Best 1200mm+ wet cutter for stone

[stone tiler]

Evening all,

Got a couple of jobs coming up that will require a wet cutter that can handle limestone slabs 1200mm long,800mm wide and 25mm thick. We are ripping down the slabs to make planks on one job so the finish of the cut must be spot on. Also I know its going to be a heavy piece of kit but I need it to be fairly portable from job to job.

Looks like we are going to have to buy a bigger cutter so has anyone got a machine they can recommend? Or maybe somewhere in the south east we can hire a suitable machine? Only machines I've found are the Rubi DS250 1500 or the Rodia machine at Diatech in Scotland. I'm a Rubi fan but I've never played on a machine this big and at £2k its a big buy without playing.

 

[Qwerty]

What about a handheld wet cutter? DeWalt or Makita?

 

[Concrete guy]

Flex CSW4161 plus rails.

Or ask a local mason to cut the 1200's down to planks for you on their bridge saw, then all you have to deal with are crosscuts and the odd long cut.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Is that the Royal 'we' or is it for one man to handle?
Does the specification allow for smaller lengths or is the 1200 lengths the maximum in a random design. What widths are required as you should be able to cut the 1200 on a Dewalt if you have one :smilewinkgrin:.

 

[stone tiler]

I'm put off the flex or the other wet hand held saws as ripping down 100mts of limestone into planks either 250mm or 195mm wide and they need to be spot on. Being laid like wood flooring in random planks. I know these machines are good but I felt there would be too much play on them and I couldn't fix a guide rail up for the whole job like I could on a big cutter. If it was just 15/20 mts I'd risk it.
Tried 2 stone masons/worktop fitters local to me and they are quoting nearly a grand to cut them down and re-pallet them ready for del to site. For that money I might aswell but the machine and do it myself.
Dewalt can't handle them. Too heavy.
Its the royal 'we' as my work mate is too frail to help me lift a bucket on site let alone the slabs or the cutter!!

 

[Concrete guy]

We used to use a CSW 4160 in my warehouse to cut down 3200x1500x30mm slabs of granite. It was accurate to +/- 1mm over 3000mm.

 

[stone tiler]

Maybe I should think about these a bit more then. I thought cutting down over 100 slabs like this would be a pain in the backside

 

[Concrete guy]

Maybe I should think about these a bit more then. I thought cutting down over 100 slabs like this would be a pain in the backside

The accuracy you require is the pain and that's why you're getting quoted so much by a mason to do the cutting. There's a lot of set up time for each cut.

A CSW 4161 can cut 50mm + in limestone in a single pass so you could at least double up the slabs. From memory it's a 60mm depth of cut.

 

[Pebbs]

Its a big investment for sure, if you are not going to be using it all the time, then hire in would be my advice.
Pebbs

 

[stone tiler]

I'm struggling to hire one. No one local has one. Anyone know where I can find a machine for hire?

 

[Pebbs]

Where are you based?

Pebbs

 

[stone tiler]

Surrey junction 8 M25

 

[stone tiler]

Just to keep you all informed, we decided to buy the Rubi DS 250 1500.
It made sense as we thought if we are going to go big then we might as well push the boat out and go really big! With a 1500mm cutting length, hopefully we can cater for almost any stone job that comes are way.
I went over to Rubi in Essex and they were very helpful. They had 1 in stock so they got it out the box for me and let me have a look and a play with it, we put it up against other machines they had in stock and also the hand held water fed saws. After a chat with them we all agreed this was the best way forward.
I'm sure its a wise choice but I'll give you a full review once we've had it on site and seen how it performs.

 

[gamma38]

Look forward to a review.

 

[Freeze]

Blue ripper jr, more accurate than the flex I'm my opinion, but that's taking nothing away from the flex as that's a superb bit of kit as well, and the eagle edger attachments for doing mitres etc are the best I have used for on site fabrication, only down side is the amount of water they chuck out, so need to take that in to consideration.

 

[Freeze]

Or look at the new kera flex system by sigma, another rail system, but for dry cutting with grinders

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Tried to look at your link on 250 1500 and the lady asked if I wanted the full 1 hour session with oil and warm towel!
But the amazing thing was her name was Ruby!

 

[Sean SML Tiling]

Is it possible to score the stone with an angle grinder and then snap with a sigma? Or would stone still spit where the veins are running?

 

[J Sid]

Smltiling, that would be nice, but sadly no.

 

[Sean SML Tiling]

Just another crazy thought lol. I have heard that a manual cutter has cut trav before whether it was a fluke im not sure.

 

[J Sid]

Just wishful thinking.

 

[jonnyc]

sorry, only just seen this thread so may be too late.
i was looking for a replacement saw about six months ago.
i have previously had the alu manta 85 and 120
and prior to that the norton cs100 clipper.
norton was good for 15 years every day use but heavy to lug around.
alu mantu nice and light but after 4-5 years the aluminium frame starts to buckle and legs sherar off.
i spent alot of time looking around and bought the battipav prime 120s from trimline and all of us are really happy with it.
i got it because it was a robust machine that trimline use for hiring out as the least problematic
and also because it is very simple with not much to go wrong .
the raimondi zoe looks the biz but overcomplicated for me.
the king of all is undoubtedly the ENGLISH made bam 1320 and worth the extra money for the quality but more difficult to move around. other than the bam the karl dahm made cutter is only one to compare.

 

[stone tiler]

Hi Jonny
Yeah I had a look at the Bam but didnt feel it was a site machine. Lovely machine tho
As you say the Raimondi looked too fidley and I knew something would break off on it in the back of the van.
Didnt really look in to the Battipav or the Karl Dahm as to be honest I'd pretty much made my mind up on the Rubi by then. We have loads of Rubi tools already so like how well they are made and trust the brand. For me it just seemed the logical machine to get. Being able to go to Rubi and play with the machine before buying helped aswell.
Will keep everyone updated on how it performs