Gemini Taurus 3 Ring Saw

This year, for Christmas I purchased my dad a truly thoughtful present - a Gemini Taurus 3 Ring Saw. My girlfriend and I tiled two bathrooms for my parents, and now we are tiling their garage. This saw will be very helpful in allowing us him to finish this tile project.

The Taurus 3 is a wet ring saw. Most tile saws are the equivalent of a table saw for tiles. With a table saw, or a standard tile saw, it is not possible to cut curved surfaces. Additionally, the curvature of the blade needs to be accounted for while cutting, since the top of the tile will be cut before the bottom. The Taurus 3 is more similar to a jig saw, which allows for curved cuts.

The saw and all parts came in a nicely labeled box.

 The instruction manual was pretty good. I especially liked the part where they described how it was possible to cut in all directions and how regular users of ban or jig saws tend to back their tile piece up - which is not necessary with the omni-directional cutting blade. The manual seemed to be missing very much information on regular care and maintenance. 

 This video looks super funny. I haven't watched it yet.

 "Are instruction manuals really only for communists?" This may be the best instructional video I have ever watched...

 Unlike a traditional tile saw, there is no pump. The spinning ring blade picks up water directly. This piece can be covered with a bottom cover when using the saw in hand-held mode.

Side saw view - no water or protective top on (yet.)  

 Filling up the reservoir...

 ... and lubricating the gearing.

 Preparing for a cut.

 This is why you shouldn't use a wet saw inside.

 

After cutting a few practice cuts with the new ring saw, I realized that it was not a good idea to cut long, straight, cuts with it, since it was difficult to cut straight. So I setup my other wet saw for those types of cuts.

The non-ring wet saw makes clean cuts a bit difficult, without flipping the tile over and cutting it again, sort of blind.

But it's possible to grind down / clean up those edges using the Taurus 3.

Double Trouble

I have just, just started using this saw and I am not using it to anywhere near its capacity. I'm basically using it as an extension to the standard tile saw, which I am familiar with using. It will be very fun to try and start incorporating circular patterns into decorative tile projects using it, or finding other uses. So far, I am pretty happy with it. The only improvement I would suggest is that the water reservoir also have a holding container for the bottom of the saw. The bottom part of the saw is supposed to be removed when used in the tray (so the saw can effectively pick up water) but it can be placed on the saw when using it as a hand-held unit. I am positive that my dad, or I, will end up losing the bottom cover, since there is no snap-tight place for it.