WARNING: Do not try this at home! If you do anything listed below you do so at your own risk. (Always wear proper safety gear, eye protection etc... Always practice proper safety when operating any machinery.)A wet tile saw works fine for small stone meteorites (rocks). It's not actually the saw that cuts, it's the blade. RPM is important in finishing work, or when you're working with fragile or rare material. Then you need a specialized lapidary saw with a slower RPM. A higher RPM saw has more vibration, and is more damaging to a more fragile stone meteorite. Having said that, 95% of the stone meteorites you might cut are ordinary chondrites and they're fine to cut on a wet tile saw. Don't try cutting iron!
You can get a good wet tile saw for $100-$250 at any home improvement store. Then spend another $50-$100 on the blade, don't get the cheap blades. The thinner the better since you want to minimize kerf (cut loss). MK diamond blades are expensive but work well. I personally enjoy using the BARRANCA DIAMOND 301 blades... They are pricey, but will last a while (hundreds of slices). Or, some people will cringe at this. Get yourself a DELTA diamond segmented tile blade. This blade is ultra thin and I've literally cut thousands of cuts with it (hundreds of stone meteorites), and it's still going strong. Best of all, it's only about $40 at home Depot.
Eric
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Regards, Eric Wichman Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine You are not allowed to view links.
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