Powering a Tile Saw off a car?

[Kimbo]

Has anyone had success powering a tile saw off a car? I have a SUV and an inverter and was thinking about using this combo to power the saw...

Coming off a few neighbor noise complaints and no good place to cut in the condo complex i live in, looking to do the cuts remote somewhere. What do most folks do when they can't cut on premise?

[Dave Taylor]

Move!

I'm sorry Steve.... the devil made me do that.

You mean that if you saw a tile inside your own condo you get busted by a neighbor?

Many big box stores and some flooring stores cut tile on their own site to your custom order.... for some $$.

[Lakee911]

Depending on the saw you might need to pretty hefty sized inverter. A small generator might fare better.

[Kimbo]

Yeah, unfortunately had a few complaints last year when i was wet sawing a granite counter top .

[evan1968]

Buy lots of fuses.

[Dave Taylor]

Ahhh..... condo living.

I was just thinking, Steve..... consider moving your saw to a friends house and do the cutting there or.......

Tile Your World Forums probably has members living in your area. You may consider posting in the "Professional Hangout".... see if someone lives near your area where you may use their saw at their site.

[Swedes Tile]

There is no noise ordinance between 6:00am and 10:00pm in most states. I would tell them where to go!

[zeaflal]

Check the motor’s nameplate for its current draw. Multiple the number of amps by 120 to get the number of watts the motor draws. My guess is you will end up with something around 1500 watts. That is the first minimum requirement for the inverter. That is a lot of watts for a car inverter.

Then you need to guess at what the motor starting surge is. Not likely the motor will list it. Depends on the motor details, but could easily be 3 times as large. Inverters usually don’t have much surge capability. A big surge could damage the inverter or the inverter could limit the current to where the motor won’t start. Then again, since the motor is started without load, it might work.

Looking at the other end, that 1500 watts has to come from your battery. At 12 volts that would be 125 amps without considering inverter losses. Call it 150 amps from your battery. That means the inverter needs to be connected with very heavy cable (think welding cable). 150 amps is way beyond typical cars alternator capability. Think about the battery being discharged very quickly. Then I would be worried about how long that battery would last before failing, possibly in a nasty way.

[Vegas Sparky]

You'd have to have a lot of batteries, or one heckuvan alternator to run a wet saw for any length of time. Generator would be way more efficient.

I'd abide by the law, make all the noise I needed to, and finish the project.

How much you wanna bet the same people complaining will want your help when they see what you've done.

[Kimbo]

Thanks for the advice all - yes condo living is no fun. Sounds like the car route might not work great.

I'm considering just biting the bullet and getting a Rubi TI-75 snap cutter. Most of my cuts are straight on 12x24 porcelain floor tile. Think that might be a bit easier then trying to do remote cuts...

[tilejoe]

Once you figure to cost of the inverter, the 2 gauge cable to install it, and the possible damage to your car, the snap cutter is quite inexpensive.

I had a 10 amp inverter on an older van. It was not capable of running a wet saw.


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[John Bridge]

I'll reinforce what's already been said. Don't consider it. Better to rent a genny to run the saw.

[RUBI Tools]

Steve,

I might have a solution for you. Will this work?

[digitalshooter]

This is ridiculous! What if it was a paid contractor?

I just retired from a condo board as President, as long as you were not doing it before 8 am and after 6 pm, we would have no issues.

What's the difference between you doing and a contractor? none noise is the same! The only thing you need to be concerned with is, IMO, are the bi-laws relative to working on premise, if there are any.

Was it the neighbors or board that gave you grief??

[dhagin]

We work in condo's regularly, matter a fact, workin in one now. Find out what the rules are for work hours and days, then follow them. We will often close windows & doors when cutting a lot, might help with the noise a bit.

I've also worked for guys who built houses and used their inverters run off their trucks until the permanent power was run to the house - no temp poles for these guys. They would build the wall with the meter & panel first. It can be done, but those inverters were pretty spendy. Not something a DIYer or even a contractor would wanna do. The little generators have gotten better, quieter and cheaper over the years, so I'd be inclined to go that route if you really need to.