Panel Saw

[letterman7]

I cut a little window in the guard on our SSC so I can line up the blade with a pencil mark on the edge of the substrate easily if we need to. Maybe things are different in the UK but here in our shop the cuts are not "ish", they're right where they need to be.

Did the exact same thing - I got tired of looking around the guard all the time. I have the 'jr' model, but it still has handled everything I've thrown at it.

 

[Billct2]

Great idea! I'm doing that to ours.
Oh yea, Safty Speed Cut, 20 years old.
We actually replaced the motor a few years ago.
I wouldn't give it up for anything.

 

[Gene@mpls]

I cut a little window in the guard on our SSC so I can line up the blade with a pencil mark on the edge of the substrate easily if we need to. Maybe things are different in the UK but here in our shop the cuts are not "ish", they're right where they need to be.

Mine has the vacuum port right there- you can pop off the hose and have
a 'tubal' view of where the blade will hit.

 

[Vicg]

Safety speed cut by far we cut anything from foam to 3/4 thk aluminum plates on it different blades ofcourse.
Vic

 

[andy]

I may have had a lemon with my machine but one of my suppliers also has a wall saw, different size different manufacturer..... the cutting is to "ish".

By "ish" I mean a tolerance of +/- 1-3mm. This is not good enough for the projects we do... there is a decimal point missing on the accuracy scale.

If you do general cutting around the shop then a wall saw is a good investment. If you hope to compete in the precision panel and cut to size market it ain't going to happen... not with a wall saw.

I think it's worth mentioning that wall saws aren't the tool for ultra precision work... before someone might dive in and spend their hard earned.

If your wall saw does what you want then great... mine went because I needed more precision. If I need any saw cutting these days my main supplier has a CNC beam saw which I get to use for zilch.

 

[Malkin]

It sounds like you had the incorrect tool for your needs, glad you found a solution.

Once set, our SSC will cut panels that are +/- a few thousandths of an inch of each other. I rarely actually set it that accurate anyway. For the average sign shop, making one-off signs, a panel saw is a good investment.

 

[phototec]

Heath Sign Company,

If you decided on a Safety Speed Cut panel saw, I just received this notice from them, that they will be selling their most popular saw for $800 0ff during the Orlando ISA show!

You might want to gve them a call?

 

[astro8]

Personally I hate panel saws... the best thing we did was get rid of ours.

If you want to chop down a big sheet to a measurement of "ish" then a panel saw is great... if you want some serious accuracy and precision over multiple panels they're useless.

Same experience here. I only ever used a vertical panel saw a few times but it turned me off them for life. May have been a dud and I can't even remember what make it was.

Bought an Altendorf, perfect repetitive accuracy - downside is it takes up a hell of a lot of room and $$.