuts about 4 inches of ceramic tile a minute. I'd need something at least twice as fast.
Jerimiah

[Bill Vincent]

The 5000 is slow, but it's alot faster than that!!

One thing to think about, especially if you do most of your work in a shop, is looking into the DL7000. It's kinda big to take job to job, unless it's going to be set up on a job for a while, but it's got a little more "uph" than the 5000.

[smokingtable]

Hello Bill,

About how many inches per minute can you cut with the dl5000 on regular ceramic floor tile?
Thanks,

Jerimiah

[Bill Vincent]

Never timed it. Like I said, it IS slow, but quite as slow as you say the 3000 is.

[jadnashua]

http://www.flowcorp.com/waterjet-app...ons.cfm?id=218

Check out the medallions...

[Bill Vincent]

Yeah, but there's no craftsmanship to using a waterjet!! Kinda like not knowing how to make a "U" cut with a pair of snips!! (of course, you could make THAT with a waterjet, too, but it's kinda tough to load it back into the truck at the end of the work day! )

[jpaul]

just for fun info; back in the 80's when I worked, the company I worker for used waterjet cutting, a unit back then ran about $50,000.00
50,000 psi water out of a .5mm orfice! the robots were fun to program.

[Bill Vincent]

I didn't realise waterjets went that far back!! I thought they just came out in the last 10 years or so!! Interesting. I know that as late as 6 years ago, the price hadn't changed much. My last employer was interested in buying one for his stone shop.

[jadnashua]

Neat thing with the waterjet is you could stack all of the pieces up, get them nicely aligned, and cut all of them at the same time. Have no idea how much they cost...but still a neat thing if you can justify the cost.

[jpaul]

yep, with the use of abrasives we could cut through 6 inches of laminated glass, went realllll slow. maybe prices are lower these days?

was a fun but little dangerous toy.

[smokingtable]

I agree with Bill. Takes the whole 'handmade' out of 'handmade'. I'm going ahead with the DL5000. I'll post some pics of my work as soon as I can figure out how.
Jerimiah