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Just wondering whether to buy myself a new tile cutter for doing the bathroom. tiles are big and thick, and my existing cheapie electric cutter from B&Q isn't going to be up to the job.
Looking around at what's available, I'm getting the impression that a lot of professional tilers tend to use these bar cutters, rather than the electric saws and wondered what the collective wisdom of STW had to say on the matter.
There's no tile you can't break with a proper bar cutter. Get an angle grinder for fiddly bits and rounded cuts.
I have never seen a professional tiler use an electric cutter.
I found a cheap electric tile cutter gave me a feather edge on the surface of the tiles, whereas my cheap bar cutter gave a good cut, but struggled with thick tiles and would bend, giving me a cut that was out of square.
The electric cutter was invaluable for cutting out funny shapes, more predictable than using nibblers to bite away at the tile.
a bar cutter is a lot quicker for straight cuts but can't do L shaped cuts like an electric cutter
Wallop, you've never seen a pro tiler working.
To so a decent job, with proper setting out, you will need both.
An angle grinder will do at a push, but its gar from ideal and won't give you a good.
What so you mean by 'bar cutter'?
There are two basic types, wet and dry. A dry cuttter is the manual type, with a scoring wheel and breaker.
Wet cutters come in two forms, most common and useful is the table variety, with a diamond blade that spins in a shallow water bath to cool and lubricate the blade and keep the dust down.
Any cutter intended for diy use wil not give you a decent finish, you world do far better to hire one.
My big dry cutter cost £330 and I've got a small one too. i've got three wet cutters got diffrent tasks worth about £500 in total
I did a bathroom floor of teavertine using an electric job that cost me about £70. The cuts were all very goid. We git some one in to tile a kitchen floor with slate and they only used an angle grinder.
Electric (wet) but as will all these things you get cheap and nasty ones and more expensive decent ones.. though also kinda depends on the thickness of the tiles, as our floor tiles weren't touched by the builders electric tiles cutter so the grinder came out.
Both, You'll use the dry cutter for the majority (fast, clean cuts) but you'll need the electric for the odds & sods.
Dont forget the nibblers and tile file!
Wallop, you've never seen a pro tiler working.
Very not true! The average bathroom will not require an electric wet cutter.
Oh dear....
I get paid fairly well to do it for a living.
Please tell me me how you would cut any kind of marble with a dry cutter, that also includes travertine
I get paid fairly well to do it for a living.
That's very nice for you.
Please tell me me how you would cut any kind of marble with a dry cutter, that also includes travertine
My bad, I assumed he was referring to ceramic tiles, not stone.
Inside corners, windows for example?
I'll be using fairly large ceramic tiles - the main problem with my existing tile cutter is that the fence can't accommodate the width of tile, so I've been having to faff about with a router guide I have lying about.
Thanks for the input so far - most helpful.
When I was a plasterer I worked for a company who did a lot of bathrooms and kitchens, strangely enough the tilers (both time served)used electric cutters.Of course wallop said they don't so I must have imagined it.
TFM.. you are a tiler then? Where are you based?
Btw, electric tile cutters are jolly annoying for your neighbours.. fact.