we are wrapping up working on our current investment house and need to pour some concrete in the basement. Easiest way in was through a glass block window and I didn't want to break it. A friend of mine has a concrete chainsaw so he cut it out for me. Pretty cool watching that thing cut through concrete.
Those things are not cheap! Stihl does a GS461. I haven't ever gotten to run one tho. Saw one of these the other day, thought it was a neat idea and probably much faster than the concrete chainsaws.
the reason for the concrete chainsaw is bar length for depth of cut. EX. cut thru a 12 inch poured wall. we have 6 of the Stihls we use to cut steel pipe, 2-3 foot diameter 1 inch thick wall. It is the outer shell of steam pipe with an inner 6 inch pipe. the gap is filled with asbestos insulation which we remove.
The chainsaw allows for a square cut too which is something a demo saw would never do. The ring saw does deliver much better depth of cut tho.
Those are an absolute blast to run.... both the saw with diamond chain & the ring saw. When I first seen/used one of those ring saws in the mid 90's it was a Partner (who invented the machine) & was a hydraulic powered model with that powerpack thing on wheels. Partner of Sweden invented the gasoline powercutter ("quickie saw","demo saw") in 1958 for rescue work,originally developed for cutting open airline fuselage's after crashes. Partner was dissolved into Pioneer/Partner soon after the Elux takeover.Soon to be part of the Husqvarna Construction Products division.
So back in my younger days I cut concrete for a living and the benefit to the chain saw verses the cut off saw is you get more depth from the chain saw. When you plunge cut it is not as wide. Now our saw was hydrolic driven it was cool to run!! The saw in the pic is good if you do not have the chain saw for cutting with no over cuts. We would use those on big slab jobs where we could have no over cuts. The one big thing with cutting concrete is nothing cuts fast and that equipment is super high dollar!!! Most of our flat saw blades were in the $1200-1700 for the small ones. QUOTE="MasterMech, post: 342844, member: 4"]Those things are not cheap! Stihl does a GS461. I haven't ever gotten to run one tho. Saw one of these the other day, thought it was a neat idea and probably much faster than the concrete chainsaws. View attachment 62744 [/QUOTE]
Wow, I didn't know those existed. I did stonework for about 6 months back in 2011 and ran a stihl quickie saw daily. It was a little intimidating at first because of the gyroscopic effect as we were making precise cuts in limestone caps, but I got the hang of it pretty fast. I'd love to see that chainsaw in action! (I guess youtube would probably have something for me to see).
I get those saws in at work from construction outfits and from the fire departments. I have worked on the Husqvarna, Stihl, Wacker Nueson, and Partner saws. Like MasterMech said they are not cheap and they want to keep those things running. A lot of them are very choked up with concrete dust which gets into everything on the saw. They are a nice change to work on from the box store Poulan or Husqvarna. I think the chain like on the one the OP showed is what interested me more then anything else.
Id be wearing at least a cheap dust mask to avoid silicosis or whatever that cancer that stone and brick masons get from breathing the dust.
We have a 395xp that we carry on the engine at the FD that we use as a rescue saw for car wreck and home entrance if metal saw is needed.
Those diamond chainsaws are always used with a water hose spray hookup to keep the chain cool & eliminate the clouds of dust.Its optional on regular demo saws,though my personal saw has never cut any stone/concrete without it.
We set up a commercial blower on the porch just to the right of the pic. Pushed all the fumes and dust out to the left of the picture. That really did a lot for keeping it out of his face and breathing in that dust/fumes.
