Cutting tiles with an electric tile cutter

trotter_inc

Hi guys...

Just bought an electric tile cutter and was experimenting with it last night on some spare ceramic tiles that I had lying around...never used one before last night...

Its cuts them nice and cleanly apart from the very last piece of the tile...coming up to the very end of the tile it always leaves a little piece of the ceramic part of the tile on one of the cut sides... if you know what I mean! Anyone know how I can stop this? I was pushing the tile into the cutter quite slow in case I cracked the tile, is this the right way to do it?

Also, any other tips on using these electric tile cutters is appreciated.

Do you push the tiles into the blade fast or slow?

Do you put the tile with the ceramic side of the tile facing up or down? Or does it make a difference...

Gurgle

trotter_inc wrote:

Hi guys...

Just bought an electric tile cutter and was experimenting with it last night on some spare ceramic tiles that I had lying around...never used one before last night...

Its cuts them nice and cleanly apart from the very last piece of the tile...coming up to the very end of the tile it always leaves a little piece of the ceramic part of the tile on one of the cut sides... if you know what I mean! Anyone know how I can stop this? I was pushing the tile into the cutter quite slow in case I cracked the tile, is this the right way to do it?

Also, any other tips on using these electric tile cutters is appreciated.

Do you push the tiles into the blade fast or slow?

Do you put the tile with the ceramic side of the tile facing up or down? Or does it make a difference...

Hold the tile with the finished side up.
You can feed it through fairly fast up to the last couple of inches, then go very slowly to avoid it snapping the last bit, as you described above.

trotter_inc

Gurgle wrote:

Hold the tile with the finished side up.
You can feed it through fairly fast up to the last couple of inches, then go very slowly to avoid it snapping the last bit, as you described above.

I was going fairly slow alright, thats whats annoying me, I was being very careful...thought I should have had the finished side down or something!

squire1

Some of the cheaper tile cutters will run at a firly low speed which can cause the snapping off as you describe. Also the blade supplied with these tools is normally fairly crap. Is it a wet saw or dry? You might just have to live with it. Try starting at one end, cut an inchor two, flip the tile around and then cut from the other end. If the tile does snap then it will not happen at the end and you can usually clean it up by running it against the blade again. Best of luck with it.

trotter_inc

squire1 wrote:

Some of the cheaper tile cutters will run at a firly low speed which can cause the snapping off as you describe. Also the blade supplied with these tools is normally fairly crap. Is it a wet saw or dry? You might just have to live with it. Try starting at one end, cut an inchor two, flip the tile around and then cut from the other end. If the tile does snap then it will not happen at the end and you can usually clean it up by running it against the blade again. Best of luck with it.

Its a wet saw, would that make a difference?

Will try your suggestion and see if it makes a difference... thanks...

squire1

No, wet saw is better. Just make sure there is enough water to keep the blade tip wet.