Will Cutting Wood With a Diamond Blade Hurt It?
Diamond saw blades are made with teeth that have been coated in a strong carbon grit mixture. These saw blades are designed to cut through materials that would wear away normal blades, including stone, clay, concrete and similar substances. Diamond blades are usually designed for these tough materials. Trying to cut wood with a diamond saw might not lead to good results.
Diamond Saw Damage
Diamond saws are designed to be the most durable blades for the most difficult saw projects. You will not need to worry about damaging the diamond saw blade itself. These blades are made to withstand stone materials. The soft fibers of wood boards will not hurt the blade itself. The danger is in how the diamond blade treats the wood itself.
General Purpose of Diamond Blades
General purpose dry diamond saw blades can be used for several materials, but reconsider before using them to cut wood. The harsh grit of the diamond blade can cut tile and masonry with straight lines. When applied to wood, however, the blades might create a rough cut, ripping apart fibers, or might make it too easy to create crooked cuts. In most cases, it is better to use a traditional steel blade for wood.
Wood Cutting Blades
Carbide-tipped saw blades are designed especially for wood. These are similar to diamond saw blades, but are designed with teeth and coatings that will make it easier to cut wood, especially hardwoods. If you do want to use a diamond saw blade, ensure that you use a carbide version that is specifically designed for wood.
Exceptions
Some exceptions exist to using diamond blades on boards. For example, fiber cement board comes in planks and might resemble wood, but it is actually made from cementitious materials. Do not assume that the board shape means it is made of wood. Diamond saws work well when cutting fiber cement and similar materials for construction products.
How to Cut Concrete
Concrete—most of us have a love-hate relationship with it. Love it when we need a permanent, heavy-duty, weather-resistant surface. Hate it when we gotta repair, replace or cut the stuff.
The prospect of cutting concrete can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Most of the battle can be won by simply selecting the right tools. Try a concrete saw. Following is a rundown of common concrete-cutting tasks—from dinky to monster-sized—and the best tools and techniques for handling them.
Blades made of corundum may be cheap, but on a per-cut basis, they’re more expensive than diamond-tipped blades. If you rent a diamond circular saw blade, many rental centers will measure its perimeter before and after and charge you by the 1/1,000th inch used.
You can make small rough cuts using a cold chisel and sledgehammer (Photos 2 and 3), but the better choice is a circular saw with a special blade.
Dry-cutting diamond blades most often have a serrated or toothed rim (Photo 1) to help cool the blade and eject waste. They work best when you make a series of gradually deeper cuts to avoid overheating the blade. The downside to dry-cutting masonry is the tornado of fine dust it creates. If you cut concrete indoors, seal off the area with plastic and duct tape. Seal all duct openings as well.
Wet-cutting diamond blades can have either teeth or a smooth, continuous perimeter. Water not only helps cool and lubricate the blade but also keeps the dust down. These cut the fastest and cleanest, but they require a special saw that can both distribute water and be safely used around it. As a make-do option, you can plug your saw into a GFCI-protected extension cord and have a helper carefully direct a small stream of water just in front of your saw as it cuts.
Diamond Blade Buying Guide
With all of the different saw blades available on the market today, it can be overwhelming when purchasing a new blade. To get the quality of cut you expect with the best performance from your saw, it is important to have the most appropriate blade for the project at hand.
Diamond saw blades come in a wide range of sizes, bond types, and uses with quality and performance that can vary dramatically from blade to blade. Whether you have a tile saw, masonry saw, concrete saw, or other type of saw, selecting the right blade will help you get the job done right.
Diamond blades are available with different rim or edge configurations including segmented, continuous, and turbo with the type of rim affecting how the blade cuts. The segments or rim are fixed to the blade through the process of brazing, laser welding, or sintering.
Segmented blades typically have medium to hard bonds for a range of wet and dry cutting applications. While these blades can offer a relatively smooth cut with a fast cutting speed, chipping may still occur. They are durable and have a long blade life compared to other blades.
They are ideal for cutting marble and granite slabs, concrete, asphalt, brick, block, and other building materials. They are available in a wide selection of diameters from small to large and particularly dominate the 12” diameter and larger market. These blades are commonly used with masonry saws, concrete saws, and circular saws.
The spaces of air that separate the segments are called gullets. The gullets are there to improve air flow, dissipate heat, and remove slurry from the cut, helping to maintain the blade’s cutting performance. The size and shape of the gullets vary from blade to blade and will depend on the type of material the blade designed to cut.
For example, blades for cutting asphalt tend to have wider, U-shaped gullets while blades for concrete tend to have narrower, U-shaped gullets. The more abrasive the material, the wider the slot should be to allow for better heat dissipation. Other gullet shapes include keyhole, teardrop, and angled. Segmented diamond blades with narrow slots are generally for marble and granite while keyhole shaped slot blades tend to be for general purpose.
Circular Saw and Blades: A Basic Overview
A circular saw is either a hand held or table mounted tool used for cutting many types of materials such as wood, plastic, metal and masonry. All circular saws have a disc or blade with teeth on their edges. The motor on the saw enables the blade to spin at high speeds, enabling the teeth to smoothly cut through materials.
There are a couple of different factors when choosing a circular saw. First, what is it being used for? As with any purchase, we get what we pay for. Therefore, in order to ensure that tools will last more than 20 years, it is important to choose one with a strong motor. A strong motor will ensure top speed of the blade when cutting through a variety of hard to softer materials.
Because tools are standard purchases for the home, costs are generally known and standard. If you are not aware of amps and horse power as a factor in your decision making, cost could just as well be a reliable indicator. For a few hundred dollars, one should be confident that their tool will last a long time.
Now that you are set up with the saw, the interesting part is determining which saw blade to use for a particular job. Selecting the proper blade for the job will not only allow the tools to perform better and cleaner but also safer.
Things You should Know about Diamond Drill Bits
Diamond drill bits are perfect for drilling holes through hard materials such as these:
Glass, sea glass, beach glass, fused glass, sheet glass
Stone, gemstones, rock, pebbles, minerals
Ceramic, porcelain, tiles, glazed pottery, plates, china
Shell, antler, bone, fossil
Very hard woods
For very small precision holes for jewellery making purposes and precision holes in all glass, precious stone or porcelain tile we recommend using the small diamond drill bits which have a solid, flat end, or tip. These are available in sizes as small as 0.75mm - 3mm. Take a look at the below picture.
DO NOT use diamond drill bits on metal, soft wood, plaster or soft plastic. These materials are too soft and will cause the diamonds on your drill bit to clog up. When drilling holes in soft metals, plastics and wood use High Speed Steel drill bits (HSS) and for drilling holes in hard metals use Carbide Drill Bits
Diamond is the hardest material, and therefore anything else can be cut or drilled with it. If you are cutting or drilling through very hard materials such as Sapphire then bear in mind you will need a lot of patience and perhaps more drill bits than you would if you were drilling a hole through glass or Opal.
As with all diamond drill bits you should use water as a lubricant and coolant. Being hollow, allows the water to flow up inside and around the inner core of these drill bits as you are drilling, helping to keep the drill bit cool and removing the debris.
Diamond core drills are available in sizes 1mm - 3mm and 3.5mm - 60mm and larger.
For drilling tiny holes in plates, glass, fused glass and for thin pieces of sea glass we recommend using a small diamond core drill. These are available in sizes from as small as 1mm- 3mm.
Diamond Core bits also come in a range with a 2.35mm shank
As you drill, the water swirls around inside the core. This helps prolong the life of your drill bit and helps to prevent any cracking or shattering of the material you're drilling.
