Electric tile cutters for corners

[JimP]

Hi,

I am currently tiling my bathroom. To help me in the task I have bought an electric tile cutter (550W) from Wickes. Looking at other posts here it seems to be a fairly standard thing - water trough in bottom, fence etc.

My intention was to cut 'mitered' edges at the external corners of the room so that: a) no unglazed tile edges are visible b) no need for plastic edging strip.

So, I have tilted the plate to 45degrees and I'm trying to saw this edge - but it ALWAYS cracks right at the end of the cut - I'm going really slow, trying to support the tile all the way, but it still happens.

Any ideas how I can get a perfect cut?

The plate only tips in one direction, which seems to be a bit limiting when the machine is on the floor - I need to make cuts in the opposite direction so this seems a bit limiting to me.

Any ideas on getting around these problems?

Thanks in advance

JimP

[Cicero]

================ I had this problem with floor tiles even when cutting square edges and I didn't really find a really satisfactory solution other than taking extreme care - which doesn't seem to be working for you. You could try putting a starter cut in one end (the end that's going to be the finished end) and then make the full cut from the other end.

Having said that, I think you might be trying to be too perfect and in doing so you may be making a worse finish that if you cut square. The reason I say so is that you will have very thin 'wedges' butting against each other which will be very vulnerable to damage from the odd bit of rough treatment. I guess that those edges will also be razor sharp even when butted up against each other - especially the external corners.

Just some thoughts.......

Cic.

[Ian Stirling]

Wax or double-sided tape the tile to another tile so that it can support the unsupported edge. Alternatively, a bit before the crack usually starts, make a right-angled cut into the tile, so that most of the waste falls off at that, and when you get to the edge, it's not trying to support the whole tile.

[Capitol]

As has been said, you can cut the tile from both ends, this will stop most of the breakages. Removing the blade guard allows you to reverse the cut direction, but it's a bit messy. To get a 45deg cut, use a wooden block rather than tilting the table. To bevel the edges of the tiles, again use a block as a template, but leave at least 1mm of the original top tile edge in place to avoid chipping. When mounting the tiles at a corner leave a 1-2mm gap for grouting. This rounds the edges of the corner slightly. Mounted this way, 25 years later, on 94' of edges, We don't have a single chipped edge! I originally used this method, having to grind off the tile edges by hand as plastic tile edging didn't exist, and although I now use plastic edging, this bevelling system looks much better when you can't get a plastic colour match for the tiles.

Regards Capitol

[JimP]

Thanks for all your replies!

I tried the tips for cutting given, but just found it too difficult to always get it right. I have a lot of edges to do. This combined with having kids who walk into walls a lot(!) has led me to decide that plastic edging shall be used. I think it will look OK.

Cheers, Jim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The other alternative is the 'chrome' edge, which looks super with dark colours.