Hi everyone - I'm new here and was hoping someone could help me.

I'm tiling my bathroom, and purchased a sliding tray type wet saw on ebay, which is largely working pretty well. However just today I noticed the blade is wandering off line when I'm cutting. After much experimenting, it appears the blade is flexing quite a bit and forcing itself off to one side. It's not so bad for smaller cuts, however the majority of tiles I'm cutting are 600mm x 600mm porcelain, so after cutting one tile full length it's a good 7-8mm out.

Am I using the wrong blade? The current blade is a 180mm diamond blade rated at 8700rpm. Interestingly, it says on the blade
"This blade is suitable for cutting Ceramic Tiles, Critically Hard Tiles, Slate, Marble, Granite, Terracotta, Glass and Fibreglass." It doesn't say porcelain. Would this be my problem?

The blade seemed to work ok for the first 2 or 3 days. Could it have dulled in that time? I've cut a few of the porcelain tiles in that time.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers, Darren.

You may find that you are running the tile through too quickly. Try taking your time a bit. The blades cut with a grinding action not a slicing action. Porcelain is the hardest tile material so will take longer. You may find that a blade specifically for porcelain will be better for you.

Grumpy, thanks for your quick reply.

I experimented on a number of offcuts this morning, and I tried varying the speed at which I fed the tiles through thinking this could be a problem. But it still did the same thing. It seems to be cutting through the material ok, but maybe the blade is dull. The weird thing is it was cutting ok for the first couple of days. Maybe I should try a blade specifically for porcelain??.........

You will find that the diamond blades are not "general purpose". Blades for cutting hard materials will have the diamond grit stuck on with softer adhesive to allow the clean diamond grit to be exposed as much as possible. You may find that the blade os clogged and needs dressing. Try running a piece of breeze block through it a couple of times or better still, get hold of a proper dressing stone. Give ithe blade a clean and try again. to wander offline 7 - 8mm is a lot. Is your sliding bed firmly fixed?

Yeah, I ran through all possibilities for why it's happening - but after observing carefully the tile as it passes through the blade there is quite alot of flex in the blade, which is actually pushing the tile off it's line. It's really weird what's happening. To answer your question, yes the slide is firmly fixed and moves straight and true. The motor and blade are also firmly fixed.

Time to put your hand in your pocket and buy another blade more suitable to your tiles

Whitebeam/Grumpy - thanks for your replies. Looks like I'm off to the hardware store....................

Some Porcelain is harder than granite, sounds like its got hot and buckled so will creap across as its cutting ??


tiler


..

Originally Posted by djhaslett

Whitebeam/Grumpy - thanks for your replies. Looks like I'm off to the hardware store....................

I think you will need more than a Hardware store, give BuyBrand tools a call and get a Marcrist wheel. It woould also help if we knew the make of the machine in question.

This might sound stupid.......but you are using water in the cutter arn't you..?....or maybe not enough water to cool the blade as it cuts....
Rubi have just brought out the CPC2 blade...designed for porcelain.....i am putting one in my cutter as i have the marcrist at the moment and i find that it wanders about , with it bieng a thin blade.......

Sir Ramic, the saw is a no-name jobby bought cheaply on ebay. It's got 'Made In China' all over it, and it was bought from an Asian seller here in Australia. Even though the quality might sound dodgy, it is constructed pretty solidly, and will suit my small job pretty well.
Dave, good question, but yes - using water via a small pump located in the tray underneath. The blade gets good water coverage - I don't think its an issue with overheating.

After canvassing all your replies, I suspect I've installed the incorrect blade for the porcelain tiles I'm cutting. It's quite a thin blade, and it's got quite a bit of flex in it. I'll procure the correct blade and see how I go.

Cheers, Darren.

Get your self down to Bunnings or Beaumonts and get a better cutting wheel then mate, job done

Thanks everyone for your help. Really appreciate it.....

Darren.