"Ben" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

I'm currently tiling my bathroom with 8x10inch ceramic tiles. I'm a
tiling virgin so I thought I'd make life easier by investing in an
electric tile cutter - and to be honest it's the worst £30 I ever
spent.

I can't for the life of me seem to be able to cut the tiles straight
and true. All I want to do is cut about 15mm from the edge of the
tile. Out of the eight I've put on the wall I've had 5 rejects - and
I'm only happy with the 8 so called successes coz I think I can loose
the cut edges in the corner with grout. On average I'm getting around
a 5mm wander in the cut.

I'm using the plastic guide thing that clips in and using the guide
along the bottom to set the width. Then I push the tile through as
slowly as I can with even pressure from behind. I thought about
putting a line down the tile where I want the cut and trying to guide
the tile with that. But this turned out to be useless as the line gets
covered by red muddy stuff from the tile which gets mixed in with the
water and thrown about by the blade.

I was very suprised to find nobody who is complaining about the same
problems. In fact most people seemt to think they are the best thing
since sliced bread.
If anyone has any ideas why I'm so rubbish at using this thing then
I'd be very grateful for the advice.

On mine the guide along the bottom (the bit graduated in millimetres) seems
to be a total fiction - I always set the guide with a ruler or from a mark
made on the tile (before switching it on and getting everything spattered
with slushy water :-). The only problems I find with the plastic guide are
(a) getting the clips fastened (they're a bit plasticky) and (b) sometimes
the back end of the guide will be fractionally closer to the blade than the
front end and the tile will either jam when it hits the riving knife (metal
shark's fin behind and in line with the blade) or bind against the blade as
it's going through.

Like everyone else who's replied I can't see how you can be going wrong as
you describe. I certainly wouldn't describe it as the best thing since
sliced bread, but that's because I think sliced bread is crap (discuss ;-)

For what it's worth however, if I'm cutting ordinary glazed wall tiles I
prefer a score+snap cutter which is quicker, less messy and a gives a
cleaner cut. I use the plasplugs cutter when I'm doing floor tiles,
porcelain (or harder - I've cut granite with it!) tiles or have to cut a
smaller bit from a tile than I can do with a score+snap.