Grinding down ceramic tile

Oct 01, 2007 5 Replies
A

Hi,



A contractor built these very unattractive cubby holes in our bathroom wall so we came with this brilliant idea to have custom made hammered copper inserts and had those made in Mexico at a considerable cost. Of course, they were made larger than the specs and they do not fit. I can see the picture here.



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My first reaction is to grind the tile down a little bid around the edges (only the edges of pieces facing the viewer) and I think that might just get them in there.



Is there a tool that would do it for me "in place"? I do recall drilling 1/4" holes in these tiles and that taking me about an hour per hole so I'm apprehensive about the strength of the material. So I'm open to ideas!



Thank you very much in advance,



Aaron Fude.



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C

you can get a 4" side grinder that will do it with either a dry diamond blade or a grinding blade. it will be incredibly noisy, dusty, and will throw lots of small pieces of tile around. wear eye, ear, breathing, and body protection. you'll also have to deal with the dust produced in keeping it out of the rest of the house.

sure you don't want to just tell the place you bought them they're the wrong size and they should fix their screwups?

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D

And if that is too big you can get mini diamond wheels for Dremel tools. About 1 1/4 diameter. You could use a sanding block with coarse silicon carbide paper too. Power tool would be faster and messier. You can also get tile cutting blades for saber saws.

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A

Hi,

Thanks for advice. Would you be able to send me a link to the mini diamond wheels that you are talking about. I'm not sure if the guys at home depot would know what you are talking about.

Thanks again,

Aaron

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C

yes they will. it's in the tile department with all the other diamond blades. they look like

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