Wife has an iron table that had a cement and tile mosaic top that she uses outdoors. She left it out over the winter and the top fell apart from freezing and thawing. She wants a new top. (it doesn't have to be cement) I've been trying to figure out how to make a form to cast a top from high strength mortar, or make a nice clean slice from a 3 foot diameter slab of soft maple trunk in my back yard (I know that won't last long), and I just tho't last night, "why not cut a circle of Hardiebacker cement board and use that?" Smooth side up. I don't know if the half inch is strong enough, but it's only about $12 for a piece to try it. But I don't know how to cut it.
Normally you score the stuff with a utility knife and snap it. On Hardie's web site they show how to cut a circle, but that's an *inside* circle (you score the circle, score it multiple times across the diagonal like pizza slices, then hammer out the pieces. But I want to keep the circle and discard the outside.
What about using a diamond power saw, if I cut it outdoors and wear a P100 mask? Cutting or grinding the stuff creates a lot of silica dust, but on a windy day that might be okay; just hazardous to do it indoors. Or, it comes in a 3x5' panel, maybe I can score the circle and then score rays from the circle out to the edge and knock them out with a hammer...
Any idea? Is this not going to work anyway because the 1/2" stuff is really only about 7/16" and isn't strong enough to support itself flat, especially after it's been rained on a few times?
I have a wet tile saw. Maybe I can make some kind of jig to cut it with that. But that would probably require drilling a hole in the center...
