Drilling Porcelain tiles

[Al Rogers]

A friend who's a builder/tiler came into the pub tonight holding his head in hands. The the problem was he'd been trying to cut a 50mm circular hole with a`"diamond core borer" into a 600x300mm, 10mm-thick porcelain tile. The centre of the hole was about 40mm in from both sides of a corner. Water was poured on the cut constantly, he said, but the corner snapped off every time. So far, he reckons, he's gone through about £100 of tiles. The tiles were well supported. Any advice may save him from suicide and could get you a pint.

Al

 

[tubs]

How to drill holes in hard tiles with diamond core holesaw drilling bits

 

[bugs183]

If he doesn't want to splash out on a good quality diamond drill bit then he can still cut this hole (He says!). And sometimes this method works better.
Work out where the hole is on the tile and draw the circle on the front face of the tile, use a piece of the pipe to be used to get as accurate as possible.
Remove the guard off your wet saw. Gauge where the centre of the hole is and place the tile on top of the wet saw wheel and cut until the saw blade emerges through the tile. Cut a line inside the markings of the hole. You should now have a rough idea where to place the tile on the wet saw. Now cut a square out of the tile inside the hole, you should see the blade more easily. Cut lines from this square radiating outwards to the hole markings, then use normal Rubi nippers to trim onto the line to create your circle, keep trying against the wall to make sure you are still cutting in the right place.
Once the correct size of hole is cut rub down with a tile file and breath a sigh of relief.

 

[prceramics]

£100 worth of tiles sounds like he has allready splashed out

 

[Muse2k8]

Has he tried drilling slowly on a sand bed to cut out as much vibration as possible? Maybe even slap on a lot of masking tape?

 

[Al Rogers]

Many thanks, guys. I'll pass on your tips. I suggested doing it by hand, but the cut will be visible and he doesn't think this would give him a good enough finish. A bed of sand sounds interesting.

Cheers

Al

 

[Muse2k8]

Tell him to get a new core, drill slowly and with next to no pressure. Might take an hour but it saves breaking £100s of tiles for nothing. Hopefully will work.

 

[Muse2k8]

Maybe try sandwiching it between 2 bits of plasterboard clamped together so the boards act as a shock absorber?

 

[swanman]

IT MIGHT BE HIS DRILL

If he is cutting to fast that might be the cause

 

[White Room]

He's not using a wall hole borer, is he ????