Angle Grinders for tile cutting

[Unregistered]

Hi,
I am student from Hungary and i am writing my essay on angle grinders. I was trying to locate some tiler forums but this was the only one i found.
I was wondering if any of you could help me out on this topic..
What i am looking for is typically:
what grinders are the best for cutting tiles? Are the smaller ones preferred or the larger ones?Should it be variable speed or single speed?
What are the things/ features that are missing on current grinders which would come handy while working with tiles? What i have learnt so far is that angle grinders are used for cutting off pieces and for straight cuts. Are there any things that could be improved on grinders?
I assume the habits/ ways of working cannot be too different in Hungary and the UK, so if any of you as professional tiler could help me to get authentic data, i would really appreciate it!
Thanks in advance,
Máté

 

[doug boardley]

Mate, most decent angle grinders have covered all the necessary modifications for tiling, either that or tilers have modified the way we work with them. I personally use a bosch 115 angle grinder with a continous rim diamond blade. A really good piece of kit imo
Doug

 

[Andy Tiler]

I have the same set up as doug top piece of kit.use it all the time.just the dust is a pain in the arse:74::74::sifone:

 

[chris.tiling]

I also use a 115mm grinder (makita) with a diamond blade. It is useful for straight cuts as you say, but can also be used for curves. . Dust is the biggest problem as has already been mentioned

 

[Leatherface]

Hi I use a 115mm Makita angle grinder. with a turbo blade. it is good for cutting curves and also very good for cutting straight lines. With a steady hand and practice you can get excellent results. Also good for cutting out holes for electrical sockets etc.

 

[Spud]

some of the newest grinders have an anti vibration and a slow speed start function which avoids the kick you sometimes get when you turn on the cheaper ones ,the anti vibration grinders allow you to cut to the standard of wet cutters if you have the right blade with them,cordless battery powered grinders are becoming popular in the uk ,improvements which could be made are weight issues ,the lighter a grinder is the better imo also i think that dust extraction should be legal requirement for all grinders whether it be a hoover attachment on the guard or a cutting table with a dust extractor under it which collects the dust

 

[Leatherface]

cheers Gary

 

[Máté]

Thank you for the replies!

Doug, you have mentioned that tilers have modified their grinders the way you work with them? What do you mean? I have been to some stores and looking at the different models they looked similar to me (not taking into account the different specification like soft start, etc). How can you modify it?
I see that Makita and Bosch are preferred grinder; i have tried my dad's grinder which is a simple one but it could handle cutting tile pretty ok. Well i guess the difference comes when you use it every day?

Thanks for the answers again!

 

[doug boardley]

I didn't mean altering the grinder I meant things such as altering the guard position to get into cut out corners, I personally don't like having the handle on my grinder so I unscrewed it and it's in the box, just little things like that Mate

 

[Aztectiler]

Mine is a Bosch 115 and I couldn't do my job without it. Great piece of kit but a bit jumpy when you start it, also the vibration can be an issue but you get used to how long working time you get.