paving slab cutting

[Stephen]

Hello,

In the past I've always used an angle grinder to cut paving slabs. Is that what everyone here does? I've got a tile saw that cuts with a wet diamond blade and I have been told you can get a bigger version that will cut slabs. I suppose this will have two advantages: it will cut wet, so will produce less dust and it will have a fence to ensure a straighter cut than a freehand cut with an angle grinder. Has anyone used one of these? What did you think? What is the minimum spec I should look for when hiring/buying? I presume motor power is important to cut thick slabs.

Thanks, Stephen.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I used a 35 quid tile saw to cut 1" sandstone. It took longer than driving to the hire shop, picking up an angle grinder w diamond blade, cutting the slab and taking the grinder back :-)

No doubt a real industrial wet table saw with plenty of power and water is THE way to do it, but the angle grinder works for me.

[newshound]

Unless you have a very convenient local hire shop, I'd invest in a budget 9 inch / 230 mm grinder and diamond blade. Maybe something like this?

the cheap blades (Aldi, Lidl, Screwfix) last pretty well. You will get a lot of dust cutting dry (but I wouldn't try to cut "wet" with one). I wouldn't try to cut a slab on a tile saw. The big grinders are a bit more fierce than the 115 mm ones, especially if they don't have soft start. But they are *very* effective.

[newshound]

There's a Silverline "soft start" on Amazon for less than £60 delivered, including a disk.

[The Medway Handyman]

You can hire hydraulic slab cutters cheaply

[Tim Lamb]

er.. Why not?

I have a 300mm stone saw which I use for cutting concrete. Apart from being disappointed with blade life when wet cutting I don't see any obvious reason why it would not do a 2" slab.

regards

>

[newshound]

Woo hoo, cuts 225 mm thick!

OTOH not so useful if you want to take out a rectangular piece of a normal paving slab to fit around a drain or a post.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Phil L writes

I misunderstood your reply.

regards

[Stephen]

I hadn't thought about kick back. I can see how dangerous that could be. And you are right, a 600x600mm slab is very heavy so would be difficult to lift and slide. So it makes sense to keep the heavy slab stationery and move the lighter angle grinder. Thanks.

[dennis]

The fact that it heavy makes kick back less likely. There isn't enough energy there to throw a 60 lb slab at any real speed. Its like putting a car on a rolling road and running it up to 70 mph and stopping the road suddenly, the car just jerks and stalls as there isn't enough energy stored to actually make it do much.

there is an episode of challenge Tommy where he hired a diamond bladed table saw. He used it to cut bricks, roofing tiles and slabs with ease. They were not 2x3 pressed slabs so weren't particularly heavy, but I don't suppose he thinks they are heavy as he moves heavy stuff around a lot. BTW it didn't throw water all over the place (it was water cooled) and didn't appear to suffer from kick back but it did have some sort of locking bar to hold the work on the sliding table. Probably interlocked so you couldn't use it incorrectly. It would cut bricks in half in a few seconds, they didn't show him cutting the others.

On other occasions he used an angle grinder and even a diamond chain saw both of which were more dangerous.