Let me introduce you to my new friend...

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

It's terrifying. Imagine hanging on to the part on the left of cut with your fingers...

It is a saw for the cutting of bricks and has laughably few safety considerations. Made even worse by having to cut fancy shapes...

And this is the good machine.
It's worth pointing out that the first machine I hired was worse in its wobbliness but it died because...well, I think the switch was stuffed but I'm not an electrician.

Still...some bricks got cut. And the results are good...

There is still no guarantee I won't be maimed before this game is over...

[Tripper]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Nice work! I love purpose specific power tools like that, but yeah kinda sketchy.

[ibRAD]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Curious why they'd specify hearing protection and nothing else. What does the pedal on the bottom do?

The patio is coming along nicely. Looking good!

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@ibrad
It's a helper to maintain pressure on the saw blade along with the handle.

I've never used a bricksaw before!

[aremmes]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Looking good. It seems choppy boy there does what it says on the tin. I like how there's a line of bare metal where the blade blasts the cut material.

Also, that hat placement looks appropriate.

[trivet]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly
Am I the only one who thinks this is what actually happened to the previous owner of the hat?

[BicycleBuck]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly

Neat!

I like your gabion basket retaining wall. It makes for an unusual alternative to the standard landscaping block wall.

One of the recovery sites I've been working on in Houston used 6'x6'x6' gabion baskets to protect a drainage structure. The flood that came with Hurricane Harvey washed them away. They learned that baskets aren't so good for dealing with high volumes of running water! The new plan is a sheet-pile retaining wall which is designed to redirect the flow around the structure during high-water events.

[Neil in Nomi]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly good luck. We used one of those for our paver patio; my father in law brought a small holder stick or two so that we could keep hold the brick while keeping our hands farther from the giant spinning super sharp saw blade.

They were like these but homemade from wood
https://www.amazon.com/Dewalt-DW744X-Table-Replacement-A24507-2pk/dp/B00GUU4VRC/ref=asc_df_B00GUU4VRC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309869401414&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6521617091886236328&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1016367&hvtargid=pla-568021547462&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=63364097444&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=309869401414&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6521617091886236328&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1016367&hvtargid=pla-568021547462

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@bicyclebuck
Gabions like these HAVE to be pinned to the ground. Every second unit has a star picket smacked past it the wall height into the ground. Into which the gabion nearest is wired. And each gabion is wired to the other. Fortunately, we (as yet) don't get cyclones...

[BicycleBuck]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Let me introduce you to my new friend...:

@bicyclebuck
Gabions like these HAVE to be pinned to the ground. Every second unit has a star picket smacked past it the wall height into the ground. Into which the gabion nearest is wired. And each gabion is wired to the other. Fortunately, we (as yet) don't get cyclones...

The baskets on our project were pinned and wired together. Here's the aftermath.

That area upstream used to be part of the embankment which was protected by what used to be a wall of baskets. It didn't fare so well during the hurricane.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@bicyclebuck
I'd argue that that was actually a good result...

[orneryduck]

@bicyclebuck said in Let me introduce you to my new friend...:

@silentbutnotreallydeadly
Neat!
I like your gabion basket retaining wall. It makes for an unusual alternative to the standard landscaping block wall

I was going to ask what the story was regarding the wire enclosures on the stones… so those are permanent? How will they fare with weather/corrosion?

Are the stones all ‘loose’ behind the wire or are they affixed to each other with mortar?

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@orneryduck
They are permanent. The wire baskets are galvanized and will outlive me. They are pinned to the ground using star picket fence posts and gravity. They are also very labour intensive....

All the stones are loose fill but the facing stones are tightly packed for aesthetics. Did I mention how labour intensive they are?

[orneryduck]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly the end result is really nice. I can see how that’s be a bear though.

[Chariotoflove]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly
The results look great. Be extra careful. It would suck to get blood on those nice bricks or not be able to finish because of a trip to the hospital.

[Mark Tucker]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Reminds me of when we remodeled our bathroom, and my wife fell in love with the rented tile saw. She got really good with it, too. But I'd mark a tile that needed trimming, and she'd get this maniacal grin and run out to the garage where the saw was set up. It was a little scary...

[Mr.Ontop]

@ibrad "why they'd specify hearing protection and nothing else"

So that it muffles the sound of your own screams when your fingers get caught up in it.

[ibRAD]

@mr-ontop Might not even notice. Maybe your screams after you realize what happened!

[Roundbadge]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Interesting. The saw we used for cutting our bricks was more along the lines of a table saw, where the spinning blade stays stationary, and the material being cut moves through and past the blade. In trying to make pieces fit, I shaved some insanely thin slices of brick off. I was so impressed by how thin I was able to shave them that I kept the leftovers. Sadly, they broke in the years after and I can't show them off anymore.

[Bloody-the-resident-LandRover-apologist]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly The safety device is you keep your bloody fingers out of the way! My dad gave me his Dewalt radial arm saw he bought back in the 80's. Fantastic saw that will cut through 5 cm of oak like a hot knife through butter but zero safety features lol.

Your veranda is looking awesome though. Do you intend to pour concrete over the stone or just keep it as the mesh?

[Manwich]

@mark-tucker said in Let me introduce you to my new friend...:

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Reminds me of when we remodeled our bathroom, and my wife fell in love with the rented tile saw. She got really good with it, too. But I'd mark a tile that needed trimming, and she'd get this maniacal grin and run out to the garage where the saw was set up. It was a little scary...

Well look at the bright side... at least it's not a woodchipper combined with her suggesting that you need a better life insurance policy...

[DasWauto]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly if it was mine is probably fab up something vertically adjustable to place a pair of these close to the blade to hold whatever is being cut. Both for the sake of the cut quality and my digits.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@daswauto me too!

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@bloody-the-resident-shitposting-saffer said in Let me introduce you to my new friend...:

Your veranda is looking awesome though. Do you intend to pour concrete over the stone or just keep it as the mesh?

No concrete. We will be putting more small stones in and on the gabion tops so they are more comfortable to walk on. I'm also going to build some long & wide stairs out from the wall for seating and access...

[pip bip]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly "fun"