Cutting 22mm Sandstone paving slabs??

[GusGF]

I'm going to be cutting 22mm Sandstone paving slabs, 6 in total so not many at all. Could I get away with using my circular saw with an appropriate diamond blade (to grind not cut, not even sure I can get such a blade for my circular saw, 185mm x 30mm) or should I hire an angle grinder.

With the circular saw I was going to use a 2x4 piece of wood clamped to the stone to guide the saw and start off with a shallow cut/grind. Would this work?

 

[Burnerman]

Personally I'd go for an angle grinder with a diamond blade......very careful indeed if it's a 9" one. A piece of timber as a guide will help with the initial cut.
John

 

[Bilabong007]

Having done a bit of landscaping recently my experience is to use the right tool. Hire a Stihl saw and use water suppression.

I have cut with a 5 inch grinder and it's not easy, it's more dangerous/uncontrollable and puts lots of pressure on the tool. You can't use dust suppression either. My Stihl saw just laughs and melts brick with the added bonus of the smell of petrol in the air!

Surely cheaper to hire a saw than buy a wheel to wreck your circ saw?

Graeme

 

[lonner]

As above or dry cutting blade and appropriate mask and eye protection.

Try and use the saw at a lower rpm than flat out as most numpty saw users do.
This will give you more control and a better cut will be your reward.
Plus it wont annoy the hell out of the neighbours as the saw bounces of the rpm limiter.

Do a few practice cuts first to learn how the saw handles when cutting.
Weight of the saw only No pressure

 

[GusGF]

Thanks folks for all the advice. Due to popular opinion and the advice I don't believe my circular saw would be up to the job so I'm renting an angle grinder with a couple of diamond tipped disks. If there were more slabs to be cut I'd probably get something a bit more substantial.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Angle grinder will be effective, 9" rather than 5" though. And be very, very careful. Always use the side handle and keep a proper grip.

 

[GusGF]

Angle grinder will be effective, 9" rather than 5" though. And be very, very careful. Always use the side handle and keep a proper grip.

Thank you for the advice

 

[geraldthehamster]

I mark the line to cut with chalk or a permanent marker

 

[GusGF]

People seem to use all sorts of things for marking. I'll probably end up using a permanent marker. The sandstone slabs arrived today and they needed a good hose down to get the residue from the cutting process off of them so they should mark easily enough now.
The folks at HireStation couldn't give me the angle grinder I ordered so they substitued a cordless one which I'm hoping will be adequate. A cordless Makita LXT grinder.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Come back here with a full count of hands and fingers once you've finished...

 

[GusGF]

Still alive

Couldn't believe how easy it was to cut the stone. Weight of the grinder was enough to cut the stone to a depth which allowed me to simply snap of the unwanted bit by hand. The only problem I encountered was the dust it kicked up, oh boy. Add to that the cement flying in my face from empting it into a bucket and chucking it into the mixer. Hate the bl@@dy stuff gets everywhere!!

 

[bsr]

1. RPM of the saw would be too low.

2. Arbour size (the hole in the middle of the blade) would be different - 20mm for the grinder and 30mm for the saw. So you would need a bore adaptor if you can get one.

3. Bearings on saw not designed for concrete dust, likely to damage the tool.

No idea if it would work after that.

 

[robinbanks]

Think they might have cut it by now..

..though my patio hs been a work in progress for nearly as many years as this thread has