Can I put a tile cutting blade on a circular saw?

I rearranged my kitchen so that effectively my oven and my refrigerator have switched places. We’re about to install new cabinets and now we have a bit of a tile issue. Under where my refrigerator used to be is tile. This will now have a cabinet/built in oven. The rest of my cabinets are sitting on the concrete slab and have no tile (almost a ½” difference) underneath them. In order to keep all the cabinets at the same height I need to remove the tile where the new cabinet is going. Can I take my tile cutting blade and put it on my circular saw to score the tile and break it out? It doesn’t need to be perfect because eventually we will be replacing the tile but I’m hoping to keep that on the 3 year horizon instead of the immediate pipeline.

What do you think? Decent plan or sudden loss of limbs?

I bought a dremel diamond blade and put it in my HF grade multi tool. It cut porcelain tile like crazy. Not bad for a $15 (with bits) multi tool and a $15 blade. Porcelain tile is much harder than ceramic. This was 3/8" thick porcelain too. Impressed I was.

The tile blade in your circular saw will work. They do sell masonry blades for circular saw too. You will have to battle dust.

I used a tile saw a ton, and always had water, which was messy. It would also probably ruin a circular saw. I am not sure how well you can cut tile dry on that big of an area.

Do you need a clean cut?

If not, tile saw is not necessary. Use a cold chisel and a hammer (and safety glasses).

Alternate: Cut 1/2" off the bottom of the tow kick of the cabinet, and leave the tile where it is.

...If you need a clean cut, use a 4" grinder with a diamond blade. It will let you cut much closer to the cabinets than a skillsaw will.

Expect a TON of dust. If you don't have a 2nd person standing there with a shop vac trying to catch every bit they can directly at the cut, you will regret it.

The answer to your original question is...It depends.

It depends on the RPM rating of the blade, and the arbor size of the saw.

If the arbor size is not identical, don't do it. If the blade is not rated for the RPM's of the saw, don't do it.

Any diamond blade will work, and they make them for skill saws.

So the answer is "yes" with the foreknowledge that there will be copious dust. In addition to the shopvac I'd recommend isolating the room as best you can and putting a fan in a nearby window to draw out the loose flying dust.

Shop vac, and add water too. You can use a hudson sprayer if you have one. They work well. Otherwise just dribble it out of a bottle or something.

akamcfly wrote: Impressed I was.

Yep, I had a situation where I had to Dremel tile as well and it turned out fine.

FYI, I found that applying masking tape to the cut line first produced cleaner results.

Diamond blades for a siillsaw are MUCH more expensive than the ones for an angle grinder, and harder to find.

Angle grinders are cheap.

One more important note... if you are gonna make all that dust, DO NOT BREATHE IT. Silicosis sucks. And those cheap single band dust masks are NOT enough.

I use diamond turbo blade in angle grinder with shop vac up against it, with particulate respirator.

My .02, yes I'm a professional

patgizz wrote: I use diamond turbo blade in angle grinder with shop vac up against it, with particulate respirator. My .02, yes I'm a professional

I second this procedure. And I am not a professional. Although I have done jobs that required similar tools and dust management.

A small angle grinder (4-5") and diamond blade will get it done neatly and quickly. But as has already been said, dusty as hell.

While you might get it done with a circ saw, I get the feeling it'll be unwieldy and probably a bit more dangerous.

I've got a 9" wih a diamond blade, and while it's quick and great for Long straight cuts, Its somewhat harder to handle than my smaller grinders. It needs alot of control and care, and is definitely amongst my most dangerous of tools.

I will get behind the grinder blade. The circ saw is nice because you can set a depth, but its overkill. I have successfully cut concrete slab with a good worm-drive circ saw and a buddy with a garden hose trickling water. It was a mess, but no dust and a clean job.

I think grinder is your ticket here.

They make blades for just that task. Link I've used them. They work great.

I'll 5th the angle grinder and diamond blade. I cut a fair amount of floor tile for door installations. The grinder makes short work of it. Even the cheap HF diamond blades work very well.

^What they all say. I have a cheap grinder just for masonry^