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Cutting tiles

Does what it says on the tin
vrdiver
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Cutting tiles

#165881

Postby vrdiver » September 12th, 2018, 1:46 pm

Hoping a fellow Lemon can advise:

I need to cut about half a dozen of these: https://3dplitka.ru/product-489611/
(I know it's a Russian site, but the tiles are old...)

One of the tiles needs a one inch notch to let a pipe come up, the others are all straight cuts.

I've tried a basic tile scorer ( https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Ceramic ... r/p/514100 ) but the tiles just snap almost randomly - I'm scoring the glazed side, placing a pencil under the back of the tile (along the score line) and pressing down on either side, but no luck whether I score once or multiple times (and yes, I'm trying to ensure the score line goes right to both edges).

I can split bricks on a score line, but these tiles are a different game.

Suggestions appreciated.

VRD

Hardgrafter
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Re: Cutting tiles

#165893

Postby Hardgrafter » September 12th, 2018, 2:10 pm

You tube has a good video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rrYirjZhqk
With a thick tile, use an electric saw with a diamond coated disc. About £35, but it does cut through like a hot knife through butter.

bungeejumper
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Re: Cutting tiles

#165910

Postby bungeejumper » September 12th, 2018, 3:16 pm

I'd have thought that a 5 inch angle grinder with diamond wheel would make short work of the long cuts, and a tile saw blade (to fit a mini hacksaw or a fretsaw) would deal with the pipe notch. Tidy up with a tile file if required. I've done this with some fairly thick tiles, although the tile saw was useless on rock-hard Ruabon quarry tiles. (Which you haven't got.)

BJ

quelquod
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Re: Cutting tiles

#166115

Postby quelquod » September 13th, 2018, 4:28 pm

+1 for a diamond blade in an angle grinder.
Even for the pipe notch it's quick and easy to make a few angled cuts to (carefully) nibble away and round off the required shape. The only tiles which almost defeated mine were some odd things we inherited which seemed to have a high resin content and produced a combination of dripping lava and flying sparks.

Sobraon
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Re: Cutting tiles

#166119

Postby Sobraon » September 13th, 2018, 4:45 pm

I struggled for 30 years using 'score and snap' and various manual tile saws and tile 'nibblers'. All poor. For a new shower room for the kids this spring I borrowed a plasplugs 'wet' electric tile cutter. Second hand on ebay they are about £20-30.

I will never do tiling again without one. Cheap and a really good bit of kit - although you do get a bit dirty from the water 'fling'. Was going to describe in text how I cut slots but a few minutes on 'youtube' will be better I'm sure.

vrdiver
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Re: Cutting tiles

#166190

Postby vrdiver » September 13th, 2018, 10:16 pm

Thanks all.

Back from B&Q with a basic MacAllister "wet" tile cutter (https://www.diy.com/departments/mac-all ... 034_BQ.prd).

Will update here with my experience once I've given it a go (may be a couple of days - depending on weather and a couple of outside jobs that are competing for time...) I'd hoped to avoid forking out for a tool I'm unlikley to need that often, but it can either live in the garage or go on ebay, depending on how I take to it...

VRD

vrdiver
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Re: Cutting tiles

#166387

Postby vrdiver » September 14th, 2018, 4:43 pm

Persistent rain here made the outside jobs less interesting, so tile cutting it was. The wet blade circular blade works like a dream - thanks for the heads-up on using one: quick, easy and so far, no unexpected cracking or wastage.

I reckon I'll save its purchase price just on the number of ruined tiles I haven't created by not using the tile scorer :)

VRD


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