What Is The Best Tile Cutter On The Market - Part 2?
By Michael Ross on May 6, 2008 in Tools
So what do you do if you have a shape to cut out, like an ‘L’ shape around a window for example? Well, for that we need a wet-saw. It’s not just for shape cuts though, most stone will not cut on a manual scribe and snap cutter and will need the water-cooled, diamond cutting action of a wet-saw.Like the manual cutters, they come in many shapes and sizes and in all budgets; prices start from around £30 for anything remotely serviceable to, well in excess of £2,000 for professional models - quite a range. For most DIY jobs a small, sub-£100 machine can be quite adequate, indeed many tile fixers will opt for economy rather than quality, preferring to buy a new machine every 12 months (or less) rather than spending in excess of £500 for one that could, in theory, last them a decade or more.
So what are you paying for with the more expensive machines? Well the quality of the build for one, cheap machines tend to be constructed mainly out of plastic, which is obviously, far less durable than the metal. The quality of the diamond disc or blade is another. I would also argue that long-term, the accuracy of the ‘professional’ machines is inevitably better, allowing for greater consistency in cutting. If you are looking for a solid, reliable mini-wet say that will cut a variety of materials (and last a while, with the comfort of knowing that you can get spare parts) then I would recommend a mid priced machine such as:
The Raimondi Supereco 98 Tile Cutter
Then there is the issue of size, with stone floors in particular, but increasingly with modern porcelain tiles, small cutters are just not capable of handling the large formats that we are buying. Larger tiles and slabs (because that is what they are becoming) mean larger cutters, if you have a tile that is 600 x 300 mm, then you (or your tiler) are going to need a cutter that has a ‘cutting bed’ of at least 600 mm - obviously. The most popular type of larger wet-saws are known as Bridge Saws due to the system of a cutting head that moves over a static ‘bed’ via a twin or mono-rail over-bed bridge. With the larger frame of a bridge saw, it is easier to support a larger motor, hence we can have a more powerful machine, which does not have to work so hard, if you have ever tried to cut through very hard dense stone with a small, and underpowered saw, you will know exactly what I mean.
Many bridge saws have lots of other useful features, such as pumped water cooling (rather than just running in a trough of water that is quickly emptied, and being human, most people neglect the chore of keeping it topped up, hence run the disc too dry and dramatically shorten the life of the disc). Also they can often be adjusted for thickness, by lowering or raising the head, so enabling multi-pass cutting for thicker materials (such as worktops and pavers). Some have options for both fixed height and floating, which allows for plunge cutting in the middle of the tile/stone - this is great for cutting out square, or even round holes.
A great example of a very flexible (and not too big) wet saw is the Exploit 70 portable tile cutter.
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