Cutting ceramic tiles at home

Summarize

As practice shows, in fact, everything is simple. If you need to cover the floor in the toilet, the area of ​​which does not exceed two square meters, the Diamond Glass Cutter is enough for you.

If you also add a bathroom floor to this, it will be more convenient and faster to work with a manual tile cutter. If your choice fell on porcelain stoneware as the finishing coat of the hallway or, among other things, the floor in the kitchen, then you cannot do without an electric tile cutter.

If you want to cut a round hole, then you cannot do without a grinder with a diamond wheel. Large diameter holes are cut by the Ballerina.

Therefore, first, determine the scope of work, and then choose a tool.

Do not forget about the unspoken rule. When cutting tiles, it is necessary to use tiles with any chips or defects, picking up so that the marriage falls into the cut off part. Thanks to this, you can significantly save material.

Working with an electric tile cutter

• Place the tool on a flat table or workbench.
• We carry out the necessary markings on the front surface of the tile.
• Place the tile on the tool by aligning the marked line of the future cut with the pointer on the tile cutter.
• Turn on the tool.
• We feed the material in the direction of the cutting element without much effort.
• The moment of contact between the tile and the disc should be slow and accurate to prevent the tile from chipping.

When working with an electric tile cutter, you must follow safety rules and use protective equipment correctly. These are earplugs to protect hearing organs from excessive noise levels generated by the operation of an electric tool, and safety glasses to protect against sparks and small particles of ceramics.

Manual tile cutter

This tool will greatly facilitate the work, even if there is not much of it. All work on this tile cutter should be done only on level ground, preferably on the floor, a stable table is also suitable.

Before cutting the tiles into pieces, put them in water for a while. Wet material handles much better.

We place the wet tile in the tool, join the line with the cutter and apply it with a certain effort. If for some reason the pressure turned out to be weak. you will not be able to break the tiles without chipping. The difference between a mechanical tile cutter and a diamond cutter is the thickness of the groove. The wider it is, the easier the tile will break off.

Working with a jigsaw

It turns out that you can cut with a jigsaw not only wood and materials based on it, but also successfully cut ceramic tiles correctly at home. It is only necessary to purchase a special abrasive file. Cutting with a jigsaw allows you to make curly cuts on tiles designed for mounting sockets and switches, bypassing sewer and water pipes. Also, using a jigsaw to cut tiles, you can make a fairly accurate cut.

The electric jigsaw is used for sawing, sawing, cutting shapes from various materials

And if you decide to work with a jigsaw for cutting, we will give advice on how to do it correctly:

• Mark the cutting line with a pencil or marker.
• Check the setting on the jigsaw of the diamond file.
• Without much pressure, we smoothly start cutting the tiles.
• To prevent breakage of the cutting element, do not push the tool forward until the tile is completely cut.
• Keep the jigsaw upright at all times.

Jigsaw cutting is best for medium-sized wall tiles.

In order to properly cut the floor tiles, it is best to use an angle grinder. This very popular tool is available in many households, which is a big plus, eliminating the need to purchase a tool for cutting tiles at home. You only need to purchase a diamond-coated cutting disc.

How to choose the right one?

The best way to get started with cutting ceramics at home is by choosing the right tool. In each case, a different set of fixtures will be required, since the tiles differ in size, texture and performance. For example, for glazed tiles that are porous and soft, it is better to use a glass or tile cutter. It will be easy to cut the material with it. Cope with a harder surface, like ceramics, he will no longer be able to.

For porcelain stoneware, a more thorough hike will be required in the form of specialized electrical devices. The greater the strength of the raw material, the more thorough the approach should be. Thus, it is possible to cut the tiles on the front side. Glass cutting tools, as well as other devices that work on a similar principle, will not help here. But the electric devices will be just right! The main thing is to pay special attention to the edges of the products, since working with the relief structure is considered difficult due to the formation of chips or pattern violations, even with a slight deviation.

Working with a manual tile cutter

• The ceramic pre-soaked in water is placed in the instrument.
• Along the marked mowing line, we make a cut with the cutting element of the tile cutter, pressing the cutter with effort. Movement through the material should be smooth without jerking.
• We divide the tile into parts according to the formed mowing line.

Choosing a cut

Tile figures can be either straight or carved. For a straight cut, it is enough to use a simple tool: a glass cutter, a mechanical tile cutter, an angle grinder and a jigsaw. In this method, the cut is created in the form of a notch and the blade is split clearly along this mowing line. The decisive role, as in glass cutting, here will be played by the sharpness and strength of the cutting tool.

An example of what can be cut from curamogranite

When creating a curved cut, the task becomes a little more complicated. For such work, a machine for cutting ceramic tiles was invented, which easily copes with cutting tiles to any shape. But it is not advisable to buy such a machine for one-time use, and do-it-yourself figured cutting of ceramic tiles is mainly performed using a glass cutter or an angle grinder. This technology implies a certain number of straight cuts and breaking off small pieces with special tongs. At the end of the work, the side of the notch is processed with a file or an angle grinder.

The order of work on a figured tile cutter:

• Mark the tiles with a pencil at the cut points;
• Fix the tile securely to the tile cutter’s working surface;
• We direct the cutter along the mowing line of the cut and put it at risk;
• We make more pressure of the cutter on the tile using the rotary knob;
• We do not move the cutter along the markings with abrupt movements;
• increasing the pressure, we cut through the enamel on the tile along the entire length;
• We take the cut tiles in our hands;
• Gently tapping with a wooden mallet until the cut off part breaks off.

To determine the cutting method, it is worth considering not only your skills and characteristics of the material being processed, but also to think about what the quality of the edge should be. For example, if the side to be cut is laid against the wall and at the end of the work is closed with a plinth, then you can cut with anything, but if this cut is then located in a conspicuous place, you cannot avoid buying a professional glass cutter.

Tile cutting tools

Tiles of different strengths and thicknesses require different cutting equipment. A glass or tile cutter can help you tackle wall tiles. The same tools can be used to cut multiple pieces of flooring when cut from the front and back. To divide a large volume of thick slabs into parts, you will have to look for a jigsaw with diamond wire or an angle grinder.

For high-quality cutting of tile fragments, you need to purchase:

• Marker,
• Ruler,
• Square;
• Cutting tool;
• Container of suitable diameter.

A basin or other container will be needed to soak ceramic tiles in water, as they should not be cut dry. A square, a ruler and a marker are needed to mark the cut line of the mowing line.

After preparing the tile, you can safely start the cutting process using the appropriate cutting tools.

How to drill holes in tiles?

To independently make an even hole in the surface without damaging it, you will also have to resort to special tools. To complete the work, you need to take:

To drill a neat hole in the thickness of the ceramic tile, it must also be soaked in advance. After that, the top layer of glaze is destroyed with a chisel with a hammer in the place of drilling.

A drill of the required diameter with a carbide tip is placed into the resulting chip and the element is drilled by rotating the drill. The already laid tile cladding is processed in the same way, only without soaking.

Even without serious construction skills, tile cutting or drilling can be done at home without the help of outside help. To do this, it is enough to stock up on all the necessary equipment and clearly follow each stage of the technology in order to transform your home with a stylish and reliable TILES FROM THE FACTORY.

The main types of cutting tools

There are a lot of devices suitable for cutting various types of tiles. Builders are constantly interested in:

• Roller type glass cutters, suitable for small volume of materials;
• Manual tile cutters (tiler knives), similar in design to glass cutters, but characterized by greater productivity due to the greater depth of the cut;
• Angle grinders, better known as “angle grinders”. The rotating disc at high speed is able to smoothly cut ceramic or even porcelain tiles for floors of any thickness without much effort.

sophisticated waterjet or laser cutting tools are not well suited for home use. At home, the most widely used is the usual tiler’s knife, which combines a low price, ease of use, and fairly high productivity.

Rules for working with a tile cutter

To evenly cut a tile element into pieces of a suitable size, you need:

• pre-soak the tiles in water for 30-40 minutes;
• draw a cutting line on the surface of the soaked ceramic tile;
• put the prepared tile face up on the knife;
• position the cutter wheel along the cut line using the guides;
• press the blade against the tiled surface by pulling the upper lever of the mechanism towards you.

The roller only moves along the guide rails, so only enough force is required from the cutter. The cut will turn out to be even, regardless of the accuracy of the operator’s movements.

After making a cut, you need to push the roller hard into the tile, which will break it into two parts.

When using a glass cutter or an angle grinder to separate, you need to have some skills in working with them, to execute each movement precisely, which makes them difficult for a beginner to use. In addition, the breaking of the tile when using this toolkit is done manually, using a solid object as a stand.

Why an angle grinder is better than a tile cutter

To begin with, the tile cutter is designed to cut tiles. For each of its varieties: thick or thin, more or less durable, you can find a suitable model of the tool. The main advantage of the tile cutter is that it gives an even cut without chips. There is not a lot of dust in the process of work, the risk of spoiling the plate is minimal. Not so with an angle grinder.

Self-cutting of porcelain stoneware and embossed ceramic tiles

It must be said right away that due to the hardness of porcelain stoneware and its embossed surface, it will not work to use a tile cutter for cutting. You can, of course, try, but the result will be shattered porcelain stoneware. For cutting “in a straight line” or curly cutting of porcelain stoneware and relief ceramic tiles, angle grinders (angle grinders) with a diamond victorious disc are used.

The principle of cutting porcelain stoneware with an angle grinder:

Using a square and a simple pencil on the front surface of porcelain stoneware, markings are made.

Attention! Marking and cutting on embossed tiles and porcelain stoneware is always performed on the front side of the material. Otherwise, if cutting from the back side, unwanted chips may appear on the front side.

Having laid the porcelain stoneware on a flat and stable surface, the initially rotating diamond disc of the angle grinder passes with light pressure once along the drawn mowing line.

Having completed the first surface cut, a diamond disc is made at the beginning and at the end of the mowing line to cut the entire thickness of the porcelain stoneware. These cuts in length are 10-20 mm. They are needed so that porcelain stoneware does not burst in the area of ​​the corners.

Along the previously made rip cut, pass an angle grinder 3-4 times with a rotating diamond disc until the porcelain stoneware is completely cut.

It must be said that the diamond angle angle grinder is also used for cutting smooth ceramic tiles, for example, when it is necessary to perform figured cuts. Depending on the previously developed design project, it may be necessary to cut ceramic tiles along a curve, for example, a cutting line is needed not even, but with a radius. A tile cutter cannot perform such work, since it is designed only for straight cutting in a straight line.

How to choose the right one?

The best way to get started with cutting ceramics at home is by choosing the right tool. In each case, a different set of fixtures will be required, since the tiles differ in size, texture and performance. For example, for glazed tiles that are porous and soft, it is better to use a glass or tile cutter. It will be easy to cut the material with it. Cope with a harder surface, like ceramics, he will no longer be able to.

For porcelain stoneware, a more thorough hike will be required in the form of specialized electrical devices. The greater the strength of the raw material, the more thorough the approach should be. Thus, it is possible to cut the tiles on the front side. Glass cutting tools, as well as other devices that work on a similar principle, will not help here. But the electric devices will be just right! The main thing is to pay special attention to the edges of the products, since working with the relief structure is considered difficult due to the formation of chips or pattern violations, even with a slight deviation.

Where to cut porcelain stoneware tiles

Oddly enough, but it is the smallest ceramic dust formed when cutting artificial ceramic granite turns into the main problem. At home, it is most convenient to cut the material directly at the place of its laying.

If you plan to cut tiles with a tile cutter, then you can cut out porcelain stoneware in any suitable place for this. The amount of shavings and dust in this case is insignificant, but the performance at home is relatively small.

For curly cutting or cutting sufficiently thick slabs of porcelain stoneware, you will have to use an angle grinder or machine. You will have to work at home either in the courtyard of the house, or you will have to sacrifice a bathroom or a toilet.

How to cut porcelain stoneware with a jigsaw

Quite an unusual way of sawing porcelain stoneware slabs. Using an electric or hand jigsaw to cut very dense and hard material always raises some doubts among beginners. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to cut ceramics and porcelain stoneware with a jigsaw even at home, but only if certain requirements are met:

• The tool must be prepared for cutting porcelain stoneware. A thin, necessarily soft material is glued to the sole, you can use paper or rubber. This is done in order not to scratch or damage the front surface of the plate;
• The second step is to turn off the pendulum vibration-movement on the hacksaw blade feed mechanism, otherwise the saw will cut chipped into porcelain stoneware;
• A special type of diamond-coated hacksaw blade is used for sawing tiles.

In addition, the slab itself must be securely fixed on the countertop with clamps, and a rubber strip must be placed under the porcelain stoneware to reduce vibrations. The method for cutting porcelain stoneware is quite simple and does not require special skills, ideal for use at home. It is valuable that the curly cutting of porcelain stoneware is very easy to perform with a jigsaw.

You can also cut tiles with a hand jigsaw, sometimes at home there is simply no other tool, however, it will take several times longer, but it is possible to get a very accurate and high-quality cut. In this case, the side edges of the hacksaw blade are ground off, and emery powder is fed into the seam during the sawing process.

It is believed that this method is the cleanest of all mechanized options, which is especially important if you have to work at home, without a hood and vacuum cleaner.

How to cut porcelain stoneware with a glass cutter

The technology for cutting tile material using a manual glass cutter is not much different from the previous method. The only differences are that, instead of a carriage moving along the guides, you have to cut porcelain stoneware with a small tool held in your hand.

In fact, this is ideal if you want to cut material at home. Instead of a frame fixture, a regular table, a metal ruler and the glass cutter itself are used. To cut the porcelain stoneware, it is enough to lay a ruler on the mowing line of the marking and draw a diamond along the mowing line of the cut.

To break the material, the tiles are laid on the table so that the scratch line coincides with the edge of the table top, pressed on top with a board and with a sharp movement break the material into two halves. For home conditions, there is no simpler way, but in order to master the technique, you need to practice cutting on the waste of porcelain stoneware or glass.

The advantage of this method is the simplicity and the minimum amount of equipment required. It is easier to store a manual glass cutter with a diamond at home than a tile cutter. The disadvantage of this method is that it is necessary to learn how to draw a line with a diamond along the markings at a constant speed, and most importantly, to do it continuously, in one motion, while accurately measuring the force applied to the surface of porcelain stoneware.

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In addition, it is very difficult to cut material with a glass cutter without chips, therefore, if possible, it is best to use a diamond rather than a carbide roller.

Water cutting of porcelain stoneware

The most efficient and at the same time accurate method of sawing very hard natural and artificial granites is considered to be the waterjet system. It allows you to cut out entire designs and 3D images. The system is powerful enough to cut porcelain stoneware up to 200 mm thick. At home, such equipment is not used for obvious reasons.

Cutting using water can be done on a hydromechanical machine. The use of water or water emulsion can significantly reduce the heating temperature of the tool and the porcelain stoneware itself. The result is less wear and better surface quality. The emulsion is applied to the edge of the wheel, but not to the surface of the ceramic.

The diamond wheel, mounted on the rotor of the motor, is fed along the guides of the machine along the surface of the porcelain stoneware, the coolant is supplied from a special reservoir directly to the cutting zone. This method is considered the most harmless, since almost all dust is washed off with water and removed from the surface of porcelain stoneware. It is clear that you can cut the material in this way if you can find a separate room at home, for example, in a garage or in a barn.

Such machines have very high characteristics and cutting speed, therefore, if you plan to cut porcelain stoneware of complex shapes and sizes at home, then using a hydromechanical machine will be the best option.

How to cut porcelain stoneware tiles at home

In terms of technology, there are two main ways to cut porcelain stoneware. To do this, you can use various tools and devices, but, regardless of the number and type of technical equipment, porcelain stoneware is still cut in two ways:

• Mechanical sawing of a porcelain stoneware array. In this case, the cutting line is sampled with an abrasive tool;
• Injection method. On the surface of the porcelain stoneware, a deep scratch is cut along the future mowing line of separation. Further, a bending or shear force must be applied to the porcelain stoneware, and the tile splits exactly according to the markings.

At home, you can use both methods, depending on the tool available, the amount of work and the thickness of the material. In addition, the complexity of the cut line configuration must be taken into account. For example, if you want to cut a tile that is large enough in size at home, which simply does not fit into a tile cutter, then you will need to look for a cutting diamond wheel and an angle grinder. For cutting at home, this is one of the most reliable ways.

Having laid the tiles on a sheet of drywall, you can cut the porcelain stoneware with an angle grinder in almost any trajectory, it is only important to take your time and evenly press the edge of the disc to the surface of the porcelain stoneware. Otherwise, you can easily overheat the tile at the cut point, which will lead to the formation of a pin.

Cutting porcelain stoneware tiles at home

Anyone who prefers to make repairs or do minor work with their own hands must have had to cut porcelain stoneware at home. In the first trials, cutting of porcelain stoneware tiles is more difficult than in the case of cutting tiles. It turns out a lot of scrap, but in general, the process itself is not much different from working with high-quality ceramic tiles.

The cutting line should be marked with an allowance for finishing.

How to cut porcelain stoneware with a circular saw

Porcelain stoneware tiles can be cut and cut without any problems using a more powerful cutting tool, such as a hand-held circular saw. Engine speed and power allow you to cut almost everything at home, from wood to metal profiles.

In order to cut porcelain stoneware, the tool must be equipped with:

• First, a standard carbide-tipped saw blade must be replaced with a diamond disc;
• Secondly, a bandage ring is placed under the disk fastening, thanks to which it is possible to damp vibrations and uncontrolled bending of a thin and flexible diamond wheel.

The process of cutting material is not much different from working on an electric tile cutter, the only difference is that the engine power is noticeably higher. Therefore, you need to carefully control the supply of the diamond wheel with minimal effort, otherwise the porcelain stoneware quickly overheats and cracks.

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If you need to cut large quantities of porcelain stoneware, then there is no better option than an electric machine.

This method of sawing porcelain stoneware is considered the most productive, but at home it is used for short-term cutting of a small amount of material. You can work only in the yard, in the garage, in the barn, but in no case inside the dwelling. The amount of dust that is generated when cutting even a small amount of material is about an order of magnitude higher than all other cutting methods. The only indisputable advantage of this option is that with the help of a circular and a diamond wheel, you can cut porcelain stoneware at 45 degrees.