tile saw question
 

Hi all.
I'm re-doing floor tiles in 2 bathrooms and was thinking about buying a
small tile saw. There is one at a local hardware store for $150. It cuts
tile and marble, is a 3/4 hp, includes a 7" diamond blade, rip fence and
mitre gauge. I figure it will costs me almost as much to rent one on 2
occasions. I have a cheap manual tile cutter but it wopn't cut the porcelain
tiles i'm installing. Oh yeah, the brand is Bolton Pro -7??
Anyhow any opinions appreciated.
kudos
Steve

You might look into renting a water saw.




"steve" wrote in message
wsgroups.com...
Hi all.
I'm re-doing floor tiles in 2 bathrooms and was thinking about buying a
small tile saw. There is one at a local hardware store for $150. It cuts
tile and marble, is a 3/4 hp, includes a 7" diamond blade, rip fence and
mitre gauge. I figure it will costs me almost as much to rent one on 2
occasions. I have a cheap manual tile cutter but it wopn't cut the
porcelain
tiles i'm installing. Oh yeah, the brand is Bolton Pro -7??
Anyhow any opinions appreciated.
kudos
Steve

steve wrote:
Hi all.
I'm re-doing floor tiles in 2 bathrooms and was thinking about buying
a
small tile saw. There is one at a local hardware store for $150. It
cuts
tile and marble, is a 3/4 hp, includes a 7" diamond blade, rip fence
and
mitre gauge. I figure it will costs me almost as much to rent one on
2
occasions. I have a cheap manual tile cutter but it wopn't cut the
porcelain
tiles i'm installing. Oh yeah, the brand is Bolton Pro -7??
Anyhow any opinions appreciated.

Any opinions, or any reasonable opinions? ;)

Your idea of buying one instead of renting makes sense. You might also
want to think about turning around and selling it on eBay or Craigslist
when you're done with it. That way you can get a better saw and still
have it end up costing you about the same amount of money.

I'm not familiar with the tile saw you mentioned, but I would be
cautious about the lower end saws. I don't know what size saw you
need, but keeping in the 7" range...

MK is a good name - here's one on eBay with free shipping, a seller
with perfect feedback and less expensive than the one you were looking
at:
http://tinyurl.com/68t2a

Here's another good brand - different type of saw, more like a table
saw, and a bit more money:
http://tinyurl.com/6ts4k

R

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:38:07 -0500, "steve" wrote:
I'm re-doing floor tiles in 2 bathrooms and was thinking about buying a
small tile saw. There is one at a local hardware store for $150. It cuts
tile and marble, is a 3/4 hp, includes a 7" diamond blade, rip fence and
mitre gauge. I figure it will costs me almost as much to rent one on 2
occasions. I have a cheap manual tile cutter but it wopn't cut the porcelain
tiles i'm installing. Oh yeah, the brand is Bolton Pro -7??
Anyhow any opinions appreciated.

While I'm a proponent of buying the best quality tools you can afford,
unless you're planning on taking up tiling for a vocation those cheap
wet saws work well enough. The $90 wet saw I bought from Lowes did my
kitchen floor, kitchen extension floor, two full baths (including a
zirconia tile shower enclosure... very tough stuff), an exterior deck
(slate), a 3/8" marble tile entry floor, a kitchen backsplash and two
end table tops (slate):

http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/b...t/IMAGE120.jpg
http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/m...us/tile002.jpg
http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/kitchen/image031.jpg
http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/b...bathbuild8.jpg
http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/k.../kitchen01.jpg
http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/m...s/image011.jpg

I've changed the blade twice (~$20). While higher-end saws are more
precise, the kitchen tile floor is 1.5" hex tiles and it worked fine
for that.

The main downside with cheap wet saws is that they're messy as hell.
Either do your cutting outside or protect the walls and floors with
plastic sheets.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house/bbs

Steve Manes wrote:

a 3/8" marble tile entry floor

http://www.magpie.com/house/photos/kitchen/image031.jpg

I like the entry.

R

steve wrote:
Hi all.
I'm re-doing floor tiles in 2 bathrooms and was thinking about buying
a
small tile saw. There is one at a local hardware store for $150. It
cuts
tile and marble, is a 3/4 hp, includes a 7" diamond blade, rip fence
and
mitre gauge. I figure it will costs me almost as much to rent one on
2
occasions. I have a cheap manual tile cutter but it wopn't cut the
porcelain
tiles i'm installing. Oh yeah, the brand is Bolton Pro -7??
Anyhow any opinions appreciated.
kudos
Steve

I'm in the middle of several small tile projects. The cheap score and
snap tool I have works as long as I'm taking off a large enough section
of tile. For smaller and other difficult cuts I thought about buying a
wet saw and called the place I bought my tile from to ask for advice.
They offered to cut them for me (no charge). Lowe's around here will
also cut tile for .25/cut (came in handy on a sunday when the tile shop
was closed).
It's a small hassle to drive somewhere but worth it. Not only the
money, but the potential trouble and mess of using a low-end saw.