Wet Cutting Cinder Block with a Dry Saw

If you have done any DIY your self you KNOW how expensive tools are. ESPECIALLY if you get specialty tools. We had to cut at least some of the blocks. There was no way around it.  First order of business was get  the right  saw blade for the job. I bought a diamond masonry blade. It cost me about 35.00. Not cheap but it will last a long time, especially when you consider I don't need to use something like this a lot.  Yes, I am keeping it. Once I am  living aboard, it goes in the "touch it and die" tool box.


We looked at our in house options.
1: Use the table saw.
2. Use the circular saw.
3. Rent a specialty saw. ( Renting  a specialty saw meant we still had to buy a blade.)


Our main goals:
Keep the saw and blade COOL!
Keep the dust down as much as is humanly possible.
Get all blocks cut and not destroy the blade,  the saw or the blocks..
Accomplish this ASAP.

Keeping the blade cool and dust down meant using water or doing a wet cut.  How to do that with a saw not designed for wet cutting was the question,. Solution was water down the blocks away from the saws,  then after the water has soaked in a bit, cut them as usual.

Next decision:
In doors now or wait until morning to do maybe an hours worth of work? Doing it tonight means the cement will be cured that much faster and I gain a day . Considering all the delays we have ran into getting an extra 12 - 18 hour  jump on this project would be a real bonus.
Decided if the circular saw would do the job then go  ahead and do it inside tonight.


Next decision: How to do it and NOT make a mess on a sanded floor that was not stained or poly-ed?
We took a large 30 gallon trash bag and spread it out on floor. The I found an old flannel sheet and folded it up until it was just a bit larger then the blocks to soak up any water that gets loose. That got put on top of the larger trash bag.  We added two short pieces of 2x4 on top of the folded sheet spaced appropriately to to support the blocks and wala we are good to go.

A large bowl of water and a cup to dribble a bit  of water on the area to be cut  and we are in business.

 I had marked the cuts with a pencil. The only problem was that as soon as you poured water on to the block the pencil marks disappeared. The cure was to make the first SHALLOW pass dry to mark the cut, then put water on and continue cutting.


Why the extra layer of 2" block?

If you remember the original post on this project there were big gaping holes at the back. The choice was cut full sized cinder blocks to fit those gaps OR make some sort of frame to hold in either cement or debris then top that debris off with cement to make it flat.  Neither idea appealed to me quite frankly. Making a straight cut across a single slab of cement such as we did tonight is one thing.  Custom cutting full blown cinder block to fit  is a horse of a completely different color. I just flat out did NOT want to go there!
When we moved the stove over I noticed that the pipe was not straight at the level the stove was at so we put  the 2" blocks under it and the pipe looked a lot better. How I did not notice it before I can't tell you. I just never noticed it was that slanted .

That solved the problem. Especially since I had enough blocks laying around.