tiling

[dumpersnake]

I am cutting porcilain floor tiles with a manual tool but they won't break cleanly along score line.So i am cutting them with a diamond saw powered disc cutter with water and now i'm getting severe flaking/chipping on the cut edges which looks bad.Can i do anything more to prevent this damage and does anyone know why this is happening pleas .

 

[jefoss]

is the blade new? how fast is the cutter? are the tiles cheap porc?

 

[dumpersnake]

The disc is brand new for this job.The speed of cutter is 4600 min- 1 Plastiplug. 375 Watts.Cost £6.00 per tile.

 

[jefoss]

The disc is brand new for this job.The speed of cutter is 4600 min- 1 Plastiplug. 375 Watts.Cost £6.00 per tile.

there is actually no reason they shouldnt cut on the dry cutter, apart from they may be too thick for your cutter.

how are you trying to cut them? are you going in at an angle? try to make sure your hitting it dead straight on.

 

[gcol]

You need a decent cutter for porcelain tiles. Having said that; it sounds like the tiles are poor quality to me.

 

[dumpersnake]

We have got porcalain wall tiles that are 9mm thick which cut lovely on the manual cutter,but these floor tiles 9mm thick are efin bstrds and won't break clean along the score line with a brand new wheel.We've tried a hard knock, a soft knock and a continuous push but we are left scratching our heads again !I'm stumped !

 

[gcol]

You shouldn't get chipping like you describe with decent porcelain - the edges should be fully intact and razor sharp. At worst you'll end up with the break moving away from your score line, not chipping. It does sound to me that the tiles are poor.

 

[diydoughnut]

We've used an angle grinder on our tiles and had no problems at all cutting them - even where they've had to be quite thin around the sides to accomodate the plug sockets for the kitchen (tiles only marginally larger than the socket box)

Mind, the non-diydoughnut's a bit handy...

 

[gcol]

Yeah an angle grinder (with a decent diamond blade) is my weapon of choice - very versaTILE.
However, if the tiles are sh*te, it doesn't much matter what you use to cut them - they'll always chip.

 

[SeanTiler]

are you saying you used an electric tile cutter with the water reservoir or you are using a angle grinder with a diamond blade and adding water? the blade is a solid one and not a dry cut blade with the slits in. the tiles are maybe designed with a vain like design in them in which case to split them is often very hard to do and the only option is to use a wet cutter for every cut, ball ache i know but as you say £6 a tile how many are you going to waste? maybe time to invest in a decent wet cutter, will pay for itself the rate things are going for you.

 

[dumpersnake]

thanks Wolf,i'm taking a tile to the shop in morning and the dry cutter and ask if they can cut the tiles that are supposed to be top quality!

 

[dumpersnake]

seantiler:I have a decent wet cutter with a solid diamond impreg wheel and the tiles have no relief pattern on them to divert the break (i know what you mean about that bud )Thanks for your advice though bud !

 

[SeanTiler]

i tend to use my manual cutter with a tungstan carbide wheel on it to cut (split) porcelain tiles, works a treat.

 

[dumpersnake]

Im getting suspicious about my cutter now....paranoid or what.see what happens tomorrow in the shop !

 

[lancenotalot]

I have had a problem with tiles that couldnt be cut on a manual before and was getting broken edges with a wet saw.

Got round it by marking the front and back then run an angle grinder across the back a few times about half the depth of the tile then score and break as usual,nice clean straight unbroken edges.