Any tips on cutting shapes?

awishawash

Hi all, was wondering if any of you had any good tips for cutting odd shapes, like for tiles around the bottom of a toilet, or plywood for around a bath, or a worktop to accept a sink? I always make a bejollix of these!! I read in a DIY book about using paper with cuts in it and bending them back to suit the shape of the object, then tracing this to the work. Not too easy though!

Corkey123

awishawish

I'd suggest your question is too broad to answer completely. However for detail shapes I'd suggest you get a small shaper that will record the shape of pipes, door frames, etc to be manoveroured around, you can get them in the likes of McQuillens, etc. relatively cheaply.

Lex Luthor

When I was tiling around my toilet and pedastel for the sink, I cut paper size tiles from sheets of A3 paper to the exact same size as the tile which I think was a 13"x13".

Then I placed the 13x13 sheet of paper in the place where the tile was to go and cut away, little by little until it fit exactly. Took this paper then and transferred the shape to the tile, always erring on the side of caution and leaving a little more than I cut out. Then came the hard bit of nibbling away at the tile with the cutters and checking it every so often.

Paper can be a little unforgiving, so sometimes what I did was to use cardboard instead. I used the cardboard from the box that the tiles came in as one side is almost the same size of the tiles.

With plywood its a little quicker as you can use a jigsaw or coping saw.

ircoha

making a template in cardboard works for me, u need to be patient in getting a good fit