Help Cutting 10mm 600x600 Porcelain

[Richard Dabell]

Hi Guys,

I'm tiling my floor, DIY job, around 45sqm to do.
I've laid all the full tiles so now onto cuts around the edges.
But I cannot get a good cut on the tiles, they either do a 90% great cut with bad ends, or the whole thing just goes wobbly, see attached pics. I have had a few good cuts but more bad than good, and I can't really afford to keep getting it wrong, they're not cheap tiles.

I'm using a Rubi Pratic 60 tile cutter, I'm sure this is far from the best cutter, but having got some good cuts, I feel my issue must be more about technique rather than tools?

I'm starting the cut by pulling the cutter back towards me for the first 30mm or so, then pushing it forward for the rest of the tile, with a reasonable amount of downward pressure in both directions, breaker then down on the top end (furthest away) and a sharp push down to break the tile.

Any ideas?

 

[terryplumb]

Your tile cutter is probably not up to the job. Method wise ,you should start close to you and push down,and forward ( I.e away from you ). Do you know what grade porcelain the tiles are? Is the scoring wheel new / in good condition ?
The results shown in your pics are what I would expect if the scoring isn't deep enough ,coupled with flexing of the tile cutter ,due to its design construction not being robust enough.
You would probably be better off with a wet cutter / diamond wheel. You can hire one for a day relatively cheaply.

 

[johnny2007]

Rent a sigma and save time and money.
With your cutter, after scoring use your bodyweight on both sides of the tiles to achieve a clean finish.
Wear leather gloves.
My first advice is to rent a sigma though, will make the job super easy.

 

[foxhole]

You could use a tile blade on a grinder.

 

[23vc]

You could use a tile blade on a grinder.

+1
Just done about 40sqm of porcelain, works every time altho dusty so outdoors a must
Didn’t think you could ever use a snap cutter on anything other than fairly thin ceramic tiles, but guess I may be wrong

 

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Didn’t think you could ever use a snap cutter on anything other than fairly thin ceramic tiles, but guess I may be wrong

I've just a done a floor with 600 x 600 x 10 porcelain using a second hand Topps Ergo 630, no miscuts whatsoever. Of course, OP's tiles are not my tiles and if I was cutting his with my cutter or vise versa, who knows?

I've never done a score in both directions though, only push away from me, going slowly and carefully as the wheel rides up onto the tile at the beginning. I bring the breaker foot back onto the tile by 2 - 3 inches to snap.

 

[Kenny99]

I bought the same tile cutter and have had similar problems with 9/10mm porcelain tiles. A lot of the time it has cut ok, but I also got the last inch broken off or only part breaks. I think the problem is as mentioned already, these cutters are pretty much maxed out trying to cut porcelains of this thickness. The base is too flexible and only has one strengthened point underneath where the breaker can press.

The tiles that have the last inch broken off are waste unless they are to be further trimmed or can be used at a later point when the broken bit can be cut off and the rest reused. The ones that did not snap fully I finished off on a wet cutter, but I had to buy a proper porcelain blade for that to make sure the cuts were clean.

Given that a lot of tiles snapped ok, I also wondered if there were some imperfections in the tiles themselves as they were only £12 per m from a diy store. Fortunately I got some spares so was still able to finish the jobs off. I done 2 ensuite bathrooms, 600mm square floor and 600 x 300mm wall tiles with it from new, perhaps a new larger scoring wheel would help but I will probably just buy a more professional cutter, either a sigma or montolit, if the next job is also porcelain. For ceramic this one will probably work fine.