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wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:

In article ,
mike. buckley wrote:

I'm midway through laying my patio, and due to my cack handedness with
using a hammer and chisel to cut the slabs, I need an angle grinder to
cut around half a dozen slabs that will fit round the dwarf wall of my
conservatory. Can the regulars suggest the cheapest way of doing this? I
don't currently have an angle grinder, and would like to go for a cheap
as chips model (with diamond wheel) so I won't care too much if it dies
straight after the job.

Only problem is the slabs are real stone, and the thickness varies
between 20mm and 35mm.

Any suggestions for something that will do the job that I can pick up
from one of the sheds?

Personally, angle grinders terrify me.

I don't see why, they are not particularly nasty to my mind.

I think 4" are great little tools, used with care ... 9" and your into
gyroscopic devices which are difficult handle and a load of dust which
needs to be wet down seriously (electrical hazard) or extracted (which
can be awkward). If you catch a 9" while cutting something, just hope
you legs or face are not in the way as it can be quite difficult to control.

I've used an el cheapo Plasplugs electric tile cutter on york stone. Just
take it slowly and don't run it continuously. No more than about a 50%
duty cycle.

Any fixed saw in a saw bench type of thing gives me much more of the
heeby jeebies than portable tools like angle grinders.

Why? They don't do anything unpredictable (on the whole).

Having said that the only serious damage I've done to myself with a
power tool was with an angle grinder. Sheer carelessness and nearly
any other sort of tool would have done *far* more damage, as it was
the basic bluntness of an angle grinder wheel meant that I just lost a
bit of thumb. The local casualty department made an excellent job
of getting the missing bit to grow back again and it's as good as new
now.

Surely that's a clue...

Alex