Looking for info on HF Bridge style tile saw.

Jim O'Dell

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2,783
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Between Aledo and Fort Worth, TX
Anyone have any information on the Harbor Freight 1 1/2 HP Bridge style tile saw? I know the 2 1/2 HP regular style tile saw from them has received good reviews on the wood forums, but the regular price went up 70.00 since last April (was reg 229.95, and on sale at 199.95), and is not on sale right now. The Bridge saw retails for the same 299.95, but is on sale for 229.95, and comes with a stand and a blade, both extra on the other unit. We finalized the tile for the "Pink Room" today, and hope to pick it up next weekend. Should be ready to start laying it the weekend after that. Maybe the other saw will go on sale between now and then, but if not...
Thanks for any help you can offer. I did look at Craig's List, but nothing there of any quality for a decent price. Jim.
 
I don't know anything about the HF tile saws, but what's the price to rent a pro one? (Or do you have enough other tile work coming up to make it worth purchasing one?)
 
Jim,

I went ahead and bought one... I think I paid about 25% more than the highest price you quoted. That was three years ago... since then I've done four more tile floors. The thing was worth every penny... I'd hate to have to rent one every time I need it. It was also worth every penny to get a new blade to replace the one that came with it, so don't forget to factor that in. I'd go and look up the model, but it just went back into it's storage spot, high up in the rafters. It's the kind where the table slides under the stationary blade...

Thanks,

Bill
 
Never looked at theirs, but I bought a cheap one. Looks like a little table saw and cost in the range of $50? I don't remember exactly. But I have used it on several jobs in this house and it has more than paid for itself. I am sure a bigger one would be faster but I have no complaints on this one. It's a little messy but I expected that.

I have cut 12 x 12 floor tiles down to the 2" tiles for the shower. Not trying to talk you out of a bigger one, but this one has been great. Probably a little slower but if I ever build another house I would just buy another one like this.
 
I'm real fond of the Workforce from Home Depot; I put myself thru med school with it. The only thing that forced me to get a new one was theft. I see it on sale for $88 all the time. has a nice small footprint too...about 16x16.
 
Vaughn, I rented one when we did the other house. Seems like about 45.00 per day back then. I could have paid for a HF unit about 1 1/2 times. We will eventually tile most of the rest of the house, so it only makes sense to go ahead and buy one at this point.

Bill, I bet yours is the one I'd rather have. But it is the one that went up in price and not on sale. The other problem is that we are looking at some 18 X 18 tiles, and I don't think it will cut tiles that big. The bridge style will cut up to 24 X 24, so would be better for me, IF it is a decent unit.

Jeff, the tile size would be the deal ender there again. I'm sure if I was just doing wall tile, or floor tile up to 12 X 12, the little ones would do just fine. I even priced a used one at the rental store years ago, and it was still about 500 clams. Of course, those are the 1800.00 units, so it wasn't out of line, just out of my range. :wave:
Thanks guys. Hopefully someone will know something good or bad about the bridge unit. I'm going to end up having to spend my tool money I was saving to get a cabinet saw on this, and I don't want to spend all of it! Jim.
 
Jim,

I found this tool to actually improve the speed of my straight cuts.

TileSaw.jpg


I bought a small saw to make the other cuts with. It slow in comparison to what you are looking at.

You might check out this forum, John Bridge its a very freindly place and all the pros will offer up advise to you. Heres a link over there for the saw you are looking at. LINK

Hopefully this helps.

Regards,

Randy
 
Well, there wasn't anything on TV to keep me home, so I went out and got some paint for the ceiling, and the Venetian plaster for the entry that we are going to try, and looked at the Lowe's version of the bridge saw. Wasn't impressed. Went on over to HF and looked at theirs, and again, didn't overly excite me. Looked like it would work, but was not smooth sliding across the bridge. Saw a stack of the 2 1/2 hp sliding table saws like I originally wanted, no price on them. Found a flier that was not on line, and lo and behold, it was on sale for 229.95 also. Gave them my 15% off coupon I printed off the net, it scanned in, and I left paying about 212.00 out the door! :thumb: I'm a happy camper!!
So now I need to find a blade on line and order. HD had a Ridgid blade for 49.95, and a Husky for 34.95. Lowe's had a DeWalt for 34.95, I think. I'll look on Amazon to see what they have, and make my decision.
Thanks again for all the help that has been offered. I think the bridge saw would have been fine, but I feel much better about the sliding table saw. It is a type of saw I have used before. I just have to tell TLOML that she can't use anything over 18 X 18 tiles or she will have to buy the next saw, and it won't be cheap. :rofl: Jim.
 
Vaughn, I rented one when we did the other house. Seems like about 45.00 per day back then...
Wow, I didn't realize they were that expensive, It definitely makes sense to buy one if you're gonna use it more than a couple days. Congrats on finding the one you really weanted in the first place, (on sale to boot).
 
Sounds like you got a great deal Jim, good for you!

I have to ask, 18" tiles, these are for the wall right? :huh:

I could not imagine 18" floor tiles, I'd be darn sure they would crack over time:dunno:

I'm sure that you will get a lot of use out of the saw, I think that now you have the saw, you will see tiles as a perfectly good option when it comes to finishing a room, if you did not have the saw, I'd think tile would, for the most part, be off the list of options.

Now, one more thing.................

.......New Saw..........?? 

I don't see ANY pictures of a NEW SAW.......... do you guys..... :dunno:

;) :wave:
 
...I have to ask, 18" tiles, these are for the wall right? :huh:...
Our entry hall, kitchen and dining room have 18" tiles. Here's a shot of the dining room before we moved in:

DiningRoom.jpg

No cracked tiles, although we have some grout joints that need patching. Whoever grouted the tiles left a lot of air bubbles in the grout, which is now starting to fail in a number of places. I'm not looking forward to fixing it all. We've got another crack that runs along a grout line, but it's a residual from the 1994 Northridge quake. The crack runs through the neighbor's house, then across the street, through our house, and down the hill. our whole cul-de-sac is built on rock, but even so, things do move a bit out here.
 
Well there you go, I've not seen floor tiles that large before, in fact, around the 12" ones are rare, I would guess because of all the earthquakes :dunno:

I know you get them there too, but I think we get more.

Cheers!
 
Just to be clear, I'm talking about floor tiles, ceramic stuff.

We have the larger stone tiles, pieces of stone, usually granite or marble, that are something like 1" thick, no those I've seen in 18" or even larger formats, in building entrances etc. but they are a lot more robust than ceramic tiles.

Cheers!
 
Yeah, ours are some type of Spanish clay tiles. The ones in that size range aren't all that common as far as I've seen, but they do exist.

Personally, I'm not a big tile fan. I prefer hardwood or laminate for hard-surface floors, and carpet for the rest of the house. I also don't really like tile countertops. We've them in the kitchen and one of the bathrooms, and I keep telling LOML that the next house will have some type of solid surface material instead.
 
Never looked at theirs, but I bought a cheap one. Looks like a little table saw and cost in the range of $50? I don't remember exactly. But I have used it on several jobs in this house and it has more than paid for itself. I am sure a bigger one would be faster but I have no complaints on this one. It's a little messy but I expected that.

I have cut 12 x 12 floor tiles down to the 2" tiles for the shower. Not trying to talk you out of a bigger one, but this one has been great. Probably a little slower but if I ever build another house I would just buy another one like this.


I'm with Jeff here, I did my daughter's three bathrooms with small Octagonal tiles and found out real fast that I needed a saw so SWMBO said to get the one from HD I think is was less than $80.. Finished up her three baths in a heart beat, using the saw (there were a "Gazillion" small tiles to cut) I don't believe I could have cut the 1" tiles with the bigger saw... Then, of course, my son needed two bathrooms done, One with 12" tiles and another with 5" X 8" tiles, again a breeze with the smaller saw and it packs up easily and shelves in the box in my shop waiting its next call.

This past spring SWMBO wanted some landscaping concrete blocks around beds and walks all was fine untill, as usual, the corners and the ends, (they didn't come out exact to the measurements and had to be cut). I tried the chisel method w/o much fanfair and thought of the saw , Worked great there as well. Has been quite useful and well worth the small investment.

You really don't need the bigger more expensive saw (like they use on DIY) if you are not a pro and continuously use it, it seem a bit overkill. Like I said with the smaller saw you can get your fingers in close to hold small tiles (unlike a tablesaw there are no teeth to pull flesh into the blade a nick is the most to expect but give it respect all the same, luckily I have no nicks, but I did cut out some special holders or pushers to feed the small tiles, Couldn't do this with the bigger overhead saw.

Just my $0.02 worth of experience.
 
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...I bought a cheap one. Looks like a little table saw and cost in the range of $50? I don't remember exactly. But I have used it on several jobs in this house and it has more than paid for itself. I am sure a bigger one would be faster but I have no complaints on this one. It's a little messy but I expected that.

I have cut 12 x 12 floor tiles down to the 2" tiles for the shower. Not trying to talk you out of a bigger one, but this one has been great. Probably a little slower but if I ever build another house I would just buy another one like this.

I have that saw, too. I got in on an HF sale for around $30.00. Buying it was way cheaper than renting a tub saw! I've used it on three small/medium tile jobs, cutting 4 X 4, 4 X 6, and 12 X 12 tiles. Never a problem. It just cuts them like butter.

When I bought it for the first (small bathroom) job, I figured it'd be a 'throw-away' after the job, but the little saw just won't quit. Definitely one of my better buys from HF.
 
Sounds like you got a great deal Jim, good for you!

I have to ask, 18" tiles, these are for the wall right? :huh:

I could not imagine 18" floor tiles, I'd be darn sure they would crack over time:dunno:

I'm sure that you will get a lot of use out of the saw, I think that now you have the saw, you will see tiles as a perfectly good option when it comes to finishing a room, if you did not have the saw, I'd think tile would, for the most part, be off the list of options.

Now, one more thing.................

.......New Saw..........?? 

I don't see ANY pictures of a NEW SAW.......... do you guys..... :dunno:

;) :wave:

I wondered all day who would be the first to mention no picture no saw!!:D:D Actually it is still in the box and not even I have seen it. :rofl: But just for you, Stu: DSCN2077.jpg :p Now you've seen as much of it as I have.
We have planned to tile basically the whole house since we bought it 4+ years ago. This is just the first room to get it. At our previous house, the family room/kitchen, hall, one bedroom, and both baths were tile that I did. LOML likes it for the occasional doggie mishaps we have. And with the never ending stream (no pun intended, honest!!) of rescue dogs, it only makes sense. I'd love to have laminate or real wood, but the dogs would ruin it too quickly. Plus the tile is easier to clean and disinfect.
Around here, big tiles are normal. I fact, I asked the question should we use all 12 X 12s or do a 2 size tile installation and use those plus the 18 X 18s. The guy working at the tile store, he and his brother own it and are tile installers first, said the large tiles are being used in 5 X 7 powder rooms, that the bigger tiles with fewer grout lines somehow make the room look bigger. We will be doing what they call a pin wheel pattern. What happens is that the grout lines don't line up in a straight line in any direction. If there were more sizes available in this tile, I would have used 3 or 4 sizes. I really like the random look it presents. Kind of like the old world cobble stone street. The second tile choice we had would have been 13 X 13s, and 20 X 20s.
Well, now to get the blade coming. I think I'll get the DeWalt that is 38.30 shipped from Amazon. 39.95 at HD, plus tax and gas. Jim.
 
Jim,

If your interested I have a new, unopened, MK-225 Hot Dog blade. I bought this when I tiled our house in Florida. I never ended up using it.

Amazon Link

I'll let it go for $35, shipped to you.

Randy

51FW2JYP1RL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
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