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Thanks for the replies, guys. I'll check out the Plasplugs model. Thing is it's a long narrow space and even doing different tile layouts on paper with different tile sizes you end up doing lots of cuts.

tictic wrote:

royaloakcarpentry wrote:Thats cos you need to talk to tools and treat them tenderly.

sigma"s.. you can call them all sorts of names and they will still do as they are told.

oo that sounds like the wife

I bought an electric wet diamond wheel cutter for about £50 last year. I only use it for cuts other than straights, i.e L's, around soil pipes, door arcitraves etc and its done me proud so far although as has been said before, it can be a bit messy. For straight cuts I have a Rubi and its awesome

An update. I went for the Topps Tiles electric cutter at £30, as it was the cheapest and I've found Topps to be quite good. Used it today for the first time and was quite impressed. It needs to be used outside as water comes up the blade (as it should) and the runs across the surface of the tile and onto whatever the cutter is sitting on. But it doesnt spray so I didnt get covered in dirty water as I had feared. The fence can be locked in place solidly and the guage markings are reasonably accurate. The widest cut using the fence is 175mm, although wider pieces can be cut following a line if the fence is removed. The last 5mm of the cut tends to break leaving a beak that needs filing off. I will try a wood support to take the tile as it is fed off the cutter bed - it's cos its hanging in mid air that it breaks. But even with this both pieces are still usable - they just need filing or grinding off. It is of course much slower than a score and break cutter but the porcelain is so hard I think I would have to spend much more to get a manual cutter that would cut dependably.
Many thanks for the advice!

sounds good. I bought an Ebaurer electric wheel one, Its ok (just about) but did the job.

Same issues, impossible toi get the watre tray out with spilling it everywhere
Top deck rusts. Locking plastic handles snapped after 3 mins
Blade was rubbish

Blade is more important that the actual machine for occasional use in my view.

Still think a rail cutter is better at getting a neater cut than the electric one. (for the cheapos anyway)

Q for the pros: what reason do you use the electric wheel one as apposed to the manual rail one?

Score wheel for straight cuts and wet wheels for L shapes. Simple because you can't (with regular success) cut an L from a score cutter.

Yeah, you can with my Rubi. I can cut curves with it and I can can cut a hole into the tile for sockets. You get a cttuer that scores from the back of the tile.........takes flippin ages though.

Score lines for 'L' shape tile and nibble it. Unless I have lots to do, then I get the wet cutter out. That is partly my laziness of not wanting to fill wet cutter up, clean it afterwards for a few cuts I can do by hand.

for lots of cuts, i wouldn't be without one.