Don't you just love power tools??? It makes DH crazy when I use his tools (drill press, table saw, chop saw) Still working up my courage to mess with our heavy duty block cutter, its a gas start, 8 or 10" diamond blade and a little taller than I am, hhhmmmmmm, maybe tomorrow...:)

I didn't find it too messy, except when I lifted up the blade guard, and was rewarded with a cold spray of water down my chest.

I WANT PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF!!

ROTFLMAO

Quite the exfoliant, wet saw grit water. As is, I also discovered earlier today, sanded grout caulking. Who needs expensive pharmacy products or spas? Tomorrow, I'll be sure to get my face nearer, rather than my torso!

Fern, a gas start? Reminds me of the one and only time I rented a huge gas power washer, with the intent on removing peeling paint from my foundation parging. Darn thing kept backfiring, scaring everybody on the block, and I did a crummy job of removing paint, but an excellent job of cutting the heads off my lovely flowers.

So today, I put the wet saw on the counter (yesterday, it was the floor). My reward? The fine spray of cold water IN MY MOUTH this time! ahahahaha! I felt like such a goof.

Still, better than the cuts made with the tile cutter (the one that scores the face of the tile) - and I still have all of my fingers.

One question, the occasional spark is normal right? By spark, I mean like the kind when one tries to cut thru metal?

Put...the tile..down...and step....away...from the power tool! :-)

One question, the occasional spark is normal right? By spark, I mean like the kind when one tries to cut thru metal?

Yes and no. It's to be expected sooner or later, but it's telling you that either you're trying to push the tile through too fast, or it's time to "dress" the blade. What that means is to go down to Home Depot or Lowes and buy a single concrete landscaping brick. Run it through the saw about a dozen times, taking off about a 1/4" sliver each time. Your blade should then cut like a hot knife thru butter.

What it does, is the concrete is hard enough to wear down the metal on the blade, but not hard enough to wear down the diamond, and running it thru a few times like that will wear enough metal off the rim to expose more diamond and make it cut better.

That is a nifty tip, Bill! Thanks!

Great tip Bill!

chloe_s_mom, to clean up that cut a little, you can sort of move the tile into the blade sideways....so the side of the blade can sort of grinds that finger thingy off (no....not YOUR finger, silly). Isn't a wet saw just the coolest tool ever?? mine doesn't have a blade guard....not sure why I'd want one either. I like the precision that seeing the blade gives me. Of course mine doesn't shoot water on me either!

My DB showed me a neat way to make a U shaped hole in a tile when we did bathroom. Cut a series of "fingers" inside the area (of course, make the end 2 cuts where you want the hole). Then break or nip off the fingers, and angle the wet saw blade into the U to smooth off all the remaining ends. You might have already tried that, and I think the cleanup is what Bill is describing. But it worked really well for the little bit of plumbing wall sticking out from the side of the tub. Sorry no in-progress pics. Here's a pic of finished tile (that I measured wrong so one leg was too short - I measured from tub to corner, not tub to grout line), but the ends have already been cleaned up.

{{!gwi}}

Details of cleaned up cut - can you see the ridges? Sorry I think it focused on my feet.

{{!gwi}}

Finished floor - cut covered by baseboard

{{!gwi}}

Did you ever find your dark brown receptacles and covers?

It was in my attempts to grind the 'fingers' off that I noticed the most amount of sparks, which made me wonder if I'd burn my new kitchen down (wasn't worried about me, as I was already quite wet). If that's how we prime such blades, my lawn mower must be sharp as ever, after DH ran over a *concealed* (to him, not to me) brick....

So I saw brown receptacles at Home Depot, but they weren't for GFIs, or the rest of the 20 amp receptacles...I picked up a black one, as well as both a black switch plate and an oil rubbed bronze one. Then I reinstalled the white ones, and put the kettle in front of one, utensil stand in front of another....hee hee!