Cutting pavers

Something like this-

or bigger, but they get a lot more expensive

But diamond is the way to go. I would score them with my makita angle grinder with a diamond blade all the way around and smack it with a hammer.

SW

I successful cut concrete pavers by scoring with an HF diamond blade on an *old* circular saw. I stress old as tons of dust is created which I didn't want in my good saw. Scoring (1/4" deep) around the paver and then hit it with the chisel give a clean break. I used this one which I got on sale for $15.

know it's diamond, but not the expensive one I think you meant) Art

What's wrong with a diamond saw? Get a 4 1/2" blade at Harbor Freight for your angle grinder. I have been using mine for over 5 years to do brickwork and can't wear it out. A set of three was less than 10 bucks. Score two sides and whack it with a 3" wide brick chisel if you want to go faster than a through cut.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:03:35 -0400, "Buerste" wrote the following:

Here ya go, Tawm:

Eek! Don't do it manually.

No, nothing I've tried. BUT, I haven't tried a brick brakin' machine yet. You could probably build one, Mr. Machinist.

muscle powered hydraulic POWER

-- Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness. -- Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 12, 1711

Or at least, it won't be a good saw for long. I'm not sure what it kills first: the bearings, the brushes, or the switch, but they all take a hit. Maybe pick up a used one at a pawn shop or tag/yard/ garage/barn/estate/rummage/church/fleamarket sale... --Glenn Lyford

I've cut a lot of patio stones for my pool apron, which I chose not to do in monolithic concrete because the stones were free to me. This turned out to be a wise choice.:-)).

Initially I used a concrete abrasive blade in an old, Old, OLD B&D saw which I rescued from a farm dump over 50 years ago!

Anyway, the dust was unbelievable and I tried to run a small trickle of water from the garden hose along the proposed cut. I had nothing to lose here as the saw was free and also grounded by the ground wire and a GFI.

This worked really well and the abrasive blade also appeared to last longer. Dust became non-existent.

Years later I did some tile work on an outdoor walkway and I used a diamond blade for this work. With the water trickle the dust was also a non-issue.

When using water make sure you are protected with a GFI and maybe stand on a rubber mat.

With your pavers I'd score them on the perimeter as deeply as you can manage; a diamond blade is cheap now and cuts very quickly. Use water trickle as I did. Then hit the paver with a big mallet. A wedge and sledge hammer may also do the trick.

PS.: I still have that saw and use it for work as described which now is becoming less and less.:-)).

Wolfgang

I've cut some other things with a masonry saw blade (abrasive) in a circular saw. You make a number of shallow cuts, maybe .050" deep each pass, keeping the saw moving so the heat doesn't build up in one spot. When the groove is deep enough, it should split along the line. You really don't need diamond.

Jon

BINGO! Works GREAT!

"wolfgang" wrote

Anyway, the dust was unbelievable and I tried to run a small trickle of water from the garden hose along the proposed cut. I had nothing to lose here as the saw was free and also grounded by the ground wire and a GFI.

This worked really well and the abrasive blade also appeared to last longer. Dust became non-existent.

Granite installers use a m77 skil worm saw, or similar, and one guy holds the water bottle, like a ketchup squeeze bottle and dribbles the water on there when they do sink cut outs. Works pretty good.

Steve

visit my blog at

Yeah, think like a rock.

Doing pools sometimes was easier to just score a line by hand up to

14" across and hit it against something or the right place or with a hammer, than moving a wet saw through a war zone. That's funny, I had forgotten how bad my work access was. It was SO bad at times where I would pass up the job till someone would get it together. Think like 5' wide access and 50' long with a 2' trench right where you need to walk and move a ton of material through. Then, the backyard !

.25" score? About the depth of one breath for all the way around.

SW