Blockwork half course & '100mm' blocks

[Ivor Windybottom]

With respect to cutting them... So much dust, so much noise :/

Bit like this thread.

I did read that you didn't want to cut blocks. I was challenging this idea.

Brick/block cutting is perfectly normal. Just take care to fire the dust plume in a direction that doesn't cause a nuisance. Easy if you live next to a field, more difficult in a dense neighbourhood.

Wear a mask, among other PPE.

 

[robinbanks]

With respect to cutting them... So much dust, so much noise :/

You mean to say, all that guff about doing things right, and you don't use a cut off saw with water suppression?

If the saw doesn't have a hose attachment at least leave the hose nozzle on a trickle, pouring over block as you cut, have a helper etc

Can even get electric saws with water suppression now

Just take care to fire the dust plume in a direction that doesn't cause a nuisance. Easy if you live next to a field, more difficult in a dense neighbourhood.

Wear a mask, among other PPE.

Any direction causes a nuisance. Performing a wet cut isn't rocket surgery

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

You've just made the entire job impractical with all the imaginary regulations you've just imposed!

Most people don't have a wet saw. Lots have an angle grinder. Welcome to reality.

Stick a mask on, point it somewhere you don't care about and off you go. Stand them all on your driveway cut face upwards then give them a blast with the hosepipe. Then rinse the dust off the surroundings, all pretty inert harmless stuff, the worms won't die.

If you're surrounded by houses then it may be an issue. Thankfully we don't all live in suburbia.

 

[noseall]

Performing a wet cut isn't rocket surgery

But it is faffy. The road/civils contractors use wet as it cuts better in any case. Paving contractors my use a bench wet cutter but the majority don't. Builders - never.

 

[kingandy2nd]

I would just cut all the blocks too

 

[noseall]

I would just cut all the blocks too

We wouldn't bat an eye. Daily occurrence for us.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

If the saw doesn't have a hose attachment at least leave the hose nozzle on a trickle, pouring over block as you cut, have a helper etc

Very dangerous advice. Don't get a hosepipe anywhere near an electric grinder of any sort.

They're full of air vents, and will suck up the water into the live internals, making a path to you.

Obviously if it's designed as a wet cutter that's different. Obviously we need to state the bleeding obvious now.

 

[noseall]

Very dangerous advice. Don't get a hosepipe anywhere near an electric grinder of any sort.

They're full of air vents, and will suck up the water into the live internals, making a path to you.

Obviously if it's designed as a wet cutter that's different. Obviously we need to state the bleeding obvious now.

It's not particularly the water, more the faff. We have cut porcelain slabs on a wetted lawn. Brilliant at cooling the blade, but it does fly up a lot of rubbish onto the work-piece.

Water flowing over your cut marks, the mess etc puts many off. Crude cutting - fine. Precision cutting - not so, unless it's on a bench.

 

[robinbanks]

Don't get a hosepipe anywhere near an electric grinder of any sort.

Only dangerous if someone is going to file their application for the Darwin awards by using a hosepipe with an electric grinder not designed for the job. You'll note my post said "cut off saw" and then again "saw", referring to aforementioned "cut off saw". This is a cut off saw:

You'll note the small pipe attached to the guard around the blade. That's the water based dust suppression system supply pipe. Connect it to a hose pipe. I've included a screenshot from a hire company to highlight that these things, designed for the job, can be hired if one is not fortunate enough to own one

This forum seems starting to fill up with people who read some advice, imagine some unrealistic unlikely situation where that advice would be dangerous, assume that's what the poster meant, and go off on one about it

Someone who builds a block wall to the sub 4mm level of precision the OP does will undoubtedly understand and avoid the perils of mixing electricity and water, and may take the option of using a domestic vacuum cleaner near the exiting part of a dry cutting blade to minimise dust nuisance to themselves and neighbours.

Stop trying to insult the intelligence of as many people as you can. It doesn't make you look clever, it makes you look like a knob

For everyone else, and for the avoidance of doubt, if you or anyone else didn't already get it, nowhere in the recommendation to perform a wet cut, was it also the recommendation to use an electric power tool unless specifically designed for it. Water and electricity mixed may result in death. This is an electric cut off saw designed for wet cutting:

Disclaimer: this is merely an indication that such saws exist, it is not a recommendation to purchase, you do not need to go off on another tangent about how a DIYer is probably not going to purchase one

Use a mask when dry cutting. Or use a hammer and chisel, or an SDS drill in hammer mode; concrete blocks can be split as quickly as they can be cut. Wear eye protection when using chisels. Consider wearing ear protection too

The contents of McDonalds coffee cups may be hot; do not carry a freshly made cup of coffee between your legs as you exit the drive thru after picking up the tools for the job

Jesus wept

Obviously we need to state the bleeding obvious now.

Yes, quite. Don't be a part of the problem?

 

[kingandy2nd]

If the saw doesn't have a hose attachment at least leave the hose nozzle on a trickle, pouring over block as you cut, have a helper etc

Can even get electric saws with water suppression now

Only dangerous if someone is going to file their application for the Darwin awards by using a hosepipe with an electric grinder not designed for the job. You'll note my post said "cut off saw" and then again "saw", referring to aforementioned "cut off saw". This is a cut off saw:

While I appreciate it might not have been what you meant, I too read your post as suggesting to add water (onto the blocks) for a not suitable cutter.

I would imagine that any cutter suitable for doing wet cuts would have a hose attachment on it…like the two examples you highlighted.

I think all the comments are valid, but I don’t understand why you need to go off on one…when a simple clarification of your intent would have sufficed.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

While I appreciate it might not have been what you meant, I too read your post as suggesting to add water (onto the blocks) for a not suitable cutter.

Quite. The advice was to spray water on the cutter if it doesn't have a hosepipe attachment, i.e. an angle grinder, which is idiotic. Followed by desperate back-pedalling to avoid admitting to giving really stupid advice.

When you're in a hole, hire a JCB and keep digging.

If it's not designed for a hosepipe then don't spray water on it. In the case of an electric grinder there's a reasonable chance of death or injury. For any other there's a good chance of ruining the thing.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

If the saw doesn't have a hose attachment at least leave the hose nozzle on a trickle, pouring over block as you cut, have a helper etc

Stating the obvious, but sadly necessary. Don't follow this advice.

 

[robinbanks]

While I appreciate it might not have been what you meant, I too read your post as suggesting to add water (onto the blocks) for a not suitable cutter.

I'm not really sure what I could do to make it clearer; reread my post - I said:

A cut off saw with water suppression.

Perhaps that's two people that don't know what a cut-off saw is

I would imagine that any cutter suitable for doing wet cuts would have a hose attachment on it…

It's also perfectly acceptable and safe to run a hosepipe on a block while cutting it using a petrol cut off saw

I don’t understand why you need to go off on one…

Not going off, just being abundantly clear having been shown by example that no matter how specific one is, round here if you say "it's ok to refill your lawnmower from a petrol can" there is always some dipstick that will appear to say "omg, I can't believe you just told someone it was ok to hold a running electric chainsaw in your teeth while standing under a running shower to tip burning petrol from one jug to another" or some equally irrelevant straw man

when a simple clarification of your intent would have sufficed.

My intent and wording was clear. It was someone else who appeared and deliberately muddied the point so they'd have some scorn to pour, alas..

The advice was to spray water on the cutter if it doesn't have a hosepipe attachment, i.e. an angle grinder, which is idiotic.

Nowhere, at all, ever, did I mention that particular cutting device or recommend spraying a hose pipe on a 240v appliance

That was you, all you, and nobody but you.. Just giving yourself something to say

 

[kingandy2nd]

I'm not really sure what I could do to make it clearer; reread my post - I said:

A cut off saw with water suppression.

Perhaps that's two people that don't know what a cut-off saw is


It's also perfectly acceptable and safe to run a hosepipe on a block while cutting it using a petrol cut off saw

Not going off, just being abundantly clear having been shown by example that no matter how specific one is, round here if you say "it's ok to refill your lawnmower from a petrol can" there is always some dipstick that will appear to say "omg, I can't believe you just told someone it was ok to hold a running electric chainsaw in your teeth while standing under a running shower to tip burning petrol from one jug to another" or some equally irrelevant straw man


My intent and wording was clear. It was someone else who appeared and deliberately muddied the point so they'd have some scorn to pour, alas..


Nowhere, at all, ever, did I mention that particular cutting device or recommend spraying a hose pipe on a 240v appliance

That was you, all you, and nobody but you.. Just giving yourself something to say

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You’ve got to remember mate, this is a DIY forum. Some people won’t know the difference between a cut-off saw and a grinder (not suggesting that’s the case for the OP).

Like I said previously, I don’t think you meant to suggest using an unsuitable electric cutter/grinder, but it could be read that way, so adding the point of clarity to not do that doesn’t hurt.

Your follow up response is just another example of exactly what’s not needed in these threads - a sly dig about my own knowledge/capability on such matters and then some random extreme tangent about chainsaws.

Suggesting it’s insulting people’s intelligence, calling people knobs, and generally going off on a rant is just not necessary. Also mr windy didn’t need to use emotive words like idiotic, but that’s just my view.

You could have just agreed with Mr Windy’s original post because it seems, ultimately, that is the case.

Anyway, I’m not the forum police, so I’ll step back now. Have a good day guys.

 

[noseall]

Perhaps that's two people that don't know what a cut-off saw is

3.
Never heard of it.