I have been using a diamond blade in an old circ saw (not a worm drive) much of the summer. The blade cost 28 bucks it is probably available cheaper. It does kick up the dust and certainly a water spitting sliding concrete saw is preferable but these blades work well. A mask is probably advised or, like me you work up wind.
The sliding wet saw is a slick machine for sure.Much easier to set up for truly accurate cuts. ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 4:40 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Basement door project update. Dan, a buddy indeed. Anybody who'll loan you a diamond blade is somebody whose friendship you should cherish. BTW, how are you keeping water flowing while you're cutting. Also, I assume you have a worm gear driven circ saw, is that right? Bill Stephan Kansas Citty MO Email: [email protected] Phone: (816)803-2469 ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 2:18 pm Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Basement door project update. > About a week ago, I borrowed a cement mixer from Breeze, another > Blind > Handyman lister. Turns out that his mixer is significantly > heavier than > the one I rented in the past. However, it was much cheaper, only > cost me > a couple of magazine subscriptions for his kids fund raiser, and I > get to > keep it for more than a day. However, it did take three of us to > drag the > damn thing up the steps. > > Well, I had finally gotten the hole finished, the paver base > tamped, the > sand screeded off nice and flat and level, and the first course of > land > scaping blocks laid nice and flat and level. > > Sooo, I took Friday off, and my brother, wanting to see what it > might be > like to actually work with his hands, came over to the house > Friday > morning. Almost everything was ready and in place. I pulled the > 20 40 > pound bags of cement from the basement and lifted them up to my > brother > who then stacked them beside the cement mixer. > > After that was done, we fired up the mixer and I was dumping the > bags and > water into the mixer five at a time. After it was mixed, we > dumped the > mixer, my brother shoveled it into the pit, and Teresa raked it > out. > While Rob was shoveling and Teresa raking, I would get the next > load of > cement mixing. > > After we had gone through all the cement, I helped Teresa float > the cement > off. I had set up a screed board to angle the cement down toward > the > drain, and that worked very nicely. We then kind of puddled the > cement up > around the edges so that water would flow toward the drain from > any > position on the slab. All went well. There was some extra > cement, but I > plugged a few holes around the yard and disappeared it reasonably > well. > On Saturday and Sunday, I managed to lay three courses of blocks > and back > fill behind the courses with gravel. I don't have to cut many > blocks but > have found it pretty easy, especially since a buddy at work loaned > me his > diamond blade for my circ saw. > > There is one problem corner where I have to cut the blocks in > strange > ways, and there was no way to anchor the first block, nor the > blocks that > sit above it, so I have been mortaring them to the house to keep > them from > shifting. > > the pin system works pretty well for the rest of the blocks, but > it can be > frustrating to scrape the gravel from the slots before laying the > next > course. Then trying to get them to line up so that the pins slide > home is > usually easy, but occasionally tedious. > > The damn thing is sucking up gravel faster than my back can > recover from > hauling 60 pound bags up the steps. I probably need another 20 > bags > before I am done. > > I placed sonno tubes at the ends of the side walls in preparation > for > anchoring posts for railings. I found a very cool device for > helping with > this. It is a 30 inch long spike with a 4X4 box on top. I will > sink the > spike into the cement in the middle of the sonno tube, then after > it is > set, I can just drop the 4X4 railing post into the box and bolt it > in > place. > > I should have the wall complete by the end of the weekend, but it > will > take another week or two before I get the railings in place, and > the two > wooden steps built and installed in the pit. > > -- > Blue skies. > Dan Rossi > Carnegie Mellon University. > E-Mail: [email protected] > Tel: (412) 268-9081 > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
