August 28, 2023 • 19 mins
In this cutting episode of Small Business Talks, we sit down with Dave Brown from The Original Saw Company. Dave dives into the advantages of beam saws, explaining their superior platform, stability, and exceptional cross-cut capabilities. We delve into the practical applications for businesses, both large and small, emphasizing the beam saw's ability in cutting a variety of materials.
Dave also touches on the importance of the right tooling, offering insights into cutting materials beyond just wood. From power requirements to the nuances of manual vs. power cross feeds. Plus, get valuable tips on maintaining your beam saw to ensure longevity and precision with every cut.
The Original Saw Company Website
Phone: 1-800-733-4063
Visit the Small Business Talks Site
Have a question, comment or topic idea, email us at: nealr@mfgpa.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Beam saws offer one of the most efficientand accurate ways to cut large quantities
of materials from wood to plasticpipe to fiberglass panels.
If you run a small business that doesa lot of cutting or just want to know how
to optimize your cuttingprocess, stay tuned.
We have Dave Brown,a customer service expert
from the original saw company,who will shed light on the benefits
(00:21):
of beam saws and how they can improveproductivity in businesses big and small.
On this episode of small business talks.
Today we have Dave Brownfrom the Original Saw Company.
Dave is one of the customer servicerepresentatives at Original Saw.
Dave, welcome again to the program.Thanks, Dave, we're on mute.
(00:44):
Good to see you again.
You too.
Today we're going to talk about beam saws.
One of the things that I think people...
I'm going to start out very simply ask
you,what exactly is a beam saw and how is it
different than, say, a radial arm saw orother saws that a professional would use?
(01:04):
A beam saw is just a much larger platform.
It's a four-foot wide and nine-foot long
frame with the double columnpost and overhead beam.
So more rigid, not as much balance or flex
in the arm, and you geta much longer cross cut.
You can get up to 62 inches of cross cut.
Oh, that's a good size.
Yeah.What applications?
(01:25):
We talk to small businesses a lot.
Now,one thing we always have to define is
people say, Well,we're not a small business.
The definition of a small business is500 employees or less, technically.
But we have a lot of companies that theremay be 100 people, there may be 25 people.
What applications wouldbe usable for a beam saw?
(01:48):
And what businesses couldbenefit from using a beam saw?
Like your sign companies ormanufactured homes?
Anything breaking down sheet goods is
where it really shines through,where you can break down that four
by eight sheet into piecesand have that full cross cut.
(02:08):
Dave, what are some of the benefits
that a small business wouldget by buying a beam saw?
In their production facility,in their production area?
You could increase productivityand efficiency of your workforce.
Instead of having somebody holdingmaterial and then operating a small,
handheld saw,you have a piece of equipment where you
(02:29):
put your sheet goods or yourpanels or extrusions,
depending on what blade you got, and youcan cut multiple pieces at one time.
You bring up a good point, and that isthe different types of blades.
Maybe you might want to touch basethat because people,
I think when they hear the word beam saw,they're thinking maybe just wood.
I know it can do so much more.
(02:51):
If you can give me a laborate a little
bit, what exactly can it cut and whatis it most efficient in cutting?
You bet.It all depends on the tooling, the blade.
Say, whether you're cutting wood or
plastic or cardboard, you probably usejust a normal carbide tooth blade.
Then there's different grind and different
tooth materials that they use for thosecarbides where you cut aluminum,
(03:14):
you could cut stainless steel,you could cut regular steel,
fiberglass, filtrusion material, foam,insulated foam panels with metal skins.
It really does depend on the tooling.
The motor and the frame of the sawis going to hold up to anything.
So it all depends on the toolingthat you put on the blade on the motor.
(03:36):
Let's talk about the motor and let's talk
about things because one thing I know whenwe've talked in the past,
I think it's really important that youdon't just buy other people's stuff.
You actually make a lot of the components.
If you want to go into detail as to what
you actually make at your facility or evendown the road versus just buying things
and assembling it, you havea different approach on that.
(03:56):
Yeah.
The motors are laminations that we stackto the different heights for the different
motors, whether it's a single phase orthree-phase or contractor motor up
to the SuperDuty motorthat we put on the beam saw.
We stack those laminationsand fast them together with tie rods
and they get welded andgo out for machining process to get
the ends all straightened up, trued up,and our mounting holes drilled into them.
(04:20):
Then we bring them back in here and wehandwind the motors and
all the assembly baked in hereand insulation dip to 450 degrees.
Then we hand-assemble them and
press the rotors on the shafts andtest them on the bench.
I think they all run for 35 minutes
in a test and we check amp draw andhorsepower rating and the voltage draw.
(04:45):
Everything that we can doin-house, we do in-house.
When you say made in America,you're not joking.
I mean, it literally-Yeah, from start to finish.
The majority of it's made right herenot only in America, but right in Iowa.
It's on the same.With all the big metal pieces.
We don't do that in-house ourselves here.
There's metal fabrication companies
that we use here in North Iowa that lasercut and bend and powdercoat our frames,
(05:09):
and then we bring them in herefor assembly in our facility.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I think one of the things we'd liketo talk about is if we talk about motors
and we talk about the windings and thingslike that, what
are the factors that people shouldconsider in getting a beam saw?
What should they be looking at?
Well, number one is goingto be what you have for power.
(05:33):
We do it in a single-phase version, but weneed to know their voltage specific.
You have three-phase power.
We need to know if it's 208,230, or 460 volt.
The next thing we need to know is the type
of material that you're cutting, that waywe know what tooling to put on the order.
Then the last thing would be your heightand width of the material
(05:55):
for how big of a blade and bladeguard you need on the machine.
What are the differences and why woulda person choose one over the other?
You bet.We'd have a manual machine.
The base machine comeswith a hand crank on it.
At about chin height at the top
of that post,there's a hand crank assembly,
and you're going to crank the handleto traverse the carriage front and back.
(06:20):
That one can get a littlestressful for operators.
You're making a 60-inch cut.
Every turn moves that carriage aboutthree inches, three and a half inches.
You're going to have to turn thathand crank about 20 times to come all
the way across, and then you're also goingto turn it 20 times in reverse to take it
back home to unload yourmaterial and put in a new piece.
Where the power crossfeed, it's spendy,
(06:42):
but it takes all that manual labor awayfrom your operator and it's going to speed
up production, you're going to get a muchnicer, truer cut because you don't have
the jerky motion of somebody changingspeed in the middle of the cut.
You set that feed rate,you push a button and it comes forward
and cuts andsure, and returnshome at a precise speed.
(07:02):
Let's see.
Ease of usability, more accurate cut.
Yeah, that might be wortha little bit of the investment.
I think that's what most people look
for is if there's a value add to it,is that something to take a look at?
It's going to prolong the lifeof your tooling, your blades.
I mean, if you're not forcing it
in the material, you're not going to dullup those carbides as fast or gum it up
(07:24):
and plug it up and ruina blade or your material.
Let's talk aboutmaintaining your beam saw.
What are the do's and don'ts and how often
should you be doing certainmaintenance on a beam saw?
Yeah.It'll depend on which beam saw you get.
The largest one we do, the 22.5 inch,that's built with a variable frequency
(07:47):
drive for the electronics, and it getsrid of the mechanical brake parts.
It's all done with electronic DC injected
electric to stop that motor,stop the blade.
On the 16-inch and the 20-inch,
we use mechanical brake,which is like brake disks in a car where
it's a friction disk that'sglued onto the back of the fan.
And when you power the saw on, itelectromagnetic pulls a steel pad away
(08:13):
from that brake diskand allows it to freewheel.
When you energize the saw four springs
push that brake right back upagainst it to stop the blade.
That's a maintenancething to take care of.
You're going to time yourbreak time every so often.
Make sure you don't need to eitheradjust the break or replace break parts.
(08:33):
We have that part of the cleaning.
What about is there areas youoil or do you oil the unit?
No, you want it dry, clean and dry.
We either use break cleaner or denatured
alcohol, something to clean the railswhere the dust and metal chips,
depending on what you're cutting,would stick to the rail.
You're just going to wipe that down
with a clean rag after everyshift and try to keep it clean.
(08:56):
No oil.
Oil will actually attractthe dust and make it wear faster.
That's good to know.
I know you have a largerange of beam saws.
Maybe if you could walk throughfrom the smallest to the largest and just
explain the differences and maybe whya person would choose one over the other.
(09:16):
You bet.Okay, so I guess the very beginning is if
a person does not have three-phase power,we do build it in a single-phase version.
That's a five-horsepower single-phase.
The other way we can dothat for single-phase customers to put
a larger VFD, something that's two and ahalf times the horsepower for startup.
Then we could build it in a three-phaseversion, but you're only going to input
(09:39):
your single-phase powerto make it run on three.
That VFD is going to createthat third leg of power.
After that, it goes by blade size.
There's a 16-inch version,
20-inch version,and a 22-and-a-half-inch version.
The 16s and the 20-inch,they're going to come with the standard
magnetic starterunless you wanted to upgrade to a VFD
(10:02):
where you get soft startand electronic breaking.
The 22.5 inch always has a VFD.
It would trip out if wedo with the main starter.
The end rush current is hardon the electrics with that big blade.
Speaking of blades and we talked just
touch base on a little bit aboutthe differences using it for the different
materials,what are some of the different types
(10:24):
of blades and what applicationswould the blades be different?
And maybe elaborate about the range
that you have for the differenttypes of materials.
Yeah.
If you can think about cutting it,we can do it on a saw.
It does come down to the blade.
We use three or four differentcustom blade manufacturers for us.
(10:44):
So weWe stock wood cutting blades.
We stock cross cutting and rippingblades with a higher tooth count.
We stock non-ferrous cutting bladesfor cutting aluminum and brass.
Then we have a new one that we stock
that's for cutting ferroussteel and stainless steel.
(11:06):
But we've also got custom quoteson diamond chip blades for cutting
stone, fiberglass, petrusians,for walkways and catwalks.
It's endless.
If you can think of it,
there's a blade manufacturer outthere that will make it for us.
You do help people selectingthe right blade, I would imagine.
(11:30):
Yeah, we got a video on the website.
We talk about how to choose your blade,going into those same things.
Just talk about what you're cutting, whatyour feed rate is, how many feet of it.
And then if there's a question outside
of that, you just call into our customerservice and myself or Jamie will help you
walk you through it,what blades we think you need.
Now you have an interesting approachof how you actually sell your units.
(11:51):
You actually sell them online.
Correct.
So walk me through that processabout how does it get to me?
Do I configure it online?
Do I then buy it and then send ship to me?
Just walk me through the process.You bet.
If you go online, you can searchwhether you're cutting wood or metal.
You can search by the size of blade andit'll put you in that category of saws.
(12:14):
Then there's what we callit the cut process sheet.
It's going to ask you all the questions:
what you have for power,what material you're cutting,
what size is this material,what options are you interested in?
In and out feed tables,we make a line of accessories to help you
support the material cominginto the saw and going out of the saw.
(12:35):
They can really walkthrough the whole process?
Yes.Then this gets delivered to you?
Yeah.It'll all come in through our website
portal to our email and wesee a quote request.
Or if a person knows exactly what they're
getting, it just places the order rightthrough the website and then we enter it
into our sales system here and getit on the production schedule.
Oh, wow!That's amazing.
(12:55):
Yeah.Because it's a little bit of a different
approach because I know in the old days itwas either had to wait for it to come
through or you had to go to a dealeror you had to go to something.
This can become just right out of thereand people can just contact you
with support and thingslike that on the internet.
Correct.
The website has cut down on a littlebit of the phone traffic that we see.
Especially a lot of existingcustomers are used to using it.
(13:18):
They know what they're after.
So if they don't have to ask a question,they'll just jump on the website and go
through that product and order whatthey're after and submit the order.
We see an email notification and tells us
there's an order in there and weget it entered right away.
Wow!That's amazing.
Tell us a little bit for peoplethat don't know who Original Saw is.
(13:39):
I know you, of course,
and the thing always amazes me is that youare the only, I don't know if people or
listeners know this, but you were the onlyUS manufacturer of radio-armed saws.
Yeah.
Tell us a little bit aboutthe original saw story.
You bet.
The boss's dad bought the patentfrom Lancaster Machinery in 1989 and
(14:03):
moved the company from therehere to Brit, Iowa.
They started producing saws in 1990
under the original saw company, but it'sthe old DeWall patent that we own.
We are, like you said, the last USmanufacturer of radio-armed saws.
That's good.That's one of the things we always try
to stress on these podcasts is Americanmade and that support the local vendor
(14:29):
and support the people becausewe're all in it together.
So let's try to keep everything there.
But it's not just that,it's also the quality.
I've seen the reviewson the products that you have.
I
know I'm biased because we're workingtogether on this podcast,
but just the amount of responses that I'veseen and the reaction people are very
(14:51):
positive of what I've seenon something like that.
What I'd say, I've worked in some othercareer fields here.
I used to work at a manufacturer for RVs,and it's not an assembly line here.
We start with a frame and one guybuilds that saw from start to end.
People sub-assemble the motor and get
(15:12):
the arm ready and we'll clean up someof the base casting and stuff like that.
But one person puts his handon everything for that whole saw.
When he's done building,
goes to another area and thenanother person QCs that work.
It's really attention to detail
from the very beginningto the time it leaves the door.
Everything's… A human being touchesthis saw all day, every day.
(15:33):
You really should be calling it a bespokesaw because that's amazing because we live
in a world where everything's justmass-produced and it's only got…
It's interesting to hear that… I mean,there's that much attention.
It's literally like one little projectat a time, basically built
to the specifications of whatthe people have ordered them.
Some of the models,
it's okay to stock because there'snot a whole lot of options for them.
(15:57):
But especially the beam saws and the metal
cutting and radial arm saws,they're custom built to order.
There's so many differentoptions you put on.
It'd be hard to get one built aheadof time and have it stock to sell somebody
because it might not necessarily builtfor what he's doing for his application.
There's a lot of things that you can
customize to make them workspecifically for what you're doing.
(16:19):
It sounds like there's a lot of options
and ways you can customizethis to your own needs.
Maybe you could talk a little bit aboutwhat are some of the options available.
Yeah.
Most of the saws are builtwith open extrusion table top.
We can add insert kit.
If you're cutting small things that willfall through the table and you don't want
them to, we can add an insert kitto make that a solid table top.
(16:40):
We add dust collection underneath the saw,where you could hook up multiple ports
for dust collection comingdown like a downdraft.
If you're cutting
non-ferrous metals, you'd add miscoolant to it, a laser line indicator.
We've done some things with people
for security where they only wantcertain people to run the saw.
(17:01):
We can add a keypad accessor a key-locked e-stop.
We build our own electrics here also, soyou can tie it in with a Timer.
You know how many hoursare on the machine.
If you wanted to schedulemaintenance by hours of use.
Just a lot of things that option-wise,
it could be custom from onecustomer to the next.
(17:22):
Those are the things that would really
help a business to be able to track and beable to control, have more control.
Really, it's not just the saw itself.
All the things that you bring to it really
would help a small business because theydon't have all the programs to run
everything, so you can actually customizeit to fit what your particular needs are.
Yeah.
Training somebody to use it isa big thing in a lot of companies.
(17:45):
You don't want people cutting somethingon it that it's not intended to cut.
That's why a lot of times that keypador keylock goes in there.
They don't want somebody coming over.
Maybe they got a specific tool that's onlydesigned for cutting plastic
and they don't want somebody coming overthere trying to cut a piece of aluminum or
a piece of steel that's goingto destroy a $500, $600 blade.
Oh, that never happens.Yeah.
(18:06):
In a small business, when the boss isout of the office, that never happens.
That's important, and these are importantthings to bring out because I'm sure a lot
of people are sitting here going like,Why would we need a beam saw?
And this is showing that all of thesethings are part of selecting the beam saw.
(18:27):
Correct.
I think everything we've gone through,I can't thank you enough because I think
you've enlightened us a lot,not just what a beam saw is,
but really walked us throughall the different areas of it.
I'm going to give you the last minute,two minutes to… The floor is yours.
You bet.
So if you do have questions,you need to get a hold of us.
You can call us Monday through Friday.
(18:48):
We get here at 8:00 AM Central.
Monday through Thursday,we're here till 4:30.
Friday, we take off at 2:30.
You can call 6-4-1-8-4-3-3-8-6-8,or you can shoot us an email.
It's customerservice@originalsaw.Com.
We'd be happy to help you.
And we'll put the website and the phonenumber also in the show notes
(19:11):
of the podcast so peoplecan be able to go to that.
Okay.Dave, thank you very much.
This has been great.Good to talk with you again.
You too, Neil.Great talking to you.
Thank you for listening to our podcast.
Our mission is to bring information
and insights to smallbusinesses to help you succeed.
We don't monetize our podcastwith advertising and ask that if you like
(19:31):
the podcast to please subscribeto our channel and tell a friend.
If you have a question or an idea
for a topic, please contact usat the email link in the show notes.
Beam saws offer one of the most efficientand accurate ways to cut large quantities
of materials from wood to plasticpipe to fiberglass panels.
If you run a small business that doesa lot of cutting or just want to know how
to optimize your cuttingprocess, stay tuned.
We have Dave Brown,a customer service expert
from the original saw company,who will shed light on the benefits
(00:21):
of beam saws and how they can improveproductivity in businesses big and small.
On this episode of small business talks.
Today we have Dave Brownfrom the Original Saw Company.
Dave is one of the customer servicerepresentatives at Original Saw.
Dave, welcome again to the program.Thanks, Dave, we're on mute.
(00:44):
Good to see you again.
You too.
Today we're going to talk about beam saws.
One of the things that I think people...
I'm going to start out very simply ask
you,what exactly is a beam saw and how is it
different than, say, a radial arm saw orother saws that a professional would use?
(01:04):
A beam saw is just a much larger platform.
It's a four-foot wide and nine-foot long
frame with the double columnpost and overhead beam.
So more rigid, not as much balance or flex
in the arm, and you geta much longer cross cut.
You can get up to 62 inches of cross cut.
Oh, that's a good size.
Yeah.What applications?
(01:25):
We talk to small businesses a lot.
Now,one thing we always have to define is
people say, Well,we're not a small business.
The definition of a small business is500 employees or less, technically.
But we have a lot of companies that theremay be 100 people, there may be 25 people.
What applications wouldbe usable for a beam saw?
(01:48):
And what businesses couldbenefit from using a beam saw?
Like your sign companies ormanufactured homes?
Anything breaking down sheet goods is
where it really shines through,where you can break down that four
by eight sheet into piecesand have that full cross cut.
(02:08):
Dave, what are some of the benefits
that a small business wouldget by buying a beam saw?
In their production facility,in their production area?
You could increase productivityand efficiency of your workforce.
Instead of having somebody holdingmaterial and then operating a small,
handheld saw,you have a piece of equipment where you
(02:29):
put your sheet goods or yourpanels or extrusions,
depending on what blade you got, and youcan cut multiple pieces at one time.
You bring up a good point, and that isthe different types of blades.
Maybe you might want to touch basethat because people,
I think when they hear the word beam saw,they're thinking maybe just wood.
I know it can do so much more.
(02:51):
If you can give me a laborate a little
bit, what exactly can it cut and whatis it most efficient in cutting?
You bet.It all depends on the tooling, the blade.
Say, whether you're cutting wood or
plastic or cardboard, you probably usejust a normal carbide tooth blade.
Then there's different grind and different
tooth materials that they use for thosecarbides where you cut aluminum,
(03:14):
you could cut stainless steel,you could cut regular steel,
fiberglass, filtrusion material, foam,insulated foam panels with metal skins.
It really does depend on the tooling.
The motor and the frame of the sawis going to hold up to anything.
So it all depends on the toolingthat you put on the blade on the motor.
(03:36):
Let's talk about the motor and let's talk
about things because one thing I know whenwe've talked in the past,
I think it's really important that youdon't just buy other people's stuff.
You actually make a lot of the components.
If you want to go into detail as to what
you actually make at your facility or evendown the road versus just buying things
and assembling it, you havea different approach on that.
(03:56):
Yeah.
The motors are laminations that we stackto the different heights for the different
motors, whether it's a single phase orthree-phase or contractor motor up
to the SuperDuty motorthat we put on the beam saw.
We stack those laminationsand fast them together with tie rods
and they get welded andgo out for machining process to get
the ends all straightened up, trued up,and our mounting holes drilled into them.
(04:20):
Then we bring them back in here and wehandwind the motors and
all the assembly baked in hereand insulation dip to 450 degrees.
Then we hand-assemble them and
press the rotors on the shafts andtest them on the bench.
I think they all run for 35 minutes
in a test and we check amp draw andhorsepower rating and the voltage draw.
(04:45):
Everything that we can doin-house, we do in-house.
When you say made in America,you're not joking.
I mean, it literally-Yeah, from start to finish.
The majority of it's made right herenot only in America, but right in Iowa.
It's on the same.With all the big metal pieces.
We don't do that in-house ourselves here.
There's metal fabrication companies
that we use here in North Iowa that lasercut and bend and powdercoat our frames,
(05:09):
and then we bring them in herefor assembly in our facility.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I think one of the things we'd liketo talk about is if we talk about motors
and we talk about the windings and thingslike that, what
are the factors that people shouldconsider in getting a beam saw?
What should they be looking at?
Well, number one is goingto be what you have for power.
(05:33):
We do it in a single-phase version, but weneed to know their voltage specific.
You have three-phase power.
We need to know if it's 208,230, or 460 volt.
The next thing we need to know is the type
of material that you're cutting, that waywe know what tooling to put on the order.
Then the last thing would be your heightand width of the material
(05:55):
for how big of a blade and bladeguard you need on the machine.
What are the differences and why woulda person choose one over the other?
You bet.We'd have a manual machine.
The base machine comeswith a hand crank on it.
At about chin height at the top
of that post,there's a hand crank assembly,
and you're going to crank the handleto traverse the carriage front and back.
(06:20):
That one can get a littlestressful for operators.
You're making a 60-inch cut.
Every turn moves that carriage aboutthree inches, three and a half inches.
You're going to have to turn thathand crank about 20 times to come all
the way across, and then you're also goingto turn it 20 times in reverse to take it
back home to unload yourmaterial and put in a new piece.
Where the power crossfeed, it's spendy,
(06:42):
but it takes all that manual labor awayfrom your operator and it's going to speed
up production, you're going to get a muchnicer, truer cut because you don't have
the jerky motion of somebody changingspeed in the middle of the cut.
You set that feed rate,you push a button and it comes forward
and cuts andsure, and returnshome at a precise speed.
(07:02):
Let's see.
Ease of usability, more accurate cut.
Yeah, that might be wortha little bit of the investment.
I think that's what most people look
for is if there's a value add to it,is that something to take a look at?
It's going to prolong the lifeof your tooling, your blades.
I mean, if you're not forcing it
in the material, you're not going to dullup those carbides as fast or gum it up
(07:24):
and plug it up and ruina blade or your material.
Let's talk aboutmaintaining your beam saw.
What are the do's and don'ts and how often
should you be doing certainmaintenance on a beam saw?
Yeah.It'll depend on which beam saw you get.
The largest one we do, the 22.5 inch,that's built with a variable frequency
(07:47):
drive for the electronics, and it getsrid of the mechanical brake parts.
It's all done with electronic DC injected
electric to stop that motor,stop the blade.
On the 16-inch and the 20-inch,
we use mechanical brake,which is like brake disks in a car where
it's a friction disk that'sglued onto the back of the fan.
And when you power the saw on, itelectromagnetic pulls a steel pad away
(08:13):
from that brake diskand allows it to freewheel.
When you energize the saw four springs
push that brake right back upagainst it to stop the blade.
That's a maintenancething to take care of.
You're going to time yourbreak time every so often.
Make sure you don't need to eitheradjust the break or replace break parts.
(08:33):
We have that part of the cleaning.
What about is there areas youoil or do you oil the unit?
No, you want it dry, clean and dry.
We either use break cleaner or denatured
alcohol, something to clean the railswhere the dust and metal chips,
depending on what you're cutting,would stick to the rail.
You're just going to wipe that down
with a clean rag after everyshift and try to keep it clean.
(08:56):
No oil.
Oil will actually attractthe dust and make it wear faster.
That's good to know.
I know you have a largerange of beam saws.
Maybe if you could walk throughfrom the smallest to the largest and just
explain the differences and maybe whya person would choose one over the other.
(09:16):
You bet.Okay, so I guess the very beginning is if
a person does not have three-phase power,we do build it in a single-phase version.
That's a five-horsepower single-phase.
The other way we can dothat for single-phase customers to put
a larger VFD, something that's two and ahalf times the horsepower for startup.
Then we could build it in a three-phaseversion, but you're only going to input
(09:39):
your single-phase powerto make it run on three.
That VFD is going to createthat third leg of power.
After that, it goes by blade size.
There's a 16-inch version,
20-inch version,and a 22-and-a-half-inch version.
The 16s and the 20-inch,they're going to come with the standard
magnetic starterunless you wanted to upgrade to a VFD
(10:02):
where you get soft startand electronic breaking.
The 22.5 inch always has a VFD.
It would trip out if wedo with the main starter.
The end rush current is hardon the electrics with that big blade.
Speaking of blades and we talked just
touch base on a little bit aboutthe differences using it for the different
materials,what are some of the different types
(10:24):
of blades and what applicationswould the blades be different?
And maybe elaborate about the range
that you have for the differenttypes of materials.
Yeah.
If you can think about cutting it,we can do it on a saw.
It does come down to the blade.
We use three or four differentcustom blade manufacturers for us.
(10:44):
So weWe stock wood cutting blades.
We stock cross cutting and rippingblades with a higher tooth count.
We stock non-ferrous cutting bladesfor cutting aluminum and brass.
Then we have a new one that we stock
that's for cutting ferroussteel and stainless steel.
(11:06):
But we've also got custom quoteson diamond chip blades for cutting
stone, fiberglass, petrusians,for walkways and catwalks.
It's endless.
If you can think of it,
there's a blade manufacturer outthere that will make it for us.
You do help people selectingthe right blade, I would imagine.
(11:30):
Yeah, we got a video on the website.
We talk about how to choose your blade,going into those same things.
Just talk about what you're cutting, whatyour feed rate is, how many feet of it.
And then if there's a question outside
of that, you just call into our customerservice and myself or Jamie will help you
walk you through it,what blades we think you need.
Now you have an interesting approachof how you actually sell your units.
(11:51):
You actually sell them online.
Correct.
So walk me through that processabout how does it get to me?
Do I configure it online?
Do I then buy it and then send ship to me?
Just walk me through the process.You bet.
If you go online, you can searchwhether you're cutting wood or metal.
You can search by the size of blade andit'll put you in that category of saws.
(12:14):
Then there's what we callit the cut process sheet.
It's going to ask you all the questions:
what you have for power,what material you're cutting,
what size is this material,what options are you interested in?
In and out feed tables,we make a line of accessories to help you
support the material cominginto the saw and going out of the saw.
(12:35):
They can really walkthrough the whole process?
Yes.Then this gets delivered to you?
Yeah.It'll all come in through our website
portal to our email and wesee a quote request.
Or if a person knows exactly what they're
getting, it just places the order rightthrough the website and then we enter it
into our sales system here and getit on the production schedule.
Oh, wow!That's amazing.
(12:55):
Yeah.Because it's a little bit of a different
approach because I know in the old days itwas either had to wait for it to come
through or you had to go to a dealeror you had to go to something.
This can become just right out of thereand people can just contact you
with support and thingslike that on the internet.
Correct.
The website has cut down on a littlebit of the phone traffic that we see.
Especially a lot of existingcustomers are used to using it.
(13:18):
They know what they're after.
So if they don't have to ask a question,they'll just jump on the website and go
through that product and order whatthey're after and submit the order.
We see an email notification and tells us
there's an order in there and weget it entered right away.
Wow!That's amazing.
Tell us a little bit for peoplethat don't know who Original Saw is.
(13:39):
I know you, of course,
and the thing always amazes me is that youare the only, I don't know if people or
listeners know this, but you were the onlyUS manufacturer of radio-armed saws.
Yeah.
Tell us a little bit aboutthe original saw story.
You bet.
The boss's dad bought the patentfrom Lancaster Machinery in 1989 and
(14:03):
moved the company from therehere to Brit, Iowa.
They started producing saws in 1990
under the original saw company, but it'sthe old DeWall patent that we own.
We are, like you said, the last USmanufacturer of radio-armed saws.
That's good.That's one of the things we always try
to stress on these podcasts is Americanmade and that support the local vendor
(14:29):
and support the people becausewe're all in it together.
So let's try to keep everything there.
But it's not just that,it's also the quality.
I've seen the reviewson the products that you have.
I
know I'm biased because we're workingtogether on this podcast,
but just the amount of responses that I'veseen and the reaction people are very
(14:51):
positive of what I've seenon something like that.
What I'd say, I've worked in some othercareer fields here.
I used to work at a manufacturer for RVs,and it's not an assembly line here.
We start with a frame and one guybuilds that saw from start to end.
People sub-assemble the motor and get
(15:12):
the arm ready and we'll clean up someof the base casting and stuff like that.
But one person puts his handon everything for that whole saw.
When he's done building,
goes to another area and thenanother person QCs that work.
It's really attention to detail
from the very beginningto the time it leaves the door.
Everything's… A human being touchesthis saw all day, every day.
(15:33):
You really should be calling it a bespokesaw because that's amazing because we live
in a world where everything's justmass-produced and it's only got…
It's interesting to hear that… I mean,there's that much attention.
It's literally like one little projectat a time, basically built
to the specifications of whatthe people have ordered them.
Some of the models,
it's okay to stock because there'snot a whole lot of options for them.
(15:57):
But especially the beam saws and the metal
cutting and radial arm saws,they're custom built to order.
There's so many differentoptions you put on.
It'd be hard to get one built aheadof time and have it stock to sell somebody
because it might not necessarily builtfor what he's doing for his application.
There's a lot of things that you can
customize to make them workspecifically for what you're doing.
(16:19):
It sounds like there's a lot of options
and ways you can customizethis to your own needs.
Maybe you could talk a little bit aboutwhat are some of the options available.
Yeah.
Most of the saws are builtwith open extrusion table top.
We can add insert kit.
If you're cutting small things that willfall through the table and you don't want
them to, we can add an insert kitto make that a solid table top.
(16:40):
We add dust collection underneath the saw,where you could hook up multiple ports
for dust collection comingdown like a downdraft.
If you're cutting
non-ferrous metals, you'd add miscoolant to it, a laser line indicator.
We've done some things with people
for security where they only wantcertain people to run the saw.
(17:01):
We can add a keypad accessor a key-locked e-stop.
We build our own electrics here also, soyou can tie it in with a Timer.
You know how many hoursare on the machine.
If you wanted to schedulemaintenance by hours of use.
Just a lot of things that option-wise,
it could be custom from onecustomer to the next.
(17:22):
Those are the things that would really
help a business to be able to track and beable to control, have more control.
Really, it's not just the saw itself.
All the things that you bring to it really
would help a small business because theydon't have all the programs to run
everything, so you can actually customizeit to fit what your particular needs are.
Yeah.
Training somebody to use it isa big thing in a lot of companies.
(17:45):
You don't want people cutting somethingon it that it's not intended to cut.
That's why a lot of times that keypador keylock goes in there.
They don't want somebody coming over.
Maybe they got a specific tool that's onlydesigned for cutting plastic
and they don't want somebody coming overthere trying to cut a piece of aluminum or
a piece of steel that's goingto destroy a $500, $600 blade.
Oh, that never happens.Yeah.
(18:06):
In a small business, when the boss isout of the office, that never happens.
That's important, and these are importantthings to bring out because I'm sure a lot
of people are sitting here going like,Why would we need a beam saw?
And this is showing that all of thesethings are part of selecting the beam saw.
(18:27):
Correct.
I think everything we've gone through,I can't thank you enough because I think
you've enlightened us a lot,not just what a beam saw is,
but really walked us throughall the different areas of it.
I'm going to give you the last minute,two minutes to… The floor is yours.
You bet.
So if you do have questions,you need to get a hold of us.
You can call us Monday through Friday.
(18:48):
We get here at 8:00 AM Central.
Monday through Thursday,we're here till 4:30.
Friday, we take off at 2:30.
You can call 6-4-1-8-4-3-3-8-6-8,or you can shoot us an email.
It's customerservice@originalsaw.Com.
We'd be happy to help you.
And we'll put the website and the phonenumber also in the show notes
(19:11):
of the podcast so peoplecan be able to go to that.
Okay.Dave, thank you very much.
This has been great.Good to talk with you again.
You too, Neil.Great talking to you.
Thank you for listening to our podcast.
Our mission is to bring information
and insights to smallbusinesses to help you succeed.
We don't monetize our podcastwith advertising and ask that if you like
(19:31):
the podcast to please subscribeto our channel and tell a friend.
If you have a question or an idea
for a topic, please contact usat the email link in the show notes.
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