I need to remove a couple of inches of old concrete in an area about 3 x 4 feet. No jack hammer readily available. I tried using my Skil saw and a fairly cheap diamond blade, that I’d used on Hardi board, to cut channels and then chip it out. Works reasonably well. My question is whether to cut wet or dry (blade says either). Wet seems to cut down the dust but may not be such a good idea around electric saw?
Appreciate any advice.
Thanks.
Thon
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Most electric circ saws are double-insulated and are fine for work in wet locations. Make sure you use a GFCI outlet and you're good to go. We have permanently mounted water feed tubes to several saws of different brands for wet-cutting fibreglass grating.
The health risk (and if you're married, the risk of spousal abuse if this concrete is in your house) related to all that dust is at least as much of a worry as the risk of shock from cutting wet...
Cutting wet will make a nice gooey concrete slurry out of the dust. The slurry gets into all the cracks and crevices of your saw. Then you get to chip it off a few days later. Hope its an old saw you don't much like any more.
Wally
I simply hose off my saw after cutting concrete wet, gets is out of crevices and windings even.
Thanks for the tips. I'll use water.
Or you could get one of these and use a vacume.
http://www.dustmuzzle.com
Even though the blade can be used dry, water will make it run cooler and will prolong the life. Also cuts down on the dust. I have an old saw thaqt I dedicated to diamond cutting. The arbor has a slight wobble now and the bearings make noise, but I don't worry about it and i havce a good saw that stays clean for wood cutting. You might consider buying the cheapest saw you can find and after the concrete demo, it becomes the saw you lend to your neighbor.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
I just went through this, remember I was asking about a quicky saw. the best think I found was a small demo hammer I rented from HD. also a chisel in the air hammer. For cutting the grinder with a smaller diamond blade work good too. The demo hammer was the fastest
My saw is about 20 years old and was, I think, a K-Mart special. <g>
The bearings have been groaning for a while, depth adjustment is a real pain, etc.
With the recent saw review in FHB, I was kind of hoping this concrete work might put my present saw out of my misery, and give me the excuse I need for a 'real' one. He, he, he.