Had a Taurus…didn’t like it!

[katkramer]

I had a Taurus Ring Saw which I bought with the intention of cutting glass snowflakes.  I ended up selling it on eBay and trading it in on a little XL Speedster bandsaw.  I like the bandsaw better, but rarely use it.  I ended up making snowflakes out of cut pieces of glass…the saw was really unnecessary…

I do, however, use a tile saw all of the time, and cut most of my jewelry on one.  I have two of them…one is a 24″ contractor’s tile saw, and the other is the smaller table-saw style Ryobi from Home Depot.  We use the little Ryobi more often for jewelry because it’s small and will sit on a table.  The big saw you have to drag out buckets and it’s messier.  I have the big saw for sale, and am looking at a “bridge saw” at Harbor Freight…with this style you hold the material and the blade moves, similar to a radial arm saw.  It’s a mid-size saw, but takes a smaller blade.

My favorite blade is the specialty glass tile cutting blade from Home Depot which is made especially for cutting glass tile (less than $20, I believe).  Paul at Helios recommends NOT using the kind of blade with cuts in the blade…they seem to chip out more.  But the glass tile blade currently carried by Home Depot is absolutely wonderful…it has a smooth cut, and we rarely have to grind any of our pieces before fire polishing them.

: )
Kat
http://www.glasskatz.com