Porcelain Tiles Chipping When Cut With Wet Tile Cutter

[307camel]

Hi,

I purchased an Erbauer ERB337TCB 750W Tile Saw 230V from Screwfix for £90 to tile my dining room. It seems to be a good bit of kit but it has chipped all the porcelain tiles I have tried to cut. The chips are small but still apparent - please see pic.

I have cut ceramic tiles before using much less impressive equipment and have not had a single chip.

I am feeding the tiles nice and slowly through the disc, the disc is brand new (came with the cutter and this is my first use) and I have plenty of water in the reservoir.

Any ideas?

Is this normal? Please see pics.

[royaloakcarpentry]

Cutter and blade are not up to much.

Topps do a cutter for about £110 with a decent blade in it, although a bit late now.

Try turning the tiles up the other way and cutting them.


I can't say if it is normal for cheaper cutters. I normally do mine on a manual cutter and do cut outs with an angle grinder.

[307camel]

Is this really considered a 'cheaper' cutter?

[wine~o]

I'd have thought this was the quality of the tile, not a problem with the cutter (unless the cutting wheel is out of true)

As per ROCs advice, try cutting them the other way up, then if they're going to chip it should be on the unseen side...

[Colour Republic]

Is this really considered a 'cheaper' cutter?

It is to be fair. It's considered a DIY cutter or just about entry level pro for small tasks.

Pro wet cutters start from about £300 (apart from the tiny Briccolina which is a great little cutter for around £120), my one is just under £900 but they can go up to £1,500 quite easily. So you can see you just aren't going to get anywhere near the quality for £90

A standard pro diamond blade for decent wet cutters start at about £50 but again you can pay up to £180 just for the blade. You just aren't going to get even a £45 blade in a £90 machine.

You'll notice that the cutter has quite good reviews on screwfix, but then look at who is leaving the reviews. All DIY'ers who are doing one off jobs, but you'll also notice that a lot of them say it cuts out of square and chips the tiles... yet they still give it 4 or 5 stars

The £50-£100 wet cutters are fine for a little bit of ceramics here and there but no good on porcelain really.

I'd have thought this was the quality of the tile, not a problem with the cutter (unless the cutting wheel is out of true)

As per ROCs advice, try cutting them the other way up, then if they're going to chip it should be on the unseen side...

I think it's a combination of the 2 myself wine-o. A tile that chips easily needs a good quality blade