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Cutting ceramic tile with an angle grinder? zxcvbob 09-24-2006
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Posted by Tim Fischer on September 24, 2006, 6:49 pm
> The wet saw I used at the B.I.Ls was better for his particular type of
> tile, or so his salesman claimed, but it was such a pain compared to
> the scorer that I wouldn't pay for it until I ran into a problem.

I've heard this said before, and I just don't get it. I can run a tile
through a wet saw and it's guaranteed to come out a perfect cut, and
precision-measured to where I want it (assuming I set up the cut properly).
I can also easilly cut out notches, odd shapes, even some curves. The one
time I rented a scoring tool (a good, high-quality one) I wasted enough
tiles at $3.75 a pop that I could have almost had my wet saw paid for...
Not sure what I was doing wrong, but every few scores went like 1) score the
tile 2) watch the tile shatter when I used the 'snap' feature.

No way I'd trade my cheapie wet saw in for the world's most expensive
scoring tool...

-Tim



Posted by Tom Kendrick on September 25, 2006, 12:21 am
I recently retiled 18 sq. ft. toilet room. The score-and-snap tool
worked OK unless the line was near the edge. I took my 5" angle
grinder outside with a diamond blade and took my time. It worked great
and the dust was directed downward. The tile were very large.

wrote:

>Or porcelain tile. I'm about to tile my tiny little bathroom. I was
>thinking about getting a cheapo tub saw to cut the tiles, but how about
>just cutting them freehand with a "turbo" (wet or dry) 4" diamond blade
>mounted on an angle grinder? Would this work better and faster than
>cutting the tiles with a scribe and a nibbler? (the porcelain floor
>tiles may be too thick to cut with a nibbler)
>
>Is there a way to spray the cut with water to keep dust down if I only
>have 2 hands? Seems like it would take 3...
>
>thanks,
>Bob

Posted by Les on September 25, 2006, 9:33 am
I've cut them dry with my angle grinder and diamond blade many times.
Do it outside. For most cuts, I used the score and snap cutter with
excellent results. Only the notch cuts (around outlets, etc) and small
pieces did I need the diamond blade.


Posted by shawn on September 25, 2006, 9:52 pm
I just did my master shower and floor. Guest bath floor i did i just
used my angle grinder with diamond blade. pita and LOUD! This time
though before i rented a good one i said what the heck and tried the el
cheapo $88 wet table tile saw at depot or lowes..it comes with diamond
blade.

I wouldn't want to do more than a few large tiles or a large room with
it but for 88 bucks it beat the heck out of the angle grinder anyday,
was alot quieter and cut much faster than trying to do dry! Major
thing i noticed is if you have a large tile over say 6 to 8 inches you
cant cut it in a single pass, the blade drift is too much and the gaurd
deflect also, so you have to do 1/2 pass each side. But for a small
job...it wasn't too bad at all.

- shawn




zxcvbob wrote:
> Or porcelain tile. I'm about to tile my tiny little bathroom. I was
> thinking about getting a cheapo tub saw to cut the tiles, but how about
> just cutting them freehand with a "turbo" (wet or dry) 4" diamond blade
> mounted on an angle grinder? Would this work better and faster than
> cutting the tiles with a scribe and a nibbler? (the porcelain floor
> tiles may be too thick to cut with a nibbler)
>
> Is there a way to spray the cut with water to keep dust down if I only
> have 2 hands? Seems like it would take 3...
>
> thanks,
> Bob


Posted by Tim Fischer on September 26, 2006, 1:06 am

> I wouldn't want to do more than a few large tiles or a large room with
> it but for 88 bucks it beat the heck out of the angle grinder anyday,
> was alot quieter and cut much faster than trying to do dry! Major
> thing i noticed is if you have a large tile over say 6 to 8 inches you
> cant cut it in a single pass, the blade drift is too much and the gaurd
> deflect also, so you have to do 1/2 pass each side. But for a small
> job...it wasn't too bad at all.

This one, from Harbor Freight, is a good, solid unit and very accurate:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40315'

None of the accuracy issues you mention.

-Tim



Page 2 of 3       < 1 2 3 > last >>
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