Discuss Porcelain manual cutter technique in the DIY Tiling Forum area at TilersForums. The USA and UK Tiling Forum (Also now Aus, Canada, ROI, and more)




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Hello, I hope you can help.

I'm get despondent cutting 9mm glazed porcelain tiles, 300 x 900mm. Here's a link to the tiles Wickes Mississippi™ White Matt Porcelain Tile 600 x 300mm | Wickes.co.uk - https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Mississippi%E2%84%A2-White-Matt-Porcelain-Tile-600-x-300mm/p/233997

I tried cutting with my trusty Topps Tiles Ergo cutter and the cuts keep wandering at the nearest end, ie furthest from the breaker. I've added pics below.

So I hired a Rubi TX and bought a new 10mm scoring wheel for it (Rubi recommend 8mm for porcelain but I couldn't get that locally) but ended up with the same results.

I've tried extra scoring runs along the whole length. I also tried only doing extra scoring in the last 50mm. I tried increasing pressure to deepen the score until the tile broke under the scoring wheel! I also tried cutting a small 5mm long notch at the near end of the tileon my wet saw to see if that helped the snapping action find the target. I've tried steady pressure when breaking as well as sudden pressure.

The Rubi has the tile sitting on the full length of the bar, the Ergo has a step at the top end of the bar so the tile is supported at a point at the top and bottom only.

One oddity is that I'm practising cuts by cutting tiles in half and then half again etc. Splitting a 1/8 tile (75mm) in half is perfect but that's not much use unless I want a bathroom tiled entirely in 37mm slithers!

I guess the problem is either poor quality tiles and/or getting a deeper score? Or should i just resign myself to having to use my wet saw for the whole lot? It's a small bathroom so over half of them need a cut.
 

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It's probably too late but try using less pressure instead of more.
I was struggling with some porcelain the other day, I used some silicone dry lubricant on the bar and wheel and less pressure, cutting perfectly now
 

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