Fragging with a wet tile saw (and diamond bandsaw).
 

For the past two years I've been doing most of my LPS cutting with a diamond wheel on a rotary tool. Having to hold both the coral and the tool at the same time led to many close calls with me almost cutting my fingers. So like with everything else in this hobby I upgraded. Princess Auto has this wet tile saw for sale right now for $60 with two 7" diamond cutting wheels. I've tried it out on two of my corals now and I'm very happy with the experience.

*For anyone wanting to try this at home I highly recommend wearing gloves like Blue Nitrile (box pictured) and wearing a face shield because this can be pretty messy... I still need to get a shop or lab coat for myself as well.

So far I've cut my green and purple acan with it and my oulophyllia. Their skeleton is quite porous so the blade cuts through very fast and clean. Before when I used the rotary tool I would have to cut around the coral to create a break line and then wedge a chisel in the cut and hit it with a mallet... This was a lot messier and took considerably more time. With the wet tile saw I just run the coral through quickly and then plop it back in the tank. Its much less mess and stress for both me and the coral.

Next on the chopping block is my large galaxy colony, lobophyllia and probably my duncan again just as soon as I have room for them in my frag tank.

My cutting station.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture361.jpg

Purple and green acan before being cut.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture343.jpg

Two days after being cut.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture364.jpg

at macna last year one company had a small bandsaw and were chopping stuff right at the show for people.

This article talked about a hobby size diamond bandsaw for cutting coral too. I looked it up and it looked like it was going to cost at least $400 after adding exchange, tax and accessories... I'd love to get one but thats a little outside of my budget right now. If anyone has seen one thats a little less expensive I'd love to know.

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/...1/pages/10.htm
http://www.inlandcraft.com/singlepro...&partnum=91040

I havent had a chance to use it yet but I broke down and bought an Inland DB 100 Wet/Dry Diamond Bandsaw. I found it on ebay for a decent price, it came to $280 CAD after shipping which was great except it arrived with one of the legs broken. I'm currently waiting for a replacement part to be sent. As soon as I get to try it out I'll post some pictures and share my experiance with using it.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...cture018-1.jpg

Looks cool....can you adjust the table height?

The table height doesnt adjust but the blade guide/water-lubricator can move up and down to give as much as 3.5" of cutting height.

I just tried out the bandsaw for the first time this evening by cutting a duncan and an open brain. Eventually I'll try it on my acans and some other 'brains'.

What I liked:
1. Cutting is nice and smooth and calm, not like with a rotary tool or wet tile saw where theres lots of noise and coral goo flying everywhere (like the dude with the lawnmower and the room full of zombies in Dead Alive... What? No one has ever seen that movie? You suck :twised:).
2. My fingers feel safe.
3. Cleanup is easy because the unit is mostly plastic its safe to splash it with lots of fresh water to get the gunk out.

What I didnt like:
1. I dont really like the water lubricator system of the saw. When I assembled it I couldnt get the provided hose to fit so I had to use some of my own flexible airline hose.
2. The mechanism that restricts water flow to the blade kind of came loose and I had to glue it back in...
3. Cutting is slower than with a wet tile saw, it took me quite a long time to get through the hard lower skeleton of the open brain.

I know it's off topic, but Juzam Djinn was a bad ass card back in the day

your fingers should be fine when working with a diamond saw, burn and scorch the heck out of them though if you clip the blade. you can just toss on some leather gloves to get around that though.

lol You're the second one to know what that was.

The comment about my fingers was because I was always really stressed while using the rotary tool to cut small frags. Sometimes the cutting wheel would grab and jump and I was concerned that it would eventually slash on of my fingers when it did. Using the wet tile saw was much better because the cutting wheel is stable but I still wasnt able to cut very small pieces without being worried. With the bandsaw I can comfortably get very close to the blade with my fingers without getting really nervous about losing a finger.