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Re: It's time to go Vertical
RC,
Your post this morning reminded me that I owed you a graphic on the bevels. Attached is an illustration of how I took on this pain in the butt.
First I filled the saw table trough with mortar, let set over night and then ran the blade through to create a "trough slot" to hold the metal stop (to be mentioned next). Filling with mortar for me also made it easier to clean the saw and caused no problems with saw operation.
Next I picked up a piece of 3" flat steel from HD and cut it into 6.5", 10", 10" lengths using my trusty $19 grinder (with metal cutting disk). The 6.5" piece I used as a stop to the cutting edge; put it in place, shoved the brick against it, removed the metal stop while holding brick in place and made the cut. More than doubled my cutting spead.
The two ten inch pieces I connected horizontally by welding in place two hinges. This was done to create the angle guide for the last few courses when they get fairly large. The hinges were skewed in placement just slightly from one another so that there was considerable binding when trying to open and close the guide so the angle wouldn't change with multiple bricks being place against it over time. But for most courses this tool was used upside down (face down on the table as pictured) resting against the back stop of the table and slid under the brick towards or away from the pivot point of the brick to create the desired bevel angle. Once the angle was determined it was clamped in place with a 3" spring clamp (not pictured but noted - knew I forgot something)
On the same trip to HD I picked up the protractor pictured - an indispensible tool for this project and feature in many posts on this forum. I first placed the protractor on the table, used the little red arrow slide on its face to mark the angle of the table and then used it on top of the brick to determine the angle for the bevel by adding whatever angle I was looking for to the red arrow position. By the way I wasn't going for the 3 decimel accuracy as my chart might suggest just to the nearest ditdat on the face of the protractor.
Once I was happy with the bevel angle and the hinged steel was clamped in place the process was simply to put the small stop in the trough slot slap a brick against it (I was angling each brick so full flat face against steel) hold the brick firmly in place while you remove the stop and cut. Zippy quick.
One caution, at certain bevel angles inorder to hold the brick in place on the steel your fingers will be fairly close to the blade.
Also because the larger bevels are done on so few bricks you could probably get by without the hinges and use something else for the jig on the last couple of courses if you don't have a welder hanging around. So for the most part with just the protractor, a little bit of mortar in the trough, and a couple pieces of flat steel, you're good to go.
Jim
Originally posted by RCLake
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Your post this morning reminded me that I owed you a graphic on the bevels. Attached is an illustration of how I took on this pain in the butt.
First I filled the saw table trough with mortar, let set over night and then ran the blade through to create a "trough slot" to hold the metal stop (to be mentioned next). Filling with mortar for me also made it easier to clean the saw and caused no problems with saw operation.
Next I picked up a piece of 3" flat steel from HD and cut it into 6.5", 10", 10" lengths using my trusty $19 grinder (with metal cutting disk). The 6.5" piece I used as a stop to the cutting edge; put it in place, shoved the brick against it, removed the metal stop while holding brick in place and made the cut. More than doubled my cutting spead.
The two ten inch pieces I connected horizontally by welding in place two hinges. This was done to create the angle guide for the last few courses when they get fairly large. The hinges were skewed in placement just slightly from one another so that there was considerable binding when trying to open and close the guide so the angle wouldn't change with multiple bricks being place against it over time. But for most courses this tool was used upside down (face down on the table as pictured) resting against the back stop of the table and slid under the brick towards or away from the pivot point of the brick to create the desired bevel angle. Once the angle was determined it was clamped in place with a 3" spring clamp (not pictured but noted - knew I forgot something)
On the same trip to HD I picked up the protractor pictured - an indispensible tool for this project and feature in many posts on this forum. I first placed the protractor on the table, used the little red arrow slide on its face to mark the angle of the table and then used it on top of the brick to determine the angle for the bevel by adding whatever angle I was looking for to the red arrow position. By the way I wasn't going for the 3 decimel accuracy as my chart might suggest just to the nearest ditdat on the face of the protractor.
Once I was happy with the bevel angle and the hinged steel was clamped in place the process was simply to put the small stop in the trough slot slap a brick against it (I was angling each brick so full flat face against steel) hold the brick firmly in place while you remove the stop and cut. Zippy quick.
One caution, at certain bevel angles inorder to hold the brick in place on the steel your fingers will be fairly close to the blade.
Also because the larger bevels are done on so few bricks you could probably get by without the hinges and use something else for the jig on the last couple of courses if you don't have a welder hanging around. So for the most part with just the protractor, a little bit of mortar in the trough, and a couple pieces of flat steel, you're good to go.
Jim
Is this the place people have started going to cut the full bricks in thirds?
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