Chop Saw vs Tile Saw

[RandyJ]

I sure hope you wore a respirator when you did that, and I do not mean a paper dust mask. The few few hundred dollars is part of the cost to build a oven. Also you can sell it when completed to help reduce the cost. It is very irresponsible to dry cut a whole oven due to the dust cloud you expose your family and neighbors to. The dust is very bad to inhale and could do permanent damage to your lungs. If you don't want to go the wet saw route a brick chisel and hammer would be a cheep alternative.

Randy

[Brick Oven Nick]

Just got the Harbor Frieght 10" wet saw! Great sale today!

So, when you cut the firebrick with the wet saw, is there still a need for the respirator mask or is the air safe at that point.

Also, just curious, but I understand it's not safe to breath the dust from firebrick, but I'm assuming it's a safe cooking surface for pizza dough and breads etc? Obviously it must be since that appears to be how everyone does it, but what were the first pizza ovens built with? Just natural clay bricks? Any thoughts on this or place to learn more?

[JRPizza]

Nick, glad to hear you got a good deal on your saw. If you have your water flow set right, you should not have any airborne dust to worry about. Mine did tend to throw a little sludge when I was cutting, so good idea to work out in the drive way or somewhere a little mess won't bother you. You might also have heard recommendations to put the pump in a bucket of clean water, not in the recovery tray like the instructions suggest. This will keep the pump from clogging up with sediment. The setup I used is in the attached pic. I put the bucket of clean water behind the saw, and another bucket in front and below. I ran the saw with the drain plug removed from the tray and let the dirty water drain into the bucket. I found this setup way easier than dumping the tray (I had a hard time not spilling all over) and the elevated platform made cutting much easier.
As far as brick goes, I don't think any brick particles get picked up from cooking on the hearth, and if they did they are entering your gastro tract and not your lungs. There is an easy way out for things that enter your stomach . I am sure I have eaten my share of ash particles from cooking bread and pizza directly on the hearth, without any ill effect. You wouldn't want to breath in too much ash either.

[RandyJ]

That is the same saw that I used. Worked great. I also agree that you should use a separate bucket for the water supply. I also can see the drain bucket as a good plan. I had min set up on saw horses and the height worked out nice. You will get a bit of a spray of mud so outside is best. Good luck. The fun is about to start.

Randy

[Gulf]

All good info. If you use the clean water bucket, you may want to think about doing something like this. The clean water bucket, like the wet saw tray, has one problem. It will run out of water. Only much faster. You will get to focusing on a cut and all of a sudden, you glance up and see a cloud. Brick dust! That that stuff you don't want to breath. Your pump is above the waterline. For you younger folks that means breathing silica. To me that means a shorter blade life .

Seriously, A cheap toilet float works great in a 5 gallon bucket. This is all that I could find of my rig. (The bucket has been reporposed for the garden) Just drill a hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and secure with the commode gaskets. Connect a water hose to the bottom and you will have a water supply on demand. Note: Bought, scrounged or salvaged milk crates have many uses on an oven build .

[dakzaag]

Has anyone checked out the new Skilsaw worm drive table saw? I think it might have enough power to run a 10" diamond blade and it has a vac port the could potentially cut the dust down to reasonable levels. Would need some sort of rolling table it seems, but it is newly in production and worth checking out.

[RandyJ]

Unless you are running a HEPA vacuum cleaner I don't think you would get very far till it clogged the filter. Also trying to clean the filter would be a huge mess. Plusses for the additional cost you could more than buy a wet saw. If cost is that much of a issue then sell the saw when you are done. I bet you could get at least half back.

Randy