Harbor Freight Brick Saw

[hardwired]

I just picked up the 10" Wet Saw at Harbor Freight. They did not have the stand in stock which is another $60 and the saw does not come with a blade.

Are you guys using the saw without the stand? A guy I met at the store said I would want it since it holds it at an angle for the water. He also said he had an $80 wet saw (6 or 7") from Home Depot and recommended I get one of those and save my money unless I was planning to use it alot.

What is your take on the Harbor Freight saw vs this HD one?

Also, what 10" blade is recommended for the Harbor Freight saw. I will be cutting brick, pavers, and tile.

[Les]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I just sat my HF saw on my workmate. You do want it at a comfortable height unless you don't care about your back. I used their cheap blades and they seemed to work "good enough". I went through a few of them. All in all, for the price, it's hard to find a better deal. I had to change my start capacitor after the original one blew up - literally. Pay the extra $$ for the extended warranty (I had the warranty but the saws were out of stock) - it takes it out 2 years from date of purchase. You need a 10 inch saw at a minimum - you will find the need to make some crazy cuts.

Les...

[MK1]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I bought the HF saw 5 or 6 years ago and have used it on many projects. I don't use it every day. but I will use it for weeks at a time every day all day. You can't beat the value although I wish it was 12 or 14". I would suggest buying a back-up pump. I'm on my third. Eventually the two feed tubes touching the blade will wear and will diminish the flow directed to the blade. This just happened recently to mine so it takes awhile. Just buy 1' of the 1/4" plastic line they sell for hooking up the refrigerator icemaker, it's the same size. Pull the old ones out shove the new ones in. The HF blades are not bad. They last about 2/3 the life of a $70 blade.
I use a simple 2X ply stand cobbed together. I like it wider than the saw to serve as a handy table for a pile of those who are about to be sawed.

Mark

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I bought the HF saw & stand but had a 20% off coupon they send out 2 or more times a month on the internet. I put the water pump in a large pale of water that sits on a side table so it only sucks up clean water. If you do get the stand and water pan, don't use the water pan for recirculating the brick-dust laden water.
I can't imagine building this oven of mine with anything less than this 10" saw. The extra $100 or even more would be well worth it IMO. Cheers, Dino

[SteveP]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I picked up a QEP Brutus 10" wet saw with blade and stand on Homedepot.com for $199 with free delivery. This was around October of last year but that thing works great. I had to replace the blade about midway into the build but I am very happy with this saw. I originally borrowed a 7" wet saw but found I did not like having to flip the bricks over to finish the cut. The 10" saw is the way to go.

[hardwired]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I picked up a QEP Brutus 10" wet saw with blade and stand on Homedepot.com for $199 with free delivery. This was around October of last year but that thing works great. I had to replace the blade about midway into the build but I am very happy with this saw. I originally borrowed a 7" wet saw but found I did not like having to flip the bricks over to finish the cut. The 10" saw is the way to go.

Great deal on the QEP saw. It's going for $400 now.
I used the 20% coupon like Dino and with the sale price and 2 year warranty and tax it came to $228. I still need a blade and got a raincheck for the table.

I may just set it on the picnic table. Do I need to worry about any angle for the water and how messy does it get?

I also saw some mention of saving the dust from the firebricks for mortar. How are you doing that with the wet saw?

[dmun]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I also saw some mention of saving the dust from the firebricks for mortar. How are you doing that with the wet saw?

It settles in slabs at the bottom of your drain tray. You can scrape it up with a plastic putty knife, and set it aside, or buy dry prepared fireclay which is the cheapest item in your whole build, and hose your cutting mud out over your lawn.

As an aside, that mud can clog your recirculating pump. Some builders have hung a drywall compound bucket off their cutting tray, and pumped the cooling water from that.

How messy is it? Well it does throw some mud. You may not want to set it up in front of anything that shouldn't get dirty

[Les]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

Do I need to worry about any angle for the water and how messy does it get?

I also saw some mention of saving the dust from the firebricks for mortar. How are you doing that with the wet saw?

You want it as level as possible but it's not critical. You will see the tray getting full, just pull the plug and drain it into a bucket. After you drain the water you will quickly see where the dust comes from. You will need to use a spatula to get it out of the tray. Let it dry and you have the dust. Personally I wouldn't bother, fire clay is pretty damn cheap.


Les...

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

For the record, I used one of those 7" tile saws and had to use an angle grinder to do some extra cuts. All that dust was a pain and is potentially dangerous, so I had to be very careful about wearing a mask. If I had it to do over again, I would definitely get a 10 inch saw.

Drake

[Ken524]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

Hi Hardwired,

I built a low-budget stand with 2x4's for my HF saw.

Here's a thread I posted a while back about it:
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f28/...tand-2462.html

I'm really pleased with my HF saw. I bought a Bosch 10" diamond masonry blade ($70) at Home Depot and it cut all the bricks in my dome. I later bought a second blade at a tile store that I only use for cutting porcelain tile.

To extend the life of the pump, hang a bucket of fresh water on your stand and put the pump in the bucket instead of the tray so it's only pumping fresh water. After I'm done cutting for the day, I disconnect the pump from the tubing and drop it in the bucket and let it run for a few seconds to make sure it's really clean. I'm still using my original pump. That being said... Harbor Freight is not exactly known for consistent quality in their products. I'm not surprised that others had problems with pumps.

[Kelbor]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

Hi guys and gals-
I just got my HF saw yesterday and built my own stand as well. Looks like the stand above but even cheaper. I recycled the plywood and 2X4's from my oven stand frame (just a bit dirty) and constructed a platform just as large as the saw (should have included a ledge for material storage like previously suggested). I used the 2x4's for the side under-rails and 2x8's for the shorter 'front and back under-rail'. It sits on my saw horses with the deeper 2x8's locking it in place.

Good Luck!

P.s. "Don't be the tool buying the tool any tool can make"

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

i bought the HF Industrial chop saw, with an additional 14 inch diamond blade, both items came out to about 85 bucks with the sale price and the 20% off coupon i had. The saw is a dry saw so i just soaked my bricks well in water and it kept the dust down to a minimum.

I also bought the brick and block cutter, it cut the fire brick nice and straight with only one good hit of the hammer, I think that was 11 dollars,

both of them were well worth the money

[pizza_bob]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

I just picked-up my wet saw from Harbor Freight! The 10" wet saw (item #95385) was on sale. It was originally $299.99 and marked down to $229.99. I signed-up for a coupon on-line (that can be used in the store) for 20% off. I ended-up getting the saw for $183.99!!! What a deal! I bought the stand for $59.99 and a diamond blade for $29.99. I'm not certain if the balde is best for firebrick. In all my excitement of getting the tile saw I didn't notice this blade is for concrete, ceramic, tile, marble and soft stone materials. The item number for the blade is 42043. It has no "serrations" and pictures I see on this forum of saw blades are serrated.
Has anyone used this blade for firebrick? I also noticed that the saw blade is $10 cheaper on-line...

Thanks,
Bob

[Les]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

Bob - the blade will work just fine. The ones with teeth are more aggressive but the one you have works great. I went through 2 or 3 of them but it was used for more then the oven.

[dmun]

Re: Harbor Freight Brick Saw

And, as a bonus, the non-serrated blade is much safer, makes smoother cuts, and is never going to do more than slightly abrade your finger if there's a encounter.

Standard firebrick is a pretty soft material, as masonry stuff goes.