Re: Cutting floor tiles: Electric or Hand Operated cutter?

[Serial Bodger]

I have a water cooled electric tile cutter. Used it to do my kitchen/bathroom tiling.

Fantastic.

The main advantages over a manual tile cutter are :-

1 .You don't break lots of tiles that a hamfisted clod like myself does with a manual one.

1. Cut corners and semi complex shapes again without breaking tiles.
2. If can take 2mm off one edge of tile to get it to fit. Try doing that with a manual tile cutter.
3. Big tiles ... no problem.

Best 40 Quid I spent. I would have probably broken a lot more than 40 Quids worth of tiles using a maunual tile cutter.

I am about to lay some floor tiles. When I was initially contemplating > this project, I was planning to use the opportunity to buy an 'Water > Cooled Electric Tile Cutter' considering they are only 30-40 quid. > > However, the tiler who lives opposite me has said that electric > cutters are only used for 'complex' cuts.. Most tilers will still use > a standard 'hand operated' cutter for "straight cuts". > > So, I was tempted to buy a standard diamond cutter for around £15 > inside, and borrow an electric cutter for the complex cuts. > > After reading about cutting tiles on this forum, I am thinking that my > original plan (i.e using an electric cutter for ALL cuts) is the best > way forwards. > > Considering that 90% of my cuts will be straight across the tile, > would I be better of using an electric cutter or hand operated? > > With a hand cutter, I am limited to cuts of around 400mm, so my plan > of laying them 'diagonally' is out of the window. If I go down the > electric route, I am guessing that I will be able to go back to my > original (diagonal) plan as the cutting width is going to be big > enough to cope with a diagonal cut. > > Does anyone have any advice about electric cutters. I was going to go > for a cheap 'generic' version (i.e Blackspur), but I have also seen > the Plasplugd model which is roughly the same price. > > ANY advice on this would be apprecaited > > Jon

[BillR]

I'd second all of that. I find also that there is much less wastage at the end because you can cut down the larger offcutts to fit the smaller places. I used a PlasPlugs one to cut floor tiles diagonally as the OP wishes to do. Would have been nigh on impossible for me to do it the manual way.

[Troy]

Agreed !!

I bought the Plasplugs cutter to cut floor tiles, on the advice given in this group some time back - wonderful :-) Couldn't have done the job any other way. Perhaps professional tilers can - but me ..... never:-)

[Simon Avery]

Hello Jon

Yep. Cheaper (for a good quality one), faster (in experienced hands), just as accurate, not as noisy (drowns out radio 1) and far cleaner.

Some of the cheapie ones are just crap. Especially those all-plastic ones that flex when you apply pressure.

Maybe. :) Personal taste, really. I like a good quality metal hand cutter, but it's a problem using one for edge cuts and twiddly bits. Preferred would be both, but you can do everything with an electric cutter (albiet slower, messier and noisier), so that may be your best path.

No. With *some* hand cutters.

Probably.

I know the plasplugs is blessed by one or two users in here, but I don't personally have any experience of them.

[stuart noble]

He's quite right. It's just so much faster, but don't use the type where you have to move the tile to the jaws to snap it. The ones where you use the scribing handle to snap the tile are really easy to use, and I'm no pro with tiling.

[Dave Plowman]

But it doesn't give a near perfect machined edge as a wet diamond saw does. This may not matter, but sometimes it does.

[Simon Avery]

Hello Dave

Not machined, no - but the cut edge is clean and straight. Can't really see any major difference once they're laid.

[Peter Scott]

Pro quality hand cutter any time. I bought one several years ago from the tile merchant. Spanish. Cost about 80 pounds. Was warned 'not to lend it to anyone'. If it wasn't buried beyond finding right now I'd dig it out and tell you the name. Cuts cleanly and quickly and never in the wrong place. It has an attachment (extra money) for cutting holes. I used it on quarries and I don't think you can get tougher than that.

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Peter Scott ________________________________________________________________

[Wanderer]

Yup, go for an electric tile cutter. Floor tile are bloody hard, and despite what the pro tiler told you, they don't cut that easily!

[Simon Avery]

Hello Dave

Ah. Yes, it would be better there. TBH I tend to buy tiles that have the odd end-finished one included, and use them. Even a neat finish looks grubby if the glaze is a different colour. (Although I have been known to paint with enamel when I did run out of end-coloured ones once... )

You may just have persuaded me. I've had to give back the lovely aluminium cutter I was using, and when I redo my bathroom this winter I'll prolly buy one of yon little whizzy things, rather than buy a cheapie hand cutter.

[stuart noble]

Probably a Rubi. The Spanish should know a bit about tiling!

[stuart noble]

All tiles are hard but I assure you the type of hand cutter being discussed snaps them perfectly every time. You could literally do it with your eyes closed, having never tiled before. Score, snap. There, I've done one already:-) The only time I use a saw is if the offcut is less than half an inch or if you're cutting a rectangle out round a socket (and then only for the shorter of the two cuts). If I were a good tiler I wouldn't even use it for that. Let's not forget that the saw was originally developed for marble. You don't cut tiles with a saw for the same reason you don't cut glass with a saw.

[Dave Plowman]

In article , stuart noble