Only one chance to drill tile

Dave ( snipped-for-privacy@btopenworld.com) wibbled on Sunday 23 January 2011 17:12:

And chop your fingers off when you are rummaging around for other things.

In theory you *should* be putting clean knives in!!!

But fair enough - I quite like the idea - out of reach of kids and easy to grab one with gungy hands without contaminating the rest.

Make her sharpen the knives. With nothing more than a pebble and a bowl of water. She'll learn...

Really? Not something I've ever found, so I presume this must be because your standards of sharpness far exceed mine. I think I prefer my version of sharp, and frankly I reckon most people, professional cooks excepted, would be better off with knives which are only sharpish. The slight inconvenience of not being able to slice stuff effortlessly like the masterchefs on the telly is more than made up for by the accidental digital incisions being less often and less severe.

You're not meant to stick them back in until after they've been cleaned!

In that case let me suggest a compromise solution, and that is to screw the magnetic strip to the bottom of a drawer. Just need to make sure the drawers aren't tiled.

There is no way. You can't reason with a wife. She is always right and you are always wrong. It's a lost cause trying to persuade her to use the blunt butter knife for halving sandwiches, or to leave sandwiches whole. You either have to accept that your knives are going to get blunt, or get a divorce.

Or set aside some time every week for knife sharpening. Use an angle grider for that, of course.

I always start dead slow and don't have a problem with wander. I try to push the point of the dit into the glaze before i start drilling. some glaze is soft enough for that to work.

Jonathan

Just use a couple of tubes of Superglue - job done.

Sod that. I like my favourite knife to slice freely through everything except the chopping board.

Good advice - I suggest you take it and start by chewing the tubes thoroughly.

That's a myth. Sharp knives are safer than semi-sharp knives that need greater pressure to cut. A sharp knife is controllable and cuts cleanly without undue pressure. What you describe needs more pressure and of you slip the extra force needed will ensure deep wounds.

I've never understood this fear of sharp knives.

Use glue.

That might be the case, but dross from the kitchen can drop down into the slots and soil them. I haven't worked out a way to keep them clean yet. It would be a good idea if they could split apart and be washed easily

Even if I tried that, ten years on she would still be using very blunt knives and you know how many injuries a blunt knife can make :-(

Dave

I find superglue a bit too brittle for this type of job. When I glued mine to the wall, I used RTV 732. It is a silicone adhesive/filler but sticks like the proverbial to a blanket.

Dave

I suppose after 10 years of marriage you stop sticking pointy objects into your wife.

I remember my mum deciding that mirror tiles on the wall above the bath would be nice. I also remember dozing in a nice hot bath when they all started to come unstuck.

score a tiddly cross with a diamond tipped tool, and use a diamond tipped drill at low pressure and SLOW speed.

Or if you use one of the mini diamond *core* drills, put masking tape over the tile, mark that, and then start very carefully lining up on e.g. a biro drawn cross.

I've drilled through *quartzite* without hammer.. hammer=total recipe for tile crack. Sharp, hard and slow, as the actress said to the bishop.

And no overheating. Slop water on if using steel or tungsten. And maybe when using diamond as well.

I find the better custom bits wander less. Like my diamond core drill best. Slow but excellent finish

BTDTGTTS

Golly./ I must be a real pro then

Plastic plugs easily take up a mm or two. If you cant drill better than that, get a man in.

At last, someone else who has actually DONE it.

I now have rusty carbon steel knives and a diamond encrusted steel. She can use the fancy blunt stainless all she likes.

Complete novice (and simpleton) needs to drill into two kitchen wall tiles to put up a magnetic knife rack. The tiles are ancient, and if i crack them or drill out of level tiles could not be replaced with matching ones.

It's also right near the sink where 'she who must be obeyed' will see it all day. If i mess up, i'm dead or worse.

I've seen a workman drill into kitchen tiles and initially his drill goes 'all over the place' until it 'bites'. He's probably had a lot of experience at this, i'm guessing that for me it would bite in the wrong place.

Grateful for any tips on the 'safest' way for me to drill the tiles. Thanks.

-------- I've drilled through wall tiles a number of times to fix things and find the easiest way is to use the pointed tip of a standard tile cutter (not the wheeled type) and just work it into the tile to create a noticeable mark using a screwing motion (twist to the right then back again!). Then I use a standard masonry drill to drill the hole using the mark as the starting point - never had a failure yet and is very accurate.

John M