A ring saw is a form of

bandsaw A bandsaw (also written band saw) is a power saw with a long, sharp blade consisting of a continuous band of toothed metal stretched between two or more wheels to cut material. They are used principally in woodworking, metalworking, and lum ...

where the band is rigid, rather than flexible. This requires the band to be circular, rather than the bandsaw's usual

oblong An oblong is an object longer than it is wide, especially a non-square rectangle. Oblong may also refer to: Places * Oblong, Illinois, a village in the United States * Oblong Township, Crawford County, Illinois, United States * A strip of land ...

of straight runs between two (or three) guide wheels. Ringsaw blades are

abrasive An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...

rather than toothed. The brittleness of this abrasive coating, and the need to avoid flexure, is why they are made as rings rather than oval bands. As the ring is a circle of constant radius, the blade is not flexed or bent in operation. The blades themselves are not usually rigid and may be bent slightly in fitting, but are not designed to be flexed as they rotate. Abrasive sawblades, as used in ringsaws, are mostly used in the working of art glass. They use a steel band or ring, coated with a diamond abrasive, attached by

nickel electroplating Nickel electroplating is a technique of electroplating a thin layer of nickel onto a metal object. The nickel layer can be decorative, provide corrosion resistance, wear resistance, or used to build up worn or undersized parts for salvage purposes ...

. Abrasive saws are used for a range of hard, brittle materials, such as in

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

Ceramic tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ot ...

s may also be sawn. The main form of ring saw uses a ring or wire that is like a flat disk. The non-cutting side of the blade is ''behind'' the cutting edge, so limits the ''depth'' of the cuts that may be made.This differs from the bandsaw, where the other part of the band is alongside the cutting edge, thus limits the ''width'' of cuts that may be made. Wire-saws are coated with an abrasive on all sides and so may cut in any direction. With the ring behind the cutting edge, cuts in the main direction will treat the blade (in mechanical terms) as an

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

, which is stiffer than a sideways force on a cylindrical blade. This geometry also gives a vertical cut in thick materials, although the cut must be kept straight and unlike a bandsaw, curves cannot be sawn if the material is thick. They may be used for mineralogy and slabbing. Many makers of ringsaws offer a similar blade as a bandsaw too. The ringsaw blade in comparison may be made rigid, thus stronger and less flexible under cutting loads, giving a more accurate cut. Some make a particular feature of the ring saw's ability to cut forwards, backwards and sideways. As the bandsaw blade must be flexible enough to pass around the wheels, its blades are limited to cutting on the forward edge. The oblong bandsaw has a blade that is supported on two large wheels.The three-wheel bandsaw instead uses three small wheels. These offer limited contact and so suffer from many of the same problems as a ring saw. The interval between the two wheels is supported by blade guides immediately behind the cutting zone. Ring saws do not have the same straight run of blade, nor the opportunity to support much of the blade as with the wheels of a bandsaw. A ring saw is thus a somewhat fragile machine and excess pressure on a thin blade is likely to damage it. Abrasive saws are often water-cooled and most ring saws are designed to enable this, with water pumps or drip feeds, and catch trays.

Concrete ring saws

Concrete and masonry-cutting 'ring' saws are a form of

disk cutter Disc or disk may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a two dimensional shape, the interior of a circle * Disk storage * Optical disc * Floppy disk Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other ...

and are unrelated to bandsaws. They do however also use a diamond abrasive.

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em Glass art Saws Cutting machines