The AS160 Allsaw Cuts Masonry And More
By Benjamen Johnson
Need a square hole in a brick wall? You can try to cut it with a circular saw, but what are you going to do about the corners — chip ‘em out? Why bother, when you can use the AS160 from Arbortech? The AS160 cuts so precisely, you can remove a single brick from a wall without damaging the surrounding bricks. If you find that hard to believe, watch their repetitive but informative video.
Moving in an orbital motion, two forward-facing blades provide a simultaneous hammering and cutting action, minimizing the danger of kickback. This arrangement also cuts cleaner, throwing no dust, so the work is more visible, and there’s less mess to clean up. Another advantage: The blades cut dry, so all you need is a standard vacuum to suck up the debris, and with an optional dust boot you can clean as you cut.
With the many blades Arbortech offers you can cut brick and mortar, fiber cement, plaster and drywall, soft to medium stones, most woods, tree roots, plastics, and fiberglass. All of the blades except the wood blade and jaws feature resharpenable tungsten carbide teeth.
The AS160 is going to set you back at least $1000, but that gets you the AS160 and a set of plunge, general-purpose, and tuckpointing blades. Additional blades will run you $70 to $100.
Allsaw AS160 [Arbortech]
Allsaw AS160 [Find a Dealer]
February 21st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Is this thing just a more expensive version of the Fein Multimaster?
February 21st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Very cool! I had to work down in a crawl space to cut out a piece of a stem wall for a bathroom mod a few months back. This would have been good for that. But for the price, the only way I’ll ever see one is if it shows up at the tool rental shop.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:39 am
I’ve used this a number of times.. Its fantastic if you have the old soft bricks, but forget it on modern hard baked bricks. On the soft bricks it goes through like butter - but remember the stuff it cuts out (1/4″ cut) has to go somewhere and it spews fine grit like no tomorrow - at least its grit though, not powerfine brick dust.
It has a bunch of different size blades and I’ve used it for cutting doorways into walls, chasing conduits and cutting powerpoint boxes.
On hard brick it bounces like made and cuts very slowly - forget it, use a wet diamond saw instead.
Also never force it, the blades can jam and wear the motor-fast - this is something that is worth renting rather than buying.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:19 am
[...] With the grinder’s circular wheel you may not be able to completely avoid some damage to the bricks you want to keep — but you’ll finish the job a lot faster than you would with a hammer and chisel, and at $200 you’ll save about 80% over the best alternative. [...]