Diamond Blades

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:23 pm

I took proud possession of a Rexon tile cutter from the recent competition. Not really reviewing the tool as such more the blade. It was quite happy cutting house bricks, mainly on the diagonal which involved a dozen or so cuts per brick as it was a 115mm blade. It lasted for about a dozen bricks then one of the segments snapped. I needed a replacement urgently and got a Dewalt from Screwfix. I used this and found it harder to cut with with a lot of sparks and heat generated. Have I bought the wrong one ?

I’ve since bought these from eBay.

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:59 pm

It might be the wrong blade for your type bricks.

If your bricks are soft and you use a blade that is designed for use on hard materials then you will struggle and vise versa.

What kind of bricks are you cutting?

are they common house bricks / engineering bricks /

I remember once at a friends house that he was trying to cut a hole through some bricks ( might of been calcium silicate ) and the diamond core drill would only scratch the surface of the bricks because they were so hard.

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:13 pm

Both house bricks and engineering bricks - I ran out of bricks so had to get the nearest match on a Sunday morning which was a few engineering bricks.

The blade that came with the tool was happy(ish) cutting engineering bricks, well, happy untill it one of the segments broke

The Dewalt blade is classed as medium/hard with engineering brick supposed to be Hard and the house brick is classed as medium so the blade, I thought, would cover both types of brick.

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:25 pm

I have used the dewalt disks before and they were pretty good. I had one in the 9 inch grinder for years.

This is my dewalt in use-

Not sure why your is struggling

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:26 pm

Are the diamond blades for these like the diamond Tile cutters and need constant lubrication to cut at their best?

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:34 pm

Hoovie wrote:Are the diamond blades for these like the diamond Tile cutters and need constant lubrication to cut at their best?

No, most of these are ok to use dry.

You can get some machines that keep the blade wet, which will make the blade last longer, but it's not normally necessary.

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:34 pm

They are dry blades.

Maybe the brick is just too hard for Medium/Hard type of blades and I actually needed the Hard blade. I'll suffer on as I only need to cut a couple more bricks along the diagonal.

Might have been easier if I'd gone out and got a 9" grinder to go straight thru' the brick instead of using a tile cutter

. Got loads of roof tiles to cut in the next week or so so it'll get used for its primiary use

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:38 pm

Would making a cut of a few mm all the way round and then a sharp tap with a bolster chisel do the job, maybe?

Hinton Heating · Post by **Hinton Heating** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:31 pm

ultimatehandyman wrote:I have used the dewalt disks before and they were pretty good. I had one in the 9 inch grinder for years.

This is my dewalt in use-

Not sure why your is struggling

I got one of those 9" grinders, cuts through tiles, floor screed like butter...

I got some diamond blades from ebay...

not sure of the make now