When I was out in Nevada and California, I collected many pieces of agate and chalcedony. Many of the pieces were small, but some of the pieces were larger. Too large for my wife to use for making jewelry. I considered breaking the pieces with a sledgehammer to make them smaller and more usable for jewelry. But I decided that if I cut the pieces down into the thin slabs, that would make much nicer pieces.
I started investigating rock saws, but found they cost a lot more than I could justify spending. But I found that some people had used tile saws to cut rocks. These were much less expensive. But would they hold up? I started reading reviews of various tile saws. I could get a 4 inch tile saw, but it wouldn’t cut as thick of rocks as I wanted. So I started looking at the 7 inch models. There were various brands available, many for less than $100. One of the saw that actually had the best reviews, at least in the cheaper price range for which I was looking, was the Chicago Electric 7 Inch Portable Wet Cutting Tile Saw from Harbor Freight. At 3/4 horsepower, it sounded like it had a pretty strong motor. I could get the saw for about $60, and would have to buy the diamond blade separately for $20. I was a little leery after having such bad experiences with the Harbor Freight rock tumbler. But reviews of the Harbor Freight tile saw mentioned people using them for years.
I decided to give it a try. I bought it using the 20% off coupon from the Harbor Freight mailer. I also bought the extended warranty which saved me when I bought the HF rock tumbler. The first saw I bought was DOA. The motor wouldn’t turn. This didn’t give me a good feeling. I returned it to the store. They said they sell lots of these, and they never had seen a problem like this. They gave me another saw and I took it home. This saw worked. I got it put together and the blade installed.
There is a water tray that slides underneath. I think this could have been designed better as it is difficult to put in and take out when it is full of water.
The saw worked great for cutting rocks up to a little over an inch. The motor has plenty of power and I have rarely had issues with it slowing down even when pushing the rock into it with pressure. It is important to keep the water tray full. Water tends to splatter around a lot. You need to keep the tray topped off so the blade stays wet. If the blade starts to dry out, it cuts much more slowly and the blade will wear out faster. You will also need to empty the tray every once in a while if you are doing a bunch of cutting as it will fill up with sludge.
You will want to use eye protection as water with rock dust will be flying all over the place. Also use ear protection as this can get loud when cutting rock. My ears were left ringing after spending close to an hour cutting rocks one night.
One limitation of the Harbor Freight tile saw is that you are limited to using the diamond blades from Harbor Freight. The arbor on the saw is 1 inch, and this seems to be unique to the Harbor Freight saw. But I have cut a lot of rock using the one blade so far. The blade was $20 and if I use the 20% off coupon, I can get another one for $16. Maybe they go on sale now and then too. I don’t know.
The blade is kind of thick, maybe over an 1/8th of an inch thick, so you will lose a bunch of material in cutting.
You will want to use this outside, or in the garage where you aren’t worried about things getting wet. A lot of water will splatter around this saw. I have been using it on my work bench in the garage and it has left puddles of water underneath that I have to soak up afterwards. I am now waiting for warmer weather so I can use it outside in the driveway.
But I have gotten some very cool slabs of agate and chalcedony by using this saw. These have turned out to be some of the nicest pieces from the stuff I brought back. We just polished them using our Raytech vibratory tumbler and they are amazing! My wife is having fun making jewelry from them!

Posted by Rob in Rockhounding on March 4th, 2011 | No Comments