# Plaster saw



## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Use a plaster sawzall blade and put it in your Lenox handle. I've seen the Lenox plaster blades online and in the supplier but never at any retail store.

You can also get by with the cheap wooden handle Stanley sheetrock saw as it has more aggressive teeth than the regular ones, but the risk of tear out increases. I alway score the plaster first with a razor knife then cut by hand.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

All the saws I've seen sold recently as plaster saws look a lot like drywall saws  They are AWFUL for plaster and lathe. They have very aggressive teeth and can cut pretty fast but they make way more mess than you need to. 



What you want is a compass saw or even better a keyhole saw. This is a skinny blade so you can drill 3/8" holes in opposite corners and start the hole easily. There's lots of cool ones. None of them are going to stay sharp long cutting plaster so I'd get a cheap one. And small teeth so it doesn't pull the plaster away from the studs on the pull. Look for one with teeth that cut on the push, that way the debris falls more in the wall. This one looks cool. 













Klein makes a saw that works well for starting holes without drilling pilot holes, it's really better to just drill the pilot holes but this is still a good saw. You want the Klein 702 with the 709 blade.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

wait wait never mind here's the one you want purely for style points


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

I use a Lenox handle with plaster cutting blades like MTW mentioned.

The blades have no set on the teeth and make a decent cut without trying. When it's dull just toss the blade.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

That Klein saw that splatz posted is the one that I was talking about. But I believe back then it was made by another manufacturer. The nice thing is the small teeth and the replaceable blade, since they dull quick.

As far as using the handle and sawzall blade, which plaster blade to you mean? The Milwaukee ones that I have seen have very big teeth, but they are triangle shaped instead of hooked.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

On another note, after 20+ years of good use, I lost this one:










And replaced it with this, which I HATE:










I want the first one again.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

HackWork said:


> That Klein saw that splatz posted is the one that I was talking about. But I believe back then it was made by another manufacturer. The nice thing is the small teeth and the replaceable blade, since they dull quick.
> 
> As far as using the handle and sawzall blade, which plaster blade to you mean? The Milwaukee ones that I have seen have very big teeth, but they are triangle shaped instead of hooked.



Those Milwaukee blades are the exact ones I use. 

The Klein wood blade dulls way too quick on hard plaster.

#48-00-5052


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

HackWork said:


> On another note, after 20+ years of good use, I lost this one:
> 
> View attachment 137808
> 
> ...


I have that old style one that I never use. I'll sell it to you.


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

I don’t know much about plaster, but couldn't you use a rotozip like the sheetrockers?


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

MHElectric said:


> I don’t know much about plaster, but couldn't you use a rotozip like the sheetrockers?


I used to use a rotozip with a tile bit, but replaced it with an oscillating tool with grit blade which works much better.

But that is for clean cuts, and for when I want to take the time to hold both the tool and the vacuum to keep the dust down. The whole process is slow and requires an extra trip carrying in tools.

For this situation, I just want something to make a quick rough cut with minimal dust blown in the air.


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

HackWork said:


> I used to use a rotozip with a tile bit, but replaced it with an oscillating tool with grit blade which works much better.
> 
> But that is for clean cuts, and for when I want to take the time to hold both the tool and the vacuum to keep the dust down. The whole process is slow and requires an extra trip carrying in tools.
> 
> For this situation, I just want something to make a quick rough cut with minimal dust blown in the air.


Doesn't that suck that everything is plaster up there instead of Sheetrock?


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

I had a carbide poke saw same as for Sheetrock but I would just cut on the back stroke so it did not catch in the wire.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

MHElectric said:


> Doesn't that suck that everything is plaster up there instead of Sheetrock?


I'd said many times before, when I go to a house and find drywall, big plastic boxes, and long romex conductors, I feel like I won the lottery. It is such a pleasure to work on.

Most of what we have are older houses with plaster, tiny metal boxes, old BX cable with cloth covered conductors and for some stupid reason the conductors are always so short that you can't even pull the devices out of the box far enough to get to the screws. Oh and the cover plate and device have been painted so many times that it takes 5 minutes to open it.


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

HackWork said:


> I'd said many times before, when I go to a house and find drywall, big plastic boxes, and long romex conductors, I feel like I won the lottery. It is such a pleasure to work on.
> 
> Most of what we have are older houses with plaster, tiny metal boxes, old BX cable with cloth covered conductors and for some stupid reason the conductors are always so short that you can't even pull the devices out of the box far enough to get to the screws. Oh and the cover plate and device have been painted so many times that it takes 5 minutes to open it.


That does suck!


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

HackWork said:


> I'd said many times before, when I go to a house and find drywall, big plastic boxes, and long romex conductors, I feel like I won the lottery. It is such a pleasure to work on.
> 
> Most of what we have are older houses with plaster, tiny metal boxes, old BX cable with cloth covered conductors and for some stupid reason the conductors are always so short that you can't even pull the devices out of the box far enough to get to the screws. Oh and the cover plate and device have been painted so many times that it takes 5 minutes to open it.


And most of the time all the insulation crumbles off when you finally do get the device out. 

That short wire thing lasted a long time, even after they switched from bx and metal boxes to romex and the brown bakelite boxes. I find that all the time in houses wired in the 70's and 80's. It's like electricians wanted to torture themselves using those really small 16 cubic inch nail ons.


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## Smid (Jul 9, 2014)

HackWork said:


> I'd said many times before, when I go to a house and find drywall, big plastic boxes, and long romex conductors, I feel like I won the lottery. It is such a pleasure to work on.
> 
> Most of what we have are older houses with plaster, tiny metal boxes, old BX cable with cloth covered conductors and for some stupid reason the conductors are always so short that you can't even pull the devices out of the box far enough to get to the screws. Oh and the cover plate and device have been painted so many times that it takes 5 minutes to open it.


Get out of my neighborhood! Sounds like every residential job I’ve done here lol


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

HackWork said:


> That Klein saw that splatz posted is the one that I was talking about. But I believe back then it was made by another manufacturer. The nice thing is the small teeth and the replaceable blade, since they dull quick.
> 
> As far as using the handle and sawzall blade, which plaster blade to you mean? The Milwaukee ones that I have seen have very big teeth, but they are triangle shaped instead of hooked.


The Klein is what I used before hopping on the multi-tool bandwagon. I still have it in the tool box, but now its been quite a while since I did any plaster/lathe work it just doesn't come out that often. I'm not sure how many years its been since I did a plaster/lathe job, but its been a few.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

The 709 is really made for the task and would be perfect except blades are $4 and dull quickly. 

But if you want to use something cheap, I'd not try to do it with a heavy thick durable blade with huge teeth. This will be fast but it will shake the **** out of the plaster and maybe make cracks. Thicker blade = bigger kerf = more dust. 

You don't need a heavy blade to cut plaster and lath, lath is thin old dry wood and plaster crumbles readily, you could cut it with a steak knife. 

I'd go with a coarse hacksaw blade in a holder. You can get these for $next2nothing but Milwaukee makes one too










Or you could wrap the end in duct tape prison shank style. You can snap off the tip at an angle to get a point but really you'll need a 1/2" pilot hole so who cares. Set it up so the blade past the handle is short and the teeth are oriented to cut on the push and push the debris into the wall cavity.


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## Berkley226 (Nov 13, 2019)

Use a plaster sawzall blade i m also using this....


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Ok so what I did a few times since making this thread is use a 1/4" masonry bit in my impact to drill a bunch of holes on the line, then used a utility knife to cut across the holes in order to ensure that cracking would happen in that line, then went over it with the short Milwaukee plaster bit (the one with the big teeth) in my hand-held saw (the Lenox I posted above). Then I used the normal drywall blade to cut the wood lath. 

It was real easy and only took a couple minutes. Much faster than going out to get the oscillating tool and vacuum.


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

You might try a jig saw with a moderately coarse blade. If it is metal lathe, you could use a metal cutting blade. If you can cut near the studs, the vibration will not cause the plaster to break out as badly. I have used this method before, but I have not had to deal with plaster in many years. ( Now I have jinxed myself - probably will need to cut some plaster next week.)


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

varmit said:


> You might try a jig saw with a moderately coarse blade. If it is metal lathe, you could use a metal cutting blade. If you can cut near the studs, the vibration will not cause the plaster to break out as badly. I have used this method before, but I have not had to deal with plaster in many years. ( Now I have jinxed myself - probably will need to cut some plaster next week.)


I used a jigsaw with a grit blade long ago, before the rotozip with a tile bit, which was before the oscillating tool with a grit blade.

The oscillating tool is the best method right now, IMO. But sometimes I don't want to carry in the extra power tools, spend the extra time, and make the extra dust when I don't care about a perfect cut. That's why I was looking for a method to make a rough cut by hand. 

What I described in the post above works pretty well for that. It could be done with the tools in my service tray that I always have with me. And all the dust fell onto the 5'X4' dropcloth that I had on the floor underneath.


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

If you want a quick and dirty method, that will be patched anyway, you could score the plaster with a knife and attack the wall with a hammer, but you never know where that old lathe will break.


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## zac (May 11, 2009)

When I work with plaster everything gets surface mounted. End of story. 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## bostonPedro (Nov 14, 2017)

I use a screw driver, utility knife and a blade used for cutting metal because its less aggressive in your scenario and therefor neater when you sort of care about making a mess. I would still use the oscillating tool if I could though if I had a choice but if I didn't then any metal blade. I have used metal cutting Sawzall blades and even hacksaw blades but that was because I didn't have anything better at hand.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

varmit said:


> If you want a quick and dirty method, that will be patched anyway, you could score the plaster with a knife and attack the wall with a hammer, but you never know where that old lathe will break.


It’s funny you mention that, I actually got the idea to do it this way after watching This Old House. The electrician did it as you described.

Now I wouldn’t do it that way for an electrical device box. But when cutting a big hole for a panel change that is going to require some spackling anyway, using a rough method is perfect fine. The way I described above is a little bit neater and more accurate than the knife and hammer method, while still being pretty easy and quick.


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