With quite a bit of tiling to do (bathroom and downstairs WC), I recently I
bought an electric tile cutter from Screwfix - item 13192. [I got this
rather than one of the others because we (probably) need to mitre swallows
and the extra cutting capacity would help with that.]

Today I got it out and started cutting.

The machine was quieter than I expected and appeared to work well. However,
when I actually looked at the tiles that I had cut and wiped off the crud,
the glaze along the cut edge was badly chipped. I had noticed a bit of
juddering as I cut - so it wasn't a total surprise.

Trying to work out what was wrong I tried the following:

Cut three different types of tile;
Cut glaze up and glaze down;
Fed the tile extremely slowly (I doubt that I could actually achieve any
slower by hand);
Laid the tile on a piece of plasterboard (so that its top surface was
closer to the top of the cutting blade);
Used an excess of water;
Checked the blade - seemed totally secure and straight.

Reading the archives, I did find a few mentions of chipped glaze, but I
didn't see any definite solutions. If I cannot improve the results I shall
be looking at returning the cutter. It's difficult to believe that so many
of you have posted such positive experiences if you had the same problems.
So I assume that something is different in what I am doing.

The best results were obtained on a 4", fairly thick tile. The worst on a
6" tile. I reckon that on the 6", the glaze is much harder than the body.
All are fairly ordinary glazed wall tiles. The tile bodies all seemed to
cut fairly cleanly.

There seem to be four possible problems:
The tiles;
The machine;
The blade;
Me.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Rod

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?ts=85876&id=13192

Of course, I meant swans (not swallows) - my fingers got carried away....

Rod

Rod Hewitt wrote:
With quite a bit of tiling to do (bathroom and downstairs WC), I
recently I bought an electric tile cutter from Screwfix - item 13192.
[I got this rather than one of the others because we (probably) need
to mitre swallows and the extra cutting capacity would help with
that.]

Today I got it out and started cutting.

The machine was quieter than I expected and appeared to work well.
However, when I actually looked at the tiles that I had cut and wiped
off the crud, the glaze along the cut edge was badly chipped. I had
noticed a bit of juddering as I cut - so it wasn't a total surprise.

Trying to work out what was wrong I tried the following:
.........

These machines of whatever make generally do chip the glaze on the tiles to
some extent.
I've used a small plasplugs ones for years and try to avoid having the cut
edge on show.
Recently I noticed a finer blade in Topps that was for porcelain tiles (I
think).
As it wasn't expensive I got one and the chipping with it is less noticeable
on the tiles I've tried it on.

In article ,
BillR wrote:
These machines of whatever make generally do chip the glaze on the tiles
to some extent.

I'd say it still leaves a rather tidier edge than a score and snap
machine. If you need a near perfect edge then a touch up with a stone is
needed.

--
*Always drink upstream from the herd *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

"Dave Plowman" wrote in message
...
In article ,
BillR wrote:
These machines of whatever make generally do chip the glaze on the tiles
to some extent.

I'd say it still leaves a rather tidier edge than a score and snap
machine. If you need a near perfect edge then a touch up with a stone is
needed.


Contrariwise: I find a good score & snap does a cleaner job. Where the
machine wins is for narrow cuts which you can't do with a snore&scrap
cutter, and for hard tiles like porcelain and even granite which my little
£30 plasplugs job cuts with no bother.

YMMV, E&OE etc...


--
John Stumbles
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Women always generalise

Well - thanks for the replies.

I think that I will keep it - and use it where needed. Luckily, at least
some of the tiles we will be fixing do cut quite well (and are definitely
in the 'you must be joking' category for conventional cutting/snapping).

However, I am much more aware of the negatives of these cutters than I was
a week or two ago.

Rod