David W.E. Roberts wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have Googled in general and also this NG and still don't have a
definitive
answer.

Still find myself needing to cut a curve in a thin (7mm) ceramic wall
tile.

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp...rrer=AffWindow

http://www.amazingproducts.co.uk/page10.html

show ceramic tile blades for jigsaws, but I doubt they are thin enough to
cut a smooth curve. No sign of any round blades like you get for hacksaws
which would cut a curve. Probably too flimsy?

These people http://www.sra-developments.co.uk/bremridge/ advertised a
sonic
tile cutter on the NG in 1988 (and got warned off).
Looks amazing, but Google doesn't show any stockists.
Anyone used/seen one?

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does have other uses :-)

Some on this NG have suggested you can cut curves with the rotary tile
cutters (like minature saw tables) which are about £50 - anyone succeeded
in
doing this? Again a lot of dosh :-) And less useful than a zip tool.

Most people warn against the frustrations of using tile nibblers - 20
minutes work then SNAP!

Is it best just to go for the simple option - a hacksaw with a circular
rasp
blade?

My current feeling is that I will have to try the hacksaw blade first
because £60 is a lot of money and this DIY en-suite is supposed to be a
cost
cutting exercise (although it isn't going that way so far).

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

Cheers
Dave R
--



Forget the high tech! Something like http://tinyurl.com/i4r5 from Screwfix
(but the sheds sell similar tools) will do nicely.

Make sure that you support the tile well when you cut it - e.g. on a
workmate with the jaws slightly open, and use the saw in the gap so that the
tiles is supported on both sides of the cut.

Roger

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:39:21 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts"
wrote:

No sign of any round blades like you get for hacksaws
which would cut a curve. Probably too flimsy?

Naah. Round hacksaw blade will be fine, particularly for a one-off.
It's a bit slow, but inexpensive, accurate, and you won't need eye,
ear, nose-throat-mouth and hand protection.


Thomas Prufer

In message , David W.E.
Roberts writes
Hi,

I have Googled in general and also this NG and still don't have a definitive
answer.

Still find myself needing to cut a curve in a thin (7mm) ceramic wall tile.


Some on this NG have suggested you can cut curves with the rotary tile
cutters (like minature saw tables) which are about £50 - anyone succeeded in
doing this? Again a lot of dosh :-) And less useful than a zip tool.


Yep I've done that- a few times.

What I did was cut in towards the curve to create little 'fingers' of
tile, which were easily snapped off. Then I carefully worked around the
curve, moving the tile across the blade. did a neat job as long as I
took time and didn't rush it.

These are dead handy tools for tiling, esp. for fiddly cuts like this,
for diagonal cuts and for cutting thin strips from tiles. You can pick
then up for less than GBP 50 now as well.

Though for a one off one of the round tilesaw blades will do the job
I'm sure, jus ta bit slow.
--
Chris French, Leeds

chris French wrote:

In message , David W.E.
Roberts writes

Hi,

I have Googled in general and also this NG and still don't have a
definitive
answer.

Still find myself needing to cut a curve in a thin (7mm) ceramic wall
tile.


Some on this NG have suggested you can cut curves with the rotary tile
cutters (like minature saw tables) which are about £50 - anyone
succeeded in
doing this? Again a lot of dosh :-) And less useful than a zip tool.


Yep I've done that- a few times.


All the time.



What I did was cut in towards the curve to create little 'fingers' of
tile, which were easily snapped off. Then I carefully worked around the
curve, moving the tile across the blade. did a neat job as long as I
took time and didn't rush it.



Yup. Fine file or coarse emery of its a 'show curve'


These are dead handy tools for tiling, esp. for fiddly cuts like this,
for diagonal cuts and for cutting thin strips from tiles. You can pick
then up for less than GBP 50 now as well.



Yep. Hired one for 4 weeks for about 60 squids it was all busted up too.

Then got one for 50!! Tiles aren't all it cuts either - floor slates as
well, and even 1/2" marble, and provbably metal sheet tho I haven't
tried that yet.


Though for a one off one of the round tilesaw blades will do the job
I'm sure, jus ta bit slow.

"Andrew" wrote in message
om...

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike for about £60 but that is a lot of
money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does have other uses :-)


Rotozip Rebel now only £30 on Argos website. It's discontinued in the
UK but you can still get the bits from B&Q, Homebase and others and
they're still available from the US.

Andrew

TA - yet another parameter changes in the decision matrix :-)

"Andrew" wrote in message
om...

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike
for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does
have other uses :-)

The new PP Pro trim cutter is a substantial powerful tool.

Rotozip Rebel now only £30 on Argos
website. It's discontinued in the
UK but you can still get the bits from B&Q,
Homebase and others and
they're still available from the US.

Focus have a trim cutter for £50 with a circle cutter and router base (same
as the old 550w PP Pro unit). Also under the DPTools label the same unit is
in Focus with one 14.4 1 hr charger battery drill, for £40. The bits are
available from B&Q and Focus.

£0 for the Rotozip is great value but you don't have the circle cutter (£15
extra) and it is discontinued. I prefer to pay the extra £10 and get a free
drill.



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"parish" parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote in message
...
IMM wrote:

"Andrew" wrote in message
om...

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike
for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does
have other uses :-)

The new PP Pro trim cutter is a substantial powerful tool.

Rotozip Rebel now only £30 on Argos
website. It's discontinued in the
UK but you can still get the bits from B&Q,
Homebase and others and
they're still available from the US.

Focus have a trim cutter for £50 with a
circle cutter and router base (same
as the old 550w PP Pro unit). Also under
the DPTools label the same unit is
in Focus with one 14.4 1 hr charger battery
drill, for £40. The bits are
available from B&Q and Focus.

£30 for the Rotozip is great value but
you don't have the circle cutter (£15
extra) and it is discontinued. I prefer to
pay the extra £10 and get a free drill.

The circle cutter, straight guide, and
10-piece bit set are also
available from Argos - but only in their
Argos Extra stores.

At £15 each as they used to be?

What is an "extra" store?



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IMM wrote:

"Andrew" wrote in message
om...

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike
for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does
have other uses :-)

The new PP Pro trim cutter is a substantial powerful tool.

Rotozip Rebel now only £30 on Argos
website. It's discontinued in the
UK but you can still get the bits from B&Q,
Homebase and others and
they're still available from the US.

Focus have a trim cutter for £50 with a circle cutter and router base (same
as the old 550w PP Pro unit). Also under the DPTools label the same unit is
in Focus with one 14.4 1 hr charger battery drill, for £40. The bits are
available from B&Q and Focus.

£0 for the Rotozip is great value but you don't have the circle cutter (£15
extra) and it is discontinued. I prefer to pay the extra £10 and get a free
drill.


The circle cutter, straight guide, and 10-piece bit set are also
available from Argos - but only in their Argos Extra stores.



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.488 / Virus Database: 287 - Release Date: 05/06/2003

IMM wrote:

"parish" parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote in message
...
IMM wrote:

"Andrew" wrote in message
om...

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike
for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does
have other uses :-)

The new PP Pro trim cutter is a substantial powerful tool.

Rotozip Rebel now only £30 on Argos
website. It's discontinued in the
UK but you can still get the bits from B&Q,
Homebase and others and
they're still available from the US.

Focus have a trim cutter for £50 with a
circle cutter and router base (same
as the old 550w PP Pro unit). Also under
the DPTools label the same unit is
in Focus with one 14.4 1 hr charger battery
drill, for £40. The bits are
available from B&Q and Focus.

£30 for the Rotozip is great value but
you don't have the circle cutter (£15
extra) and it is discontinued. I prefer to
pay the extra £10 and get a free drill.

The circle cutter, straight guide, and
10-piece bit set are also
available from Argos - but only in their
Argos Extra stores.

At £15 each as they used to be?


Circle cutter £15.99
Straight guide £12.99
10-pce bit set £19.99

What is an "extra" store?


They are a kind of Argos superstore with 33% more products than regular
Argos stores. There's 11 of them around the country and a further 15
that you can order stuff in the Extra catalogue from.

Our local Argos is one of those you can order Extra stuff from so the
catalogues they have are Argos Extra.

I've scanned the page about Extra stores from the catalogue so you can
see if there is one near you:

http://www.parish.nildram.co.uk/argos.png



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parish wrote:
I've scanned the page about Extra stores from the catalogue so you can
see if there is one near you:

http://www.parish.nildram.co.uk/argos.png


And here's the page with the Rotozip stuff:

http://www.parish.nildram.co.uk/rotozip.png

IMM burbled as usual, amongst other things:


£0 for the Rotozip is great value


Put me down for a hundred.

I have just completed a large tiled curved area. I used an electric
tile cutter that i found on special offer at a diy store.

I marked out the curve on the wall using an anchoring nail, string and
a pencil.

I then marked out a section of curve on stiff (ish) tracing paper and
cut it to give me a template.

I offered up each tile to its place, marked each side where the curve
would be and used the paper template and a permanent marker to mark
the curve across the tile.

Using the tile cutter with the guard up (obviously take care) I cut
tangents across the curve until it was more or less right and then
smoothed the curve with coarse emery paper.


To put an nice finish on the final curved tiled area, i edged it with
mosaic tiles. The final result looks pretty good.

Good luck
John


On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:39:21 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts"
wrote:

Hi,

I have Googled in general and also this NG and still don't have a definitive
answer.

Still find myself needing to cut a curve in a thin (7mm) ceramic wall tile.

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp...rrer=AffWindow

http://www.amazingproducts.co.uk/page10.html

show ceramic tile blades for jigsaws, but I doubt they are thin enough to
cut a smooth curve. No sign of any round blades like you get for hacksaws
which would cut a curve. Probably too flimsy?

These people http://www.sra-developments.co.uk/bremridge/ advertised a sonic
tile cutter on the NG in 1988 (and got warned off).
Looks amazing, but Google doesn't show any stockists.
Anyone used/seen one?

B&Q probably have a Rotozip-alike for about £60 but that is a lot of money
to cut one or two tiles. However it does have other uses :-)

Some on this NG have suggested you can cut curves with the rotary tile
cutters (like minature saw tables) which are about £50 - anyone succeeded in
doing this? Again a lot of dosh :-) And less useful than a zip tool.

Most people warn against the frustrations of using tile nibblers - 20
minutes work then SNAP!

Is it best just to go for the simple option - a hacksaw with a circular rasp
blade?

My current feeling is that I will have to try the hacksaw blade first
because £60 is a lot of money and this DIY en-suite is supposed to be a cost
cutting exercise (although it isn't going that way so far).

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

Cheers
Dave R

In article ,
John atte Kiln wrote:
Using the tile cutter with the guard up (obviously take care) I cut
tangents across the curve until it was more or less right and then
smoothed the curve with coarse emery paper.

The easier - although longer - way is to cut radii as close together as
you can be bothered to right up to the line, then snap off the 'fingers'.

For most tiles about 1/2" between cuts will be fine.

The curve will be as good as the number of cuts as obviously they will be
near straight lines between each cut when you snap off the bits. And a
half round tile file will finish the job if necessary.

--
*Why is a boxing ring square?

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn