Before buying a machine, every serious buyer asks the same thing: what will wear out, and what will it cost me? Here is the answer in numbers, part by part. Maintenance (greasing, cleaning, checks) and consumables (the wire, the coolant) have notes of their own. This one covers only the parts that get replaced.
Standard Parts, by Design
The Gem Slicer is built so that its owner does not depend on us for anything that wears. The bearings are standard 6001 RS and are sold in every bearing shop in the world. The belt is a standard V-belt. If you prefer, we dispatch the part the same day: next day inside the EU, three days to Madagascar or the USA. But if you are in Chile with a bearing shop two streets away, the specification below is all you need.
Everything here applies equally to the Gem Slicer Standard and the Gem Slicer Mini: the parts are the same.
What Gets Replaced
| Part | Quantity | When | Price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bearing 6001 RS (12 × 28 × 8 mm, sealed) | 15, three per bearing housing | full set at about 3,000 operating hours | €4–6 each | anywhere |
| Guide roller, polyamide | 5 | by wear; three months is a guide | about €1 each | from us (we make them) |
| V-belt 10 × 375 (Optibelt or equivalent) | 1 | five years, or when visibly worn | under €10 | anywhere |
| Coolant pump | 1 | about two years in normal use | €60 | from us |
Why All Fifteen Bearings Go at Once
All fifteen bearings are 6001 RS, sealed, three to a bearing housing. No roller runs dry: the wire picks up water and slurry and carries them up to the very top rollers, so every bearing in the machine works in an aggressive environment. It is hardest on the bottom two rollers, which hold six of the bearings. They wear first, at around 3,000 operating hours. Once the machine is open for them, we replace the other nine as well. A full set costs €60–90, and opening the machine a second time for a bearing that will develop play a month later is not worth it.
The hours are not guesswork: the software counts operating hours from Z-axis running time and shows them on screen. A real case: a machine cutting around the clock showed clear play in the bottom two rollers at 5,100 hours, about seven months in. That is why the recommendation is in hours, not years.
What Does Not Get Replaced
The linear guides, the X-axis ball screw, the X and Z axis bearings, the spring of the tensioning arm, the sensors and the collet: none of them has had to be replaced so far. The reason is simple. There are no high speeds there and little load, and the assemblies are protected from dust and water. They are greased every six months (the details belong in the maintenance note) and they last a long time.
Printed Parts
Covers, caps and small levers are printed in PETG. If one breaks, we send the file and the print settings: material and parameters. With a 3D printer or a print service nearby, the part is ready within the hour. The guards on the guide rollers are printed in a harder TPU and we send those ourselves, because they matter for the wire path. They last for years.
What a Year Costs
A year depends on how much the machine runs, so here are two profiles:
| Per year | Workshop or lab, about 2,000 h | Round-the-clock production, about 7,000 h |
|---|---|---|
| Bearings | €40–60 | €140–210 |
| Guide rollers | about €20 | about €20 or more, by wear |
| Pump | about €30 | about €105* |
| Belt | about €2 | about €2 |
| Total | about €90–115 | about €270–340 |
* An estimate: if the pump’s life follows operating hours, a machine cutting around the clock replaces it about every seven months.
In normal use, a year of parts costs what our product pages state. Around the clock it costs about three times as much, and it is right to say so. But in perspective: in our worked concept for a meteorite cutting farm, one machine saves over €200 of material a day compared with a blade. A year of parts for a round-the-clock machine costs less than two days of saved meteorite.
What Comes in the Box
Every machine ships with 30 guide rollers: 5 fitted and 25 spare, which covers more than a year of changes at the three-month guide. It also ships with a 13 mm box spanner for changing the bearings and a wrench for the roller caps. The first round of parts needs no order.
In Development
For future models we are developing a peristaltic (hose) pump with a life of about 5,000 hours. It is not affected by dirty coolant, and it will be controlled digitally by the saw’s software. The Gem Slicer Evolution will carry two of them. No release date.