Has anybody else got the 600W FERM electric tile saw cutter (180mm diamond blade) from Screwfix, and if they have, do they think its as craap as I do.
I bought the thing (£50) hoping it would cut my nice new expensive ceramic wall tiles which cost £5 a go I was expecting it to 1) cut a straight square line 2) not break lots of tiles 3) give a nice clean professional looking cut edge ie. no chips
Unfortunately, although it doesnt break the tiles, they still end up as rubbish cos it consistently chips the final 2-3mm of the cut. Ive tried scoring the glaze with an old tile scorer (Ive just bought a new one incase the old one wasnt doing its job but havent tried it yet) Ive tried pushing tile through extremely slowly. The blade is a new 180mm diamond blade. Ive tried taping the tile edge with duct tape.
Has anybody had this problem and know the solution to it. Is it the tile cutter, blade, the wall tile (31cm * 41cm and 6mm thick portuguese red biscuit, the tile scorer, scoring technique)
Does anybody have any ideas why the tiles are chipping at the end of the cut. Do diamond blades vary greatly in quality so that cheap ones chip, and expensive ones dont.
I would have bought the Plasplugs compact electric cutter which has been recommended by others on this site, but its too small to cut my tiles. (ie distance form rip guide to blade) I didnt like the larger Plasplugs models either as the rip guides I looked at in B&Q were all wobbly. And buying from Screwfix catalogue is a bit of a lottery.
Steve