DIL wants tile. Never done tile, tile saw is a tool not in the shop. One time job, not an excuse to buy a tile saw.
Thinking of trying 7-1/4″ diamond blade on one of the old RAS, or even a spare table saw or chop saw. Even use water if needed.
Anyone used a diamond blade for tile on ‘disposable’ woodworking tools??
Replies
I've done quite a bit with a dry blade in an angle grinder. Works fine.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
The secret to a long life is knowing when its time to go. M. Shocked
I've done quite a bit of cutting with a 7" diamond blade on a worm drive saw, and an edge guide for cutting tile. Made the edge guide so the saw rides on the guide, not the tile.
zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
Used an older PC circ saw with a diamond blade and a trickle of water from a hose to cut a 2" slab of stone for an outdoor kitchen counter. Went back and chamfered the edges with a dry blade in a side grinder.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
The hardness of a tile varies by the type of tile, and quite a bit. Porcelain is very hard, for example.
Rent a tile saw, unless you have very few cuts to make.
Even for one time use, do your self a favor. HD sells a table saw style tile saw. comes with a blade, and is splash lubricated. The table evens tilts for angled cuts. Has a decent fence, but it's a bit noisy seeing it's just a metal box w/a motor. It costs only about ninety dollars. Well worth it. I've done four bathrooms and a patio w/mine. It's still kickin'.
Good luck
I installed tile for years with just a scoring board and an angle grinder w/ a diamond blade. You can accomplish amazing things with the grinder, but flying dust and tile chips while dry cutting can be certianly be dangerous. Bought the HD $88 tile saw to try and broke the fence within the first hour and it took forever to cut the tile. I now own the Dewalt tile saw and am in love. Depending on the tile hardness, you can rent a scoring board for $10-15 a day. Which will make life easier, especially if it is a smaller job. And is cheaper than a $40 blade. If it is harder tile or stone or a larger job, save yourself the headache and just rent a tile saw. It shouldn't cost you much more than buying the diamond blade and will be a whole lot easier. Remember, if you want to invest in the HD special, you can always return it if you're not satisfied.Ottcarpentry
keep in mind that hd and lowes will make cuts for .25 a piece. i f you get all your center laid and then mark 20 tile and go to lowes it's 5 bucks.plus you can walk around lookin for bargins while they cut! larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Your old table saw have a 2" outlet for your shop vac?
Stick the diamond blade in it, flick on the shop vac and dust away.
I think the biggest issue is finding the right type of diamond blade for the tile you will be cutting. A lot of ceramic tile is very abrasive and not very hard so you want a blade with a hard bonding matrix holding the diamonds.
If you are cutting stone tiles then you need a soft bonding matrix as most stones are are not very abrasive but very hard.
If you are cutting limestone tiles you want an electroplated blade.
Also some blades respond poorly to dry cutting but others are designed to tolerate it. I say rig up some kind of water feed to keep the dust down and prolong blade life.
You can sharpen a diamond blade that has been dulled by cutting hard tile/stone by making cuts on an old cinder block or piece of concrete. The abrasive nature of the concrete will wear away the bonding matrix and expose fresh diamonds. This doesn't apply to electroplated blades.
I have used my hitachi 8" compound miter saw on jobs with bullnosed backsplash that prevented my doing butted corner joints. I put a diamond blade in the hitachi, tilted it over to 45 degrees and made all my mitered corner joints effortlessly. The dust was a chore to get out of the nooks and crannies of the saw but it did the job so well and that saw is so old that I would do it over again even if I thought it would kill the saw in the process.
We have had great success using the Makita 4 1/2 inch circular saw (it turns pretty fast, about 15,000 or so) with a continuous cheap diamond blade and a "shooting board" made out of a scrap of cement board.
We have a cheap wet saw that came with a little water pump. We drilled a pressure fit hole in the back of the guard housing and squirt water in there. It cuts very smooth and does large tile easily.
Thanks for the photo, I've got one of those Makitas and a 4" diamond blade.. Will try your suggestion and compare with a 7" blade in a RAS.