By Mark Clement
In my life in home improvement it seems like there's nothing customers don't ask if I can do, and installing tile is one of them. Sure, large jobs and expensive special order material can require dedicated tile aces, but for a basement bath, a modest kitchen or even a wood burning stove surround it's not worth managing the extra person, so I added this work to my repertoire.
Of course that means I need the right tile tools, which are largely hand tools—except for cutting the tile. That requires the right pro-grade wet-cutting saw, even for one-off jobs, and Porter-Cable's Model 1500 fits the bill.
The Porter-Cable unit is configured similarly to its larger cousins. A sliding table rolls under a fixed motor armature that spins the blade. That blade is a 7-inch abrasive wheel driven by a 7.4 amp motor that spins it at a tile eating 6,000 rpm. Unlike your standard heavy-as-a-dumptruck tile saw, this motor is small and light (it's basically an angle grinder set on its side) and has great power.
Power
I cut all kinds of material with this saw—quarry tile, ceramic tile, marble and granite. The 1500 had the power to muscle through them all and leave nice, clean cuts with little or no chip out. It can even hog through three 12" ceramic tiles at once; you just have to slow down a bit. It feels like the unit wants to vibrate under stress like this, but cuts are dead accurate and clean.
The pump moves plenty of water over the tile, keeping the blade nice and cool, but if you set up indoors, be prepared for at least six inches of overspray. If you set up in a garage, be careful that overspray and spills from terra cotta-based tile don't stain the floor. For all-day jobs, changing out the water once or twice keeps the pump tubing clear.
Accuracy
Power is nothing without accuracy, and the 1500 has it. The motor is mounted square to the table, and the table rolls nicely—even after a zillion cuts—right under the blade. The table is stamped with accurate measurements that speed up cutting. It even comes with a sliding fence, although I found I didn't need it.
Capacity
Porter-Cable states that the 1500 can rip 14" tile and cut 10" tile on a diagonal. Of course, 12" tile is the most popular size I install, and I invariably make angle cuts; you can do it with this saw, but the tile doesn't sit all flat on the table.
Switch
The slide switch is easy to reach, but small. You have to press it in and down to engage it. That action works fine, but after a zillion cuts with wet fingers, it gets old. I wish the switch was larger. To disengage it, just tap it. Nice!
Switching the tool on reminds you that ear protection is a good idea. There's lots of power in a small package, and one trade-off is noise. If this were a tool I stood in front of all day every day, that would bother me. However, for the one-off work my business calls for, the trade-off is easy.
Mobility
The 1500 is refreshingly light. At 34 1/2 pounds and only two pieces (the tub and the motor armature), it moves easily on site and stows well in the truck. This also makes the unit easy to clean—just blast it with a garden hose, making sure to get the table rollers and rails. Gunked up tile slurry is bad for the rollers.
While I've used the tool successfully and comfortably on sawhorses on several jobs, Porter-Cable offers a collapsible rolling stand for about $70. The tool instructions also offer a salient piece of advice that I heed every time I set the tool up: Whenever you plug in, make sure the cord has some sag in it so water from overspray or whatever doesn't roll down the cord and into the receptacle. Smart.
Finally, at about $315, the tool doesn't move a lot of money out of my pocket.
The 1500 is a great go-to for contractors who do other work besides tile. It is a high-quality, professional tool that's an ace in the hole when the customer says, "By the way, do you do tile?"
Porter-Cable Model 1500, www.Porter-Cable.com, $315
Mark Clement is a remodeler and author of The Carpenter's Notebook and The Kid’s Carpenter's Workbook, Fun Family Projects! Learn more at
TheCarpentersNotebook.com.
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