Choosing a tile saw

This question comes from Dave in Vancouver regarding choosing a tile saw.


Recommendation for a tile saw (doing about 600 sq ft). Have bought several Home Depot types $80-100 that couldn’t finish the job.

Target, MK, and Felker all make excelent saws but can be a bit pricey unless you're intending to do a lot of tile. I have a Felker Tile Master and those run around $900-$1100 new depending on what bells and wistles you get with them. You may be able to get a decent saw new for as low as $600 if you find one on sale at the regular tile suppliers like Oregon Tile and Marble, or Intrepid. What ever saw you get, you need, of course, to take into consideration what size of tile you will be working with. If you only plan to use smaller tiles up to 8 X 8 you could go with a small saw. MK makes one that actually uses a special angle grinder to run a 5-6 inch blade. The thing screams like a banshee, but it's a nice little saw, they're pretty sturdy little work horses, and I've seen them used on fairly good sized house jobs. I've even worked with a fellow who was cutting 16 X 16 travertine tiles on the thing, although that was pushing it a bit. Any of the standard size saws will cut up to 20 X 20 tiles even on the diagonal, although to split tiles that size on the diagonal you'd have to cut through half way then flip the tile around and cut the rest of the way. I believe that Dewalt makes a large saw with a deeper throat that will take a big tile like that without having to double cut, but I haven't used that one, so I can't say how good of a saw it is, although it's probably pretty good.

Sometimes you can find a good used saw, you could check Craig's List, or look in the classifieds of the major newspapers around town. If you're only going to do around 600 sq. ft., you might call Star Rentals or one of the other equipment rental companies to see if they have any to rent. I think Home Depot might rent wet saws too.

A note about used saws -
Always buy from a reputable dealer. Pawn shops sometimes have construction equipment, and the good ones will check to see if they're stolen. I had a brand new $1,200.00 Felker stolen off my truck - second day it was on the job. I think I had only cut about 20 feet of tile since I got it. That hurt. The saw probably went straight to a pawn shop or someone that had said they were looking for a used tile saw. If someone is selling their saw, ask them why they are getting rid of it. It may be someone going out of business, which is fine, but it may be stolen, or it may not work.

Try it before you buy it. Make sure it has a blade on it and check to make sure that the blade doesn't wobble - a little is acceptable, very much is no good though, this could be a sign of a bent arbor. Run a cut or two through it and use something like a porcelain, marble or granite tile. If you've been doing tile, you should have a few scrap pieces you could bring. If you use a piece of standard grade tile, like the 4 1/4 X 4 1/4 or 6 X 6 Dal tile that Home Depot sells, it won't be much of a test of the saw. If the person selling the saw won't let you try it, I wouldn't buy it. If they say that the pump is broken, that could be true, but you could use a water bottle or hose to get water to the blade. Water pumps are inexpensive to replace, motors and other parts are not. You don't need to cut 10 feet, just enough to see that the arbor is running true and the motor is in good shape and the belt is tight, etc. If you run a few cuts and the motor sounds good and the saw doesn't bog down and the blade cuts straight and true, even if the blade has a little wobble when it isn't cutting a tile, it may be that the blade is a bit warped. I have a blade that's like that and it still cuts fine. If the motor does bog down a bit, check the belt to see if it's nice and tight. I have to tighten the belt on my saw occasionally.