While tiles don't generally go IN the wood stove, lots of us have been, or will be in the position of needing to build hearths or extend existing hearths to accommodate our stoves and inserts. These projects are generally covered with tile that often needs cutting.
Cutting tiles is easiest if one uses a "wet saw" with a diamond blade to do the job. The water cools the diamond blade to extend it's life and also keeps the dust to a minimum. However it is a specialized tool, not found in the average home workshop, and not useful for cutting much other than tile, stone, and other such materials.
Many people suggest renting a saw, but this can get expensive quite quickly, and makes it necessary to rush through the job in order to get the saw back before the rental charges pile up. Murphy's Law also says that you will find one more piece that needs trimming AFTER you take the renta-saw back... :red:
As an alternative, you can consider purchasing a low cost (aka CHEAP) tile saw from an outfit like Harbor Freight Tools for about what a day's saw rental might cost, use it for a project or two, then stick it up in the attic for future projects or sell it off and get some of your costs back. The advantage is no rush to get the saw back to the rental place, so you can take your time. If you sell the saw at the end of the project, you get most of your money back. The possible downside is the risk of cheap Chinese equipment. I purchased this 7" Portable Wet Tile Saw for $60 from Harbor Freight Tools in order to do my recently finished hearth extension project. Overall I feel like the saw is a reasonable value, it did a good job, and performed quite well for me.
The saw is basically a plastic box with the blade sticking up in the middle of it. The right half of the box is mostly sealed and contains the motor, the left half is the water reservoir, which holds a couple cups of water. The top of the table is two fairly thin metal plates, each hinged on the right side. The left plate lifts to allow access to the water reservoir, change blades and the mounting point for the blade guard. The right side hinges up to allow you to do angled cuts, and has a little space under it to hold the blade wrench. The cord can be stuffed into a recess in the motor side, and there is a suitcase style handle on one side so the saw is easily transported once you dump the water out of it.
The blade height is not adjustable, and is equipped with a plastic blade guard that slides up and down on a rather flimsy metal bracket behind the blade. The bracket is easily bent, which causes slates longer than the blade width to catch on it, however this is not a big problem, just a thing to watch for. Even though the guard makes it hard to see just where the blade is, you learn to use it as leaving it hinged up turns the blade into a very effective shower. The motor is reasonably powerful, it does not noticeably bog when making cuts in 1/4" thick slate, as long as the peice was not forced. It doesn't like starting with the blade in a cut, but this is not proper use.
The miter guage is made from plastic with graduations about every 5* It has an aluminum "T-slot" shaped base that rides in a matching slot on the far left edge of the saw table. It is useable, but tends to bind unless you hold the tile with one hand and pushed directly in line with the slot using the other. I would not consider it hugely accurate, but it seems adequate to the task and is made from materials that are not sensitive to water.
The fence is also plastic, and while it works nicely once set up, it is a bit of a pain to use. The front and back edges of the saw each have a molded in scale and a row of fairly fine "teeth" (approx 20 to the inch?) The fence bar has a set of matching teeth, and a plastic clip that snaps over the saw edge on each end. In use it is necessary to position the fence over the teeth, and snap the clips over the edge of the saw to anchor it. It is very easy not to get the fence perfectly aligned with the blade, and the clips requirei more force to latch than I feel comfortable with. While they worked fine for me, I would suspect that they would be the part most likely to fail first on this saw.
As mentioned, the right side of the table is hinged to allow for angled cuts, on the underside of the table are a pair of hinged support plates that fold down to lock into a series of notches in the top of the box, giving a set of specific angles. Because only 1/2 the table tilts, it is only possible to make an angled cut along the edge of a tile, not in the center. This function works but is a bit tricky. The tile guides along the joint with the left half of the table, and the side of the saw blade, making it a bit difficult to get a consistent cut across the entire edge of a tile. (to be continued)
Cutting tiles is easiest if one uses a "wet saw" with a diamond blade to do the job. The water cools the diamond blade to extend it's life and also keeps the dust to a minimum. However it is a specialized tool, not found in the average home workshop, and not useful for cutting much other than tile, stone, and other such materials.
Many people suggest renting a saw, but this can get expensive quite quickly, and makes it necessary to rush through the job in order to get the saw back before the rental charges pile up. Murphy's Law also says that you will find one more piece that needs trimming AFTER you take the renta-saw back... :red:
As an alternative, you can consider purchasing a low cost (aka CHEAP) tile saw from an outfit like Harbor Freight Tools for about what a day's saw rental might cost, use it for a project or two, then stick it up in the attic for future projects or sell it off and get some of your costs back. The advantage is no rush to get the saw back to the rental place, so you can take your time. If you sell the saw at the end of the project, you get most of your money back. The possible downside is the risk of cheap Chinese equipment. I purchased this 7" Portable Wet Tile Saw for $60 from Harbor Freight Tools in order to do my recently finished hearth extension project. Overall I feel like the saw is a reasonable value, it did a good job, and performed quite well for me.
The saw is basically a plastic box with the blade sticking up in the middle of it. The right half of the box is mostly sealed and contains the motor, the left half is the water reservoir, which holds a couple cups of water. The top of the table is two fairly thin metal plates, each hinged on the right side. The left plate lifts to allow access to the water reservoir, change blades and the mounting point for the blade guard. The right side hinges up to allow you to do angled cuts, and has a little space under it to hold the blade wrench. The cord can be stuffed into a recess in the motor side, and there is a suitcase style handle on one side so the saw is easily transported once you dump the water out of it.
The blade height is not adjustable, and is equipped with a plastic blade guard that slides up and down on a rather flimsy metal bracket behind the blade. The bracket is easily bent, which causes slates longer than the blade width to catch on it, however this is not a big problem, just a thing to watch for. Even though the guard makes it hard to see just where the blade is, you learn to use it as leaving it hinged up turns the blade into a very effective shower. The motor is reasonably powerful, it does not noticeably bog when making cuts in 1/4" thick slate, as long as the peice was not forced. It doesn't like starting with the blade in a cut, but this is not proper use.
The miter guage is made from plastic with graduations about every 5* It has an aluminum "T-slot" shaped base that rides in a matching slot on the far left edge of the saw table. It is useable, but tends to bind unless you hold the tile with one hand and pushed directly in line with the slot using the other. I would not consider it hugely accurate, but it seems adequate to the task and is made from materials that are not sensitive to water.
The fence is also plastic, and while it works nicely once set up, it is a bit of a pain to use. The front and back edges of the saw each have a molded in scale and a row of fairly fine "teeth" (approx 20 to the inch?) The fence bar has a set of matching teeth, and a plastic clip that snaps over the saw edge on each end. In use it is necessary to position the fence over the teeth, and snap the clips over the edge of the saw to anchor it. It is very easy not to get the fence perfectly aligned with the blade, and the clips requirei more force to latch than I feel comfortable with. While they worked fine for me, I would suspect that they would be the part most likely to fail first on this saw.
As mentioned, the right side of the table is hinged to allow for angled cuts, on the underside of the table are a pair of hinged support plates that fold down to lock into a series of notches in the top of the box, giving a set of specific angles. Because only 1/2 the table tilts, it is only possible to make an angled cut along the edge of a tile, not in the center. This function works but is a bit tricky. The tile guides along the joint with the left half of the table, and the side of the saw blade, making it a bit difficult to get a consistent cut across the entire edge of a tile. (to be continued)
