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Taking a Poll – What is your favorite way to cut Quartz on site and how are you controlling the dust when doing so ?
Karl, are you just cutting down the edge to fit or cutting a slab in half? Core drilling? Sink cut-out?
Dave, we always get odd request from our customers so …. Yes cutting a installed slab, like changing the size of a sink or cooktop cutout or adding a hole in a slab…. things like that.
Karl, just cutting a piece to fit most use a good quality 7″ diamond blade on a 7 1/4″ skilsaw. As you said, dust is a concern so Alpha has a 4 1/2″ saw with a GFI so you could spray water with out the risk of shock and keep the dust down.
Core drills on a VS grinder, dry or wet will work although these are not usually done in the home unless a misstake was made and your’re enlarging.
A 5 or 6″ contour cut for a sink cutout again on a VS grinder and again, don’t see where you would be doing this in a home. A shop deal again. Of couse, if the tops outside before install then that’s another story.
Folks think you need expensive tools if you’re only doing the install part. You don’t. Keep it economical but purchase quality, proven diamond tooling. If you’re just looking for price on them, it will cost you more in the long run. Especially if that tool implodes and that would normally happen when you only have one and your half way through the cut!
Karl,
Hope you like cleaning. It is not as clean to work with as good old solid surface. Stone work: 2 hrs to perform task, 2 more to clean. Yet another benefit of the good stuff.
John
I have a cool way to cool a core bit. On the way to the job, stop at your local gas station and purhase a snow cone or slushy. Take the ice and cram in into the core bit and start cutting. The Ice will melt at just about the correct speed to allow for proper water without making a real mess. For those of use in snowy climates, the white stuff covering the ground works well also. Just don’t use the yellow stuff.
for core holes on quartz, if inside just have some one hold the vac next to you.
you wont have any dust with this. of course when cutting a sink cutout or cook top, you will always have way too much
dust for inside of home. you can tape up everything, have one shop vac inside the cab and another following the cut, spray bottle but you still get some dust.
unlike granite you dont need to cool the core bit on quartz when drilling. each hole will take around 15 seconds. just use the vac next to you.
also remember that quartz is more flexible than natural stone so you may be able to get away with cutting out side.
just my 2 cents, hope this helps
Edwin,with all due respect I could not disagree more. Try using a non-dry (Alpha) core drill on quartz without cooling it and I’ll show you a core drill that will turn blue from heat real quick. Seen it, lived it, they tried to return it. No way.
Edwin R. wrote
for core holes on quartz, if inside just have some one hold the vac next to you.
you wont have any dust with this.
unlike granite you dont need to cool the core bit on quartz when drilling. each hole will take around 15 seconds. just use the vac next to you.
Edwin:
It seems to me that the rush of the air of the vaccum may have a cooling effect on the bit. How many times have you performed this with the same bit? How hot can a bit get in 15 seconds anyway?
Joe
Dave,
I will have to agree with Edwin on this. We NEVER use a cooling substance when cutting quartz on site.
We drill all of our faucet holes on site and we use a heavy duty drill with MK diamond bits. The reasons are twofold. One, Core bits often do not have any difference between the cutting diameter and the diameter of the drill bit. This means that the material you are drilling has no way to be ejected which causes unnecessary heat. Our bits allow the dry quartz to be ejected on the surface without clogging and causing heat. Two, we would never use a grinder and core bit because if your bit catches of becomes twisted there is a lot more torque to spin that grinder around and damage nearby surfaces of your body.
We cut cooktops/downdrafts on site using a 4 1/2″ VS grinder with a 5 ” blade. We don’t use skillsaws because they are much harder to control and very difficult to trim inside corners, or cut outlet holes in backsplash which is always cut onsite.
ive worked with silestone for the last 5 years and have always cut my coreholes on site without cooling. all types of brand corebits, from granquartz to cheap chinese knock offs. we just dont need cooling. each corebit last over about a month thats doing an average of 2 holes a day 5 days a week. cooktops and drop in sinks are cut on site “out side” with out water.
really we have never had to cool our bits with quartz, would i prefer wet “OF COURSE” no dust, but it just happens that we can get away with cutting and touch up work at a job site cutting dry.
this is what we, a total of 6 install crews do every day 5 days a week.
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