Customer Reviews

QEP 83200 24-Inch Bridge Tile Saw with Water Pump and Stand

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I shopped everywhere for a tile saw. I had a kitchen counter (50 sq. ft.) and a kitchen and den floor to tile (650 sq. ft.). I originally bought a tile cutter and it only took me a few minutes to take that back. I bought this saw hoping it would be okay and also because it came with a stand. It worked almost flawlessly. The only problems I had were with the water pump and the slide on the back gauge for angle cuts was sticking on a screw that appeared to serve no purpose so I removed that. The pump would only come on if tapped, but after cutting about 100 tiles it seemed to operate fine from that point on. If I had one thing to change about the saw it would be the wheels on the bottom of the cart. That don't work that well, but that's something I will rectify shortly. I give it five stars because to me it was well worth the money. I would buy it all over again.

I almost stopped unpacking this and returned it to Lowes (got it for $279 today on sale) from reading the reviews and I was very hesitant, but when I unpacked it, everything was pretty much set up nicely and snapped into place.

The ONE thing that I can see why people rated it lower was due to the same problem of the vibration of the blade. I put on a brand new Dewalt diamond 8 inch blade and I didn't have it completely clamped into place, because when I turned it on, it was VERY wobly. I stopped, opened up the blade change system, and made sure that I held the blade right up against the black interior blade holder while I squeezed it together with the outer aluminum colored blade holder and screwed on the screw. Instantly different! So, make sure you do this and double/triple check if the blade is not true and rotating in sync with how a normal blade should rotate.

So, on to the good stuff. I had been cutting tile with a cheapo 80 dollar table top tile saw (chippy-mcgee from HD) and then got a Ryobi mitre saw that was the worst thing every to try and cut a straight line. I spent 5 hours trying to get a perfect set up to simply cut a tile, unsuccessfully after 6 attempts, I threw in the towell and told the wife that if I was going to do this 2nd shower perfectly with the travertine tile, I would need better equipment. HD had some nice products, but they were all $500 and $700 respectively. I couldn't justify that. But neither could I justify renting a machine for $50 per day and use it for 24 hours, rushing to get through and probably end up spending $100+ on a rental.

So, off to Sears, and they had NOTHING in stock to see...Disappointed, I ran to Lowes because they had some tile saws online but this one I'm reviewing wasn't on their website. I got there and it was on sale for under $280! AND it could cut over the size of 16" travertine that I needed to use it for. Perfect.

Got home, opened the box, everything was packed nicely, protected well and seemed to be 90% together when I took it out of the box. Needed to put in the blade (again, refer to the above, MAKE SURE you are sandwiching that blade in between the inner and outer blade holding collars before tightening it up snug), the laser guide (which CAN be made exact, you just have to be a bit patient and fine tune it prior to putting it on the saw, and fine tune it a bit more when you put it on the saw...patience pays off) requires 2 AAA batteries, so pick some up if you plan on using it.

The handle and the wheels were the last things to be put on and the wheels ARE useful if you put them about 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the ground toward the end that the motor will stay at. Lean it toward the wheels and it rolls around the shop with ease, and the frame doesn't feel flimsy at all to me, especially when I'm rolling it around, it's pretty heavy duty!

As for the grill looking shelf, it does attach from the inside which is strange, but 4 long zip-ties later, the thing is as snug and secure as you could want. and it seems to be a great idea and very useful when finding a place to put your cut or uncut tile.

So, I started it up and immediately had to cut a tile 5 1/4 inches. Did so in about 45 seconds from set up to the cut being finished. The cut was so smooth, I didn't know which was the original side and which was the cut. Only some slight cut marks on the cut side were visible, so that made me feel MUCH better about my purchase.

I needed to cut another piece at 5 1/4 inches on one end and 5 5/16 on the other. This thing set up, and I squared it initially using a solid one piece square that I had, and then simply adjusted the square about .5 of a degree. Ta-da, 5 1/4 and 5 5/16. Its just about too damn good to be true, but this saw already is a winner in my book.

It also cleans up well and has a well placed plug to help drain the water out. You can basically wipe it down with a mildly damp towell like you're drying your car. I found it not to be messy clean up at all and it looked relatively new after clean up. The pump seems well enclosed and I would trim out the power supply cord holder that is a keyhole fashioned hole to hold the pumps power supply cord. It was way too snug, and if you want to take it apart and make sure there's no water left in the pump and clean it to extend the life of your equipment, I would suggest taking some snippers and opening up that hole to let the cord safely sit and be pulled out without it being an act of congress to get it loose from the plastic box inside the water pan that it sits in.

With a little patience and time spent on set up, I could easily refer this to a friend.

I think I got what I paid for and then some. Don't hesitate to get the $30 warranty at Lowes like I did, just in case you get a lemon, but if you don't, this sucker is pretty useful and mechanically sound for it's price!

I bought this wet saw thinking it'd be like every other bridge saw I've used, where the saw can be pulled across but also raises and lowers to accommodate for cutting different-sized materials. Not so with this one. The available cutting spaces is only 1-1/2", which is fine for tiles but not so much for folks with 2-1/4" bricks. I've found a workaround, though. If you replace the (6mm) bolts which hold the bridge onto the table with longer bolts (a _minimum_ of 50mm, go for 75mm fully-threaded bolts (you'll need four) if you can find them) and add a few 10mm nuts to allow you to raise and lower the bridge, you can increase the cutting space to 2-1/4" and beyond. You'll lose the angular cutting functionality when the saw is lifted, but that's a small price to pay.

I have nothing new to add about the wheels, which are misplaced and don't work very well.

The legs, fold down and are anchored in place by angle brackets which attach over little buttons. They're difficult to get on and off, and even worse, when transporting the saw, the brackets hang down and make it difficult to lower the saw onto the ground.

In order to unfold the legs, you have to rest the saw on its side, however there is no rubber bumper to prevent the weight of the saw from doing damage to the stuff on its side. Also, once the leg is extended, you have to pivot the weight of the entire saw on the two extended legs, and I'm fairly positive that it's not going to survive this for too many uses.

I had the same issue with the pump... tapping it doesn't even restart it sometimes... I have to disassemble the thing while the saw is running, and push on the pump's internal paddles like I'm priming a flywheel. Considering that it's only a 60gph fountain pump, you might be able to find a $10 submersible pump to replace this one.

Finally, the parts that house the 8" non-standard blade are fully detachable from the saw's motor. I wouldn't recommend running this saw without its protective housing, however you _can_ order the 10" housing as a replacement part for QEP's larger wet saw from QEP, providing you with the ability to use a standard 10" blade instead.

All in all, the saw, as delivered, is junk for my purposes, however with only a few modifications it's equivalent to QEP's larger, more expensive bridge saws. Since you're probably not as desperate as I was to find an inexpensive masonry saw, I'd recommend that you find a different saw for cutting your bricks.

I've done quite a few home tiling jobs and had always gotten along with my small wet saw and my Rotozip with a diamond blade. My most recent job involved 20" porcelain tiles and I knew it would require a bigger saw. I decided on the QEP bridge saw because I needed at least 20" rip capacity and didn't want to pay a fortune.
I was very pleased with the cut that this saw produced (even with the stock blade)and I really liked the concept of the saw moving and the tile being stationary. I bought a Hotdog replacement blade because I've read so many bad reviews on stock blades that come with saws but I can not see a whole lot of difference between the two. They both produce smooth cuts. The motor has plenty of power to cut through these large tiles and I haven't had any problem with the pump. The reservoir pan catches most of the water and there is very little overspray during the cut. None of the spray comes toward the operator so you don't end up getting wet.
As others have mentioned the wheels as designed are a joke the way they clamp onto the legs. I ended up drilling two holes and bolting the wheels fast. This made the wheels work very good for moving the saw around.
This is a large bulky saw and not the easiest thing to move around but I only use it in my garage and it moves easily on the concrete floor. Overall I'm very satisfied with this saw for the price paid and the occasional use I will give it.

I got this saw on sale at Lowe's near where I live. I did a lot of research on saws, and I was afraid to purchase one, but I have about 1000 sq ft plus that I need to tile so I bit the bullet and got this unit despite the mixed reviews on this site. I will attempt to answer questions that I had, that maybe you have.
Setup was very easy BUT the tubing from the pump to the saw was cracked when I bought it. No biggie got some new tubing at the store ($1.16 for 8ft) and plumbed it up on the outside of the pump power cable with zip ties. My suggestion for this part, is to zip tie the main power cord to the pump/tubing cord so it will move nice and not get caught on the table.
Other then that the saw works great. It cuts way faster then I ever thought even with the stock blade. It only sprays a few drops of water off of the table so you may want a platic drop mat or go outside. I set it up in my basement and had no issues just shop vacced at the end of the day. Maybe 1/4 of a gallon after 50 cuts. I didn't use the wheels or the laser. I would recommend using a combination square to set the guide for diagonal cuts. Other than that I really like my results.

My husband and I are DIYers. We tackled our first tiling project ever with this saw. In our kitchen, I wanted porcelain tiles laid on a diagonal, and the tiles I selected are sixteen inch square. This means a lot of cutting, but this meant a big saw if we did not want to have to flip the tile over halfway through the cut. This wet tile saw made cutting tiles like cutting through butter. It has great guides, very stable, adjustable legs for uneven surfaces, does not spray a ton of water everywhere, and simple to use. It had a little assembly out of the box which took us about 45 minutes. My only complaint is with the instruction manual...it is not very clear. I really did not want to spend this much money on a saw, but boy was it worth it! I highly recommend it!

I worked for 2 years at Home Depot in the flooring department, and had experience with several different tile saws. As a woodworker, I've used a sliding compound miter saw and radial arm saw. When I saw this "bridge" saw, the idea of it appealed to me because it was similar to those woodworking tools. I liked that it could cut 18" tiles on the diagonal. The comparable "traditional" style could only cut 14".

I have 6 rooms to tile in my new house, so I went ahead and bought a saw. I had problems with this one from the beginning.

It features a laser guidance system that I was NEVER able to calibrate, and therefore never used. It's obviously a hack add-on, powered by a AA or AAA battery. It is impossible to line up, but obviously a feature they're proud enough of to put on the outside of the box.

The deck of the saw is made up of extruded aluminum strips, which are not level. The vibration from the saw and lack of support of the tile from these aluminum strips was breaking literally half of the tiles I tried to cut.

Because of the motion of pulling the saw blade across the tile instead of pushing the tile against the blade, the blade would deflect and cut into the extruded aluminum deck (also cutting the tile crooked).

The cheap plastic miter gauge is not true, and diagonal cuts were never straight. The adjustment knob allowed the miter gauge to slip. Even when used in a 90-degree configuration, its flimsy construction made cutting uniform strips impossible (I was cutting a 1-1/4" decorative strip). I even tried clamping a speed square to the deck to get the miter cuts to work, which worked better.

There is an expanded metal shelf that rests in the middle. This shelf has angle "hooks" to keep it in place. However, they hook on the inside of the legs, instead of the outside. While moving the saw, the shelf falls off, and I have injured myself TWICE because of this, making a huge bruise on my shin and hurting my foot very badly with the weight of the heavy shelf.

And the other user is correct, the wheels are just badly designed. They don't work. The ONLY time they were useful were if you folded the legs up into the body of the saw, then you could use the handle to roll the saw. However, I think most people would want to move it around the room with the saw assembled.

You also can't find blades at any home improvement store chain. It takes an odd size that Depot and Lowe's don't carry.

The idea of this saw is a good one, but the implementation is really bad. I would recommend purchasing a larger traditional-style tile saw and skip this one altogether. I returned mine and bought the 2-HP QEP professional saw...well worth the difference in price.

This item is not packaged well and will probably have dents. The pump did not work. The motor shipping bolt pushed into the motor housing and damaged at least the cooling fins. The 85 pounds is too much for UPS. The saw blade is 8 inches and not the 10 inches listed in the description.

I bought this saw after spending my typical 3-5 days of research on tool purchases for handling 1100 sq/ft of 20" porcelain tiles. I held off on writing on this review until I had spent a fair amount of time using the saw. I read many of the other reviews and have to agree, this saw is a real workhorse! I set it up outside under a covered patio and at the end of each day use my garden hose to clean it up.

The casters have the problem mentioned in the other reviews, but that is incidental. I did not buy a saw based on how it moves around, I want it to CUT TILE! I have cut 1/4 glazed ceramics, 5/16x20" sq porcelain, and 5/8"x16" sq travertine with this saw. I switched to the blade back to the blade that came with it for the ceramic, that worked just fine.

It does a great job on the travertine as well. I was cutting up some 2"x2" mosaic stuff with it too, really stable! I like how the bridge tilts also, as I usually do a back cut on a finished edge for my outside corners.

The fence is a little rough to slide once it gets some grit in the rail, but it cleans out easy enough.
The only thing I would change is to make the fence reversible.

I would recommend this saw to anyone who need to handle large tiles or a lot of cutting.. It is a BEAST!

Updates to my comments after using this saw continuously for a year.

Pump is still working, no problems.
Blade exchanged 4x, easy replacement. Hotdog blade is great!
Platform - vibration is evident as noted by other users.
Tray and frame, all the welds are still intact, the wire tray got bent from overloading.
Casters, fixed them using double hex nuts vs. the tack weld that held the original screw.

Still happy with my choice

I had the same problem with the water tube, but I cut the end off and put it back together. When I first put on the blade, it wobbled so I took it off and put it on right. It is amazing how well something works when you put it together right. The saw cuts very straight and fast. I haven't used the laser and don't plan to. I have no complaints for now. Make sure the blade is on correctly or it might break the tiles.