Re: Taurus Ring Saw....good?

Be sure to wear hearing protection...the thing sounds like a New Holland hay baler running.

IMPOSSIBLE CUTS= difficulty in foiling very subject to cracking in most cases not appreciated or un-necessary

How about "too expensive a piece of glass to risk a bad break"....?

I was once making some panels for my front door and sidelights, using only clear glass with lots of different textures, some thick & wavy, some thinner and very ripply, but they were all difficult to cut. I wasted a fair amount of glass and ended up having to modify my patterns to accommodate "close, but not quite right" pieces of glass.

So if I were to cut a large piece of "difficult" glass again, I would be tempted to use the ring saw so that my money could be spent on "new" glass, not "replacement" glass.

Thanks to all who provided input....I think I will get one in the near future.

Jay

The Taurus ring saw works fine for me, I have had no problems with my saw in the past 4 years. You can go to geminisaw.com for more info. Charlotte,NC

I've got one and I like it just fine. Negative: It is loud and has a big kerf. Positive: you can make impossible cuts (which work great on mosaics, but should be avoided in stained glass) and you can cut other materials as well (stone and ceramic). Since a lot of my business is sandblast etching, this comes in handy when making blanks.

but these don't come into play if one is fusing up the pieces instead of putting intact in a panel.

regards, charlie cave creek, az

I have a   Diamond Laser 3000 from Diamond Tech International. It's messy (splatters water everywhere) and slow.

Has anyone used both this and the Taurus Ring Saw? How do they compare?

I'm interested in knowing because I'm thinking of selling my DL3000 since I don't use it enough to justify the space it takes up. If it weren't so messy and slow, I'd use it more.

Thanks,

L> I've been doing glass work as a hobby for 20 years (mostly window panels,

Whoops....the blade for the Diamond Lazer 5000 is $119 from Delphi. The whole saw is $975.

The new blade and a kit of all the loose parts that always wear out on the Taurus is $139, and the saw is $350 or so.

Thanks for the input. I have begun working on a pseudo-Tiffany panel, with lots of wisteria flowers, leaves, stems, etc. and some lightly rippled clearish glass in the middle section. I am hoping to have a Taurus when it comes time to cut the clear glass so that I can minimize the number of pieces needed...(seems like I always start with large pieces in the panel, but as impossible cuts result in more and more breakage, the large piece gets re-drawn into several smaller pieces and I wind-up with more seams in the panel than I want - hopefully, the saw will let me make the clear glass "vanish" from the panel, emphasizing the flowers, etc.)

Jay

P.S. - Does anyone else work like this.....cutting glass a piece at a time, fitting it against what is already cut, without using a pattern? Kinda just going with the flow and seeing where you wind up? I'm using clear sheets of adhesive to hold the finished pieces of glass in place as I work, saving the foiling for later....

You are probably right. I don't set any speed records....but, when I find a piece of glass with a little character that would be interesting in the panel, but it is bigger, longer, smaller, wider, etc. than the pattern calls for, I am free to use it spontaneously without having to adjust elsewhere. I guess at 49, I, too, am an old-timer....patterns just seem to be so restraining....

Jay (never sold a piece of work, and now you can see why)