[Lumas976]

I do a bit of low voltage lighting for our company. We have many different ways of installing the wires such as using our mini...hand digging...etc.

My question about this is, a fellow employee has told me he has seen people use dirt blades they can put on their chop saws/cutoff saws to cut the lines into the ground 6". This would be a wonderful option for me since we have multiple chop saws being that we are stone masons mostly.

Does anything know about these blades? Where to get them? Who makes them? Are they even real?!?

[jshilan]

I've seen all types of contraptions used to install dog fence wire, speaker wire and low voltage lighting wire. Most backhoes or mini x's are too big, a ditch witch works OK but is expensive and messy and digging by hand, while being minimally invasive (medical jargon), is very labor intensive. One time I even saw a guy tilt a rototiller onto one wheel and one tine to dig a trench.

Why not just use an edger?

For those of you unfamiliar with an edger, it was the tool of choice for edging along curbs, sidewalks and beds years ago, before the weed wacker became the universally accepted tool for everything. An edger has a vertical rotating blade (that shoots really cool sparks when it hits concrete) and can be used while standing up. The only problem may be that the blade is typically an 8" diameter which would make a 4" deep trench but I'm sure that there has to be bigger ones out there, or someone could modify an existing edger to go deeper, or just stick with the 4" depth.

The other huge benefit is that it makes a very narrow slit in the ground that does not even have to be backfilled (or stomped on). What could be faster?

Let me know what you think.

[PSUscaper]

I'm not sure if I would want to be anywhere near the saw, or for that matter, have the saw anywhere near a house (with windows and stuff) running a 16 inch blade at high rpm digging trenches.

The brown trenchers make a cable trencher, and I know I've seen invisiible dog fence installers with some sort of rototiller attachment. Those at least both have shields and run at lower rpms.

If your running wires in planting beds, I think hand picking would still be just as fast. As for lawn areas needing long runs, I've had a irrigation contractor pull poly for me that I then run the low voltage lines in.

[Lumas976]

We actually have an edger we used to use when installing plastic or metal edging. It works fine and like you said it will do 4 inches. Just was looking for something that will do 6 inches. That and getting it into tight spaces and turning anywhere near sharp with it can be a pain.

As far as using the saw i have no problem using that in dirt and planting beds and such. We use our 5400rpm saw for cutting expansion joints in our flagstone patios right by a house all the time so long runs in dirt would be much easier than that. The hood on the saw would take care of the majority of the debris.

I like the irrigation lines idea but all their lines are already run where we need to be finished soon and they aren't bringing their pipe puller back to the site any time soon..

Oh well... looks like the edger it is again and hand digging for the places i cant get it. Gonna be a pain to run the almost mile of wire i'm gonna need on this job any way you look at it.

[Fine Edge]

Get a bed edger with a line blade attachment.
We just bought one for our edger and it made short work of all grass runs.
Trenches 5" - 6" deep and 1" wide.
The wire fits in the trench very easily and besides, a cut-off saw would be murder on your back and you would have to turn the wire sideways and stuff it down the tiny little slit with a screwdriver. There's no way a cut-off saw will make a trench wide enough to EASILY lay 8 gauge wire or 2 runs of wire.
With the edger attachment, I KNOW my wire is at the bottom of the trench and it's deep enough so it doesn't get hit by an aerator.

[Lumas976]

Thats why i wanted to know if anyone had heard of this blade. One of the new guys on our crew had told me the last company he worked for had some type of blade on their saw they were using for installing wires. Said it had a wider, cross angled blade for making a 5/8 inch trench. Would still be hard for all the long runs of 8 gauge i'm gonna need. Probably going to go back to my trencher anyways but was interested in seeing if anyone else had heard of this. Looked for over an hour online and found squat.

[nightscapespaul]

Originally Posted by Fine Edge

Get a bed edger with a line blade attachment.
We just bought one for our edger and it made short work of all grass runs.
Trenches 5" - 6" deep and 1" wide.
The wire fits in the trench very easily and besides, a cut-off saw would be murder on your back and you would have to turn the wire sideways and stuff it down the tiny little slit with a screwdriver. There's no way a cut-off saw will make a trench wide enough to EASILY lay 8 gauge wire or 2 runs of wire.
With the edger attachment, I KNOW my wire is at the bottom of the trench and it's deep enough so it doesn't get hit by an aerator.

What kind of edger is this?

[NCSULandscaper]

i have the 1" blade on my Brown Bededger for lighting wires in grass areas as well as beds