Masonry Magazine June 2002 Page. 21
NO DUST OR SLURRY?
It seems logical at first: if dust is a problem when cutting, why not use a dust collector-in other words, a vacuum cleaner-to remove the dust? Sometimes logic runs into conflict with practical, however. Water spray has been the norm for dust control and most table-mounted brick saws use this method. Still, the vacuum cleaner idea persists in coming up in conversations among masons.
One company does offer a vacuum attaching point and a dust collecting channel on its table saws, making it somewhat unique in this market. EDCO, Frederick, Md. produces a line of what it calls hardscape saws designed to cut the hard paver-type bricks used in landscaping and integrated into driveways and walkways. Using gasoline engines or electric motors, the portable table saws provide a vacuum tube that brackets the blade at the point of cutting. The user connects an outboard industrial vacuum-a shop vacuum will do nicely-and cuts away.
EDCO claims that there is a small puff of dust at the beginning of the cut and then the vacuum draws the remaining dust away from the work and into the canister. An obvious benefit to this approach is that, with no water spray, there is no slurry and much less mess. OSHA is reviewing this as a viable option for dust control although at this time there has been no comment made as to its effectiveness and acceptance by that agency.
Will the hardscape saw work equally well for common, face and other brick? According to Chuck Hommey of EDCO, "The saws work best on any solid material as the material becomes part of the vacuum channel, improving the dust pick up."
He adds, "While using water will eliminate the dust problem, the vacuum system lets you cut dry and still remove 95 percent of the dust."
A graduate student at the University of Washington Department of Environmental Health did a dust and silicosis study on the EDCO GMS-10 (10 inch saw with vacuum attached) with satisfactory results and the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) indicates the personal exposure limits (PELS) for the saw are very low.
So if dust is a problem when cutting dry-and you must cut dry-try vacuuming it all away instead.
Tool," reports Delahaut. "There are some new motor developments they're beginning to explore that will be available in the next few years and we'll have to decide if they are applicable in terms of moving a diamond blade. There are technologies that will reduce the cost of the diamond blade, improve its performance, provide more reliability to the customer, and will allow the blade to be lighter weight. Those are all things that we have to wait on while we see what the motor developments are. It's all based on the torque, speed and efficiency of motor design to limit the amount of electric power that's being drawn. On a job site, that is the most limiting factor."
Changes in blade design have made them quieter, a consideration both indoors and out. Blades whine. The wind whistling through them makes a high whining noise. "It's irritating and loud," acknowledges Lundberg, But there are answers. "If you hit the core of a normal blade, it dings like a bell. If you hit the core of Target's Silent Runner blade, it's like hitting a piece of wood. It cuts down the noise by close to half."
It's more expensive to make a quieter blade, obviously. "We put it only on our top blades," admits Lundberg. "This core is so expensive, you can't use it on an inexpensive blade because your starting cost is too high. It's been most successful where people are cutting indoors all the time, such as in the marble and granite fields, and on larger jobs where there are many other workers around whose hearing could be affected by the noise."
Other blade companies are following suit, bringing out silent core blades to ease ear strain on the job. It's all an evolutionary process but it increases the benefits to the contractor and, as volume goes up, will likely bring the costs down to where they are for other high-quality blades today.
Why the table saw?
IN A WORD, accuracy. Dunn Masonry's Brock adds, "Besides the accuracy issue, there is the benefit when you have large quantities of units to cut. If you have a large quantity, you want to use the table saw. And here I mean quantity as in hours per man a day. If a man was going to cut for an hour on a table saw, it would take a couple hours with a high-speed handheld. If you were going to cut 10 minutes in a day, you'd probably do it with a high-speed."
In application, the brick table saw provides an easy to use cutting tool that can repeat accurate cuts over a large quantity of masonry units. Lundberg explains, "You need to cut straight, and it's easier to cut straight if you have a flat table and you can slide the brick or block against the backstop. You're square, then you plunge the blade down perfectly perpendicular into the brick or the block, or slide it through the brick while sitting perfectly square on the table. If you have to cut 50 in a row, it's a lot easier to grab one, put it up, slide it through and keep doing that one after the other in an assembly line fashion than it is to step on a brick, try to cut it straight, walk down the row, making perpendicular cuts with a high-speed handheld." And it will save those occasional boot-cutting accidents, too.
TIME IS MONEY
CUT CLEANING TIME BY HALF OR MORE
ON YOUR MASONRY JOBS
AVERAGE SQUARE FEET OF NEW BRICK CLEANED
BY ONE MAN IS USUALLY 2000-3000 PER DAY
WITH CONSISTANT RESULTS
DON'T LET A BAD CLEANING JOB REFLECT ON
YOUR SUPERIOR MASONRY WORK
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