Half Bath Renovation: Tile Saws

After talking with my dad Saturday, we went to the store he recommended and bought a small tile saw and blade for cutting slate. Thus, we were suddenly thrust into the world of the impossible to find 1” arbor.

When we walked into the hardware store, we both seemed to be immediately drawn to the most expensive tile saw they had on display. I don’t know what it is, but it was beautiful and looked so sturdy and you could also buy a stand for it! Then we looked at the smaller table saws, and were slightly unimpressed after seeing the other, with its handle to push the blade into the tile and large water basin and sleek styling of steel with accents of orange. Of the smaller portable tile table saws we looked at, there were two sizes of blades. The four inch saw was lightweight and looked to be easy to move and store but was also mostly plastic, and the 7 inch saw had a chrome table with a metal base and looked to be the more sturdy of the two, and was only about ten dollars more.

So we’ve chosen the tile saw, now we need to get a blade to cut slate. That should be easy, right? Ha! Searching through the blade selection it seemed that every blade we found with a continuous rim, rather than notched, would not work for slate tile cutting. Finally we located a 7” blade for slate, but it was notched and for dry cutting only, and we really wanted to utilize the wet cutting method to reduce dust and friction. But, we figured we’d get it anyway and worst comes to worst, dry cut the tiles instead of wet. So we made our purchase, loaded it up into the car and took it home to be opened another day.

Of course, the next day was Easter, and a busy day at that, so nothing got done tile-wise then. Monday rolls around and we immediately get ready to go to another hardware store to see if they have the wet blade we were looking for and find one, take it home, and my partner proceeds to unpack and do the minor assembly to the saw that is required before we can get cutting. It was obvious there was a problem when he opened up the package to the wet tile saw blade and it wouldn’t fit. That’d be the time to open up the manual where it says that it takes blades with a 1” arbor, the hole in the middle of the blade that attaches to the machine itself. Nowhere on the box was this mentioned, and no blade we looked at had a 1” arbor hole. The 7” blades all seemed to have a 5/8” arbor, and so it was assumed on our part the saw we bought would be for blades with that size hole in the middle. Well, you know the old saying: Never assume anything, it makes an ASS out of U and ME.

And so we pack up the blades, and just in case the tile saw, and head back to the original hardware store to return the blade we got for one with the correct sized arbor. It became painfully obvious this was going to be, er, painfully headachey. The only blade with a 1” arbor would only work for ceramic tile and specifically said not for slate. So my partner returns the blade and we head to the other hardware store with the blade we bought there, the one that will work for wet slate tile cutting, and search for a same-purpose blade with the larger arbor and find nothing. Every tile saw we found with a 7” blade had the same arbor… 5/8”. Grrr! We make the decision to keep the blade we got there and go back to the original hardware store to return the tile saw and now we are back to square one.

I never thought this process would be so nerve-racking, simply finding a tile saw to cut slate. Apparently we need to do just a tad bit more research before resuming our quest. I’m at the point where the smaller, ugly plastic 4” tile saw we found would be fine with me… if only we could locate a slate tile cutting blade for it!