Highland Park Saw??

[Gold Junkie]

Does anyone have experience with Highland park slab saws? What's your opinion of them?

[GoldFinder]

5 hours ago, Gold Junkie said:

Does anyone have experience with Highland park slab saws? What's your opinion of them?

The older ones that were made in the US are awesome and some of the best lapidary saws ever made. The new company is no relation to the original Highland Park and are all made in China. I've heard mixed things about the new saws. If you can find an older one, with proper care and maintenance, it will last many lifetimes.

Many of the older slab saws are built like tanks. I have a 1960's 24" Frantom and a 1960's 18" HP and they'll easily last another 60 years.

[Gold Junkie]

8 hours ago, GoldFinder said:

The older ones that were made in the US are awesome and some of the best lapidary saws ever made. The new company is no relation to the original Highland Park and are all made in China. I've heard mixed things about the new saws. If you can find an older one, with proper care and maintenance, it will last many lifetimes.

Many of the older slab saws are built like tanks. I have a 1960's 24" Frantom and a 1960's 18" HP and they'll easily last another 60 years.

So, would the Lortone saws be a good saw? I'm guessing they are the older version.

[GoldFinder]

1 hour ago, Gold Junkie said:

So, would the Lortone saws be a good saw? I'm guessing they are the older version.

Yeah Lortone are a solid choice. I have an old Lortone LS-12. The vice carriage/rails aren't as heavy duty as other brands, but it runs and cuts just fine. I think their larger slab saws were more heavy duty.

[Geologyhound]

If you have never used a slab saw, one thing to be very careful of is how well you affix the stone to the vice.  Before cutting, I would give the stone a grab and try to wiggle it. If it pulls loose by hand then try it again. The last thing you want to have happen is for the stone to come loose while it is being cut because that will likely wreck the blade.  No matter how good the slab saw, it can’t make up for lack of cutting experience and carelessness in the vice setting.

[jasong]

I have an 18" Highland Park slab saw too, it's from the 1960's, and it's running as good as it ever did. I wish the vice was designed a bit better to accompany slightly larger rocks, but that's about my only (minor) squabble. The vice adjustment is plenty accurate for custom slabbing, I offer cutting services locally so it's cut a lot of those. Built nicely, only thing I've had to repair is a rear hinge and sometimes it's running 4-8 hours a day. 

If you can find one used for a good price, they are hard to beat IMO.

[samgreen]

I have a newer 10" slab saw from highland park and an 18" from covington.   

The highland park equipment is cheaper, made over seas, and it shows.  I had a spot weld break on the highland park saw within 6 months and had to wait months the replacement part because they were on a ship.  The customer service isn't great.

When I had some concerns with my covington saw and called them the customer service person transfered me to one of the techs that build the saw and I was able to get real answers about the equipment.....ya get what ya pay for.

 

Sam