It's time to go Vertical

[Les]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

By the way they have a $200 and a $300 unit and I can't see much difference.

It looks like the $300 model has a longer cutting reach, doesn't apply to what we are doing. The more important difference is that it has a dual start capacitor, that's probably a nice feature since I blew mine up.
I don't think it's worth the extra $100 though, I replaced it for $5.

Les...

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

YAY!!! you won't regret it.

I am on the road and haven't had a chance to get to the drawings but attached are quick drawings for the first step, which illustrates (with bird's eye view of platform} how one can cut a full size brick in two pieces with a 5-degree angle, or any other angle, on both sides using the minimal number of cuts (3). Again I am away from the saw so the drawing is from memory and not to scale. I will repost with proper measures tomorrow.

You first set up the left guide with two c-clamps (I use 3" clamps - stole the c-clamp idea from Hendo). The top c-clamp is for the full brick cut with left side resting on the foot of the c-clamp, right side resting on the stop (which is also c-clamped to the stage). Make the cut.

Take the left portion of the cut from the full size brick and flip horizontally. Place against the bottom c-clamp on left and the bottom stop on saw on the right, make second cut.

Take the right portion of the original cut and flip vertically. Place against the bottom c-clamp on left and the bottom stop on saw on the right, make final cut.

As I suggested I should be home tomorrow in time to post dimensions for these cuts and the jigs and measures for the bevels. In the meantime enjoy your new saw.

By the way there are those who have had the pump clog with brick dust and have opted to keep the pump in a seperate bucket. I have cleaned out more than 50 pounds of sediment from the tray and caked around the pump during the building of my dome and never had a single problem with keeping the pump in its defined location. Obviously you do need to keep the water level high enough to keep it pumping through and onto the saw blade.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC,


Are you using the HFTools wet saw to cut your brick? If so in addition to the numbers above I could provide a few drawing that will make cutting them on the saw a breeze.

Jim

Well Jim as you can see in the prior post I will be using a FB saw. So if you don't mind I'll take you up on the drawings. I can see cutting one side quite easily, but will need to actually play with it to cut the other side of the brick.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC,

You should consider purchasing the Harbor Freight saw - at the end of the day, I'm sure you will be glad that you did. After the completion of the project, you could probably sell it for half of what you paid.

Just a thought,

Les...

Finally I have to say UNCLE. Spent some time in the garage (slightly raining outside) cut bricks in half for the next two rounds. Seemed a little noisy. Started cutting the angles and it got noiser. Turns out the gear is going out on my wet saw. Can't get replacement parts other than a whole new motor unit, which is about the price of the HF Saw. By the way they have a $200 and a $300 unit and I can't see much difference.

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Smart man. Use warm water in the tray if it's cold in the garage. No sense in suffering needlessly, unless you're an idiot like me.

JCG,
Ha! Time passes quickly, huh? It's really a kick in the face once you realize that you're completely invisible to 20 year old girls. Sad, sad.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Jim,
From the forum I'd like to thank you for sharing your wealth. As George has said, so far I've been eyeballing everything, but I've found the angle cut to be a constant so far. Now that the bevel cut is getting larger I'll try the scientific way. I'll keep you posted on progress. Weather forecast for this week doesn't sound promising so I may take the saw in the garage to continue.

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

JCG,
You crack me up. My math stopped at calculus, and I sucked at that. Non-linear function? It makes me all gooey inside. Perhaps it's been too many years working on peoples teeth. Might as well try Euclidean Geometry on me. Thank God my dome is still standing.

PS: I love the fact that some people understand that stuff. I'm in awe! I was hoping you'd say you just "eyeballed it", as the saying goes. Kudos!

Na, there is a big difference between recognizing something and being able to do anything about it. That is why I opted for a pretty picture. I may have mislead with "bit" rusty, those textbooks I was referring to are now more than 30 years old (where did that time go?).

And what about you, throwing around terms like Euclidean Geometry and all.


Jim

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

JCG,
You crack me up. My math stopped at calculus, and I sucked at that. Non-linear function? It makes me all gooey inside. Perhaps it's been too many years working on peoples teeth. Might as well try Euclidean Geometry on me. Thank God my dome is still standing.

PS: I love the fact that some people understand that stuff. I'm in awe! I was hoping you'd say you just "eyeballed it", as the saying goes. Kudos!

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

jim, I am interested in seeing the angle drawings.

Robert,
I will get those up sometime tomorrow or Monday (the big game and all).

Jim

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

RC,

OK so here it is, sorry this took so long but we decided to go grocery shopping and ran into an unbelievable crowd at every turn (Packer/NY game tomorrow).

First to George's question, the way these angles and bevels were determined was from the 3d software I used to plan the dome (3d Studio Max). I tried to make most of my mistakes in CG before wasting mortar and brick.

As I said in the earlier post the angle cuts were fairly constant at 5 degrees (42" oven) with exception of last two courses which went to 4.5 and 3.5.

The bevel is a function of course slope and a non-linear function at that. My non linear math is a bit rusty so I opted to plot the bevels I used on my oven on a graph and then fit a curve to same. This will hopefully allow anyone to find their particular slope of their particular course and then determine the appropriate bevel, it won't be perfect, but I think within acceptable tolerances.

With a bit of digging into old text books I hope to post a calculator to spit this out (plug in size of oven, slope of course, out comes needed bevel). If there are any mathematicians out there any help would be appreciated.

While we were out I took a look at your saw at HFTools I wouldn't give up on the bevels quite yet. I am going to post an approach with the larger saw but there may be some application to the 7".

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

No problem.
To your question of which is angle and which is bevel I offer the attachment with the qualifier that this is how I have been referring to them and may be completely wrong.
Jim

Your terminology I believe is correct from my experience with crown molding.

[RCLake]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

Jim ,
I thought that you may have beveled the sides to eliminate the inverted V, I'm impressed. I know I'll won't be able to do that with a 7", but thanks for that angle grinder.

[gjbingham]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

No problem.

But what I have been calling the bevel cut is the side cuts on the brick, a function of the slope of the current course and necessary to keep a tight fit on the sides of the bricks, one to the next. In my experience the angle stayed consistent on all courses except the final few while the bevel changed with each course.

Jim

JCG,
How did you determine the angles for the last few course? Just curious.
G.

[Acoma]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

jim, I am interested in seeing the angle drawings.

[jcg31]

Re: It's time to go Vertical

No problem.

I will send the numbers sans the drawings,
I just need to dig up the speadsheet and will post it shortly.

To your question of which is angle and which is bevel I offer the attachment with the qualifier that this is how I have been referring to them and may be completely wrong. But what I have been calling the bevel cut is the side cuts on the brick, a function of the slope of the current course and necessary to keep a tight fit on the sides of the bricks, one to the next. In my experience the angle stayed consistent on all courses except the final few while the bevel changed with each course.

Jim