The Right Tool for the Job

[cecilB]

Re: The Right Tool for the Job

I have some questions for you about cutting bricks - Harbor Freight's brick cutter is 259.00 - And we have a store right here in Topeka. However, they also have what looks like to me (I don't know anything about this stuff...but I'm learning...) is a manual brick cutter. I know, if that's what it is, it will take FOREVER, and could be tedious, but can that work?

Can you rent brick cutters?

Can it happen, that if you are inexperienced, and you cut all your bricks at once (with a rental), that you could have cut them all wrong?

Thanks
Cecelia

[jmhepworth]

Re: The Right Tool for the Job

I can't imagine building the oven without a power tool to cut the bricks. I'm sure the professionals can do it, but I couldn't. I also don't think I could have done it with a rental. There were too many times when I needed to shave a bit off a brick to make it fit better. I needed to trim corners from the very first course to avoid those skinny isosceles triangles. There is no way I could have anticipated those to cut them in advance, and there is no way I could have trimmed the brick manually. There were many times, however, when I wished I had a compound miter saw. I don't think well in three dimensions, so a tool that thinks that way for me would have been very helpful. Instead, I shimmed a lot on the HF saw trying to get the right angle, and I had to start over on some of the bricks more than once, particularly in the transition to the arch. That was a bear. If I had the oven to build over again, I would buy the HF saw.

Joe

[dmun]

Re: The Right Tool for the Job

You can rent a brick saw. Beware of places that charge for blade wear - it's a rip-off! If you have to use such a place rent the wet saw without the blade, and buy your own blade.

That said, there's only so much you can do in one day, and you may find you want to fit your bricks more carefully as you go up. I don't regret buying the HF saw. If you really don't need it you can resell it on ebay or craigslist, and end up paying not much more than you would have paid for a day's rental.

What I rented is a concrete mixer, separate trips for both pours. That was cheap to rent, and nothing I wanted to store.