Armeg?? - Tile Advice

[Paul R Cox]

At least a couple of shops have quoted that Armeg say their cutters can do as many as a thousand holes! As this came from more than one shop I can only assume this has come from a rep. There's no such info on their web site and you'd think if they were capable of these amazing figures they'd be boasting about it big time. Even if they could manage just a hundred holes, that would be impressive. I don't mind paying for the right tools if they do the job. I've seen the 365's and they look good but I have a lot of drilling to do on thick porcelain so it might be worth investing a little more.
I've been trawling the threads on here and still don't really have an answer so has anyone had any long term experience with Armeg or similar and how many holes could you realisticly expect to get out of say a 16mm but? Also, if the pilot drill burns out after two holes I guess they could prove really costly.

 

[Spud]

I have the armeg hole cutting set and they are good ,you are right about the pilot drill bits i get about 10-15 holes from the pilot bits the core bits last and last but the pilots do work out expensive

 

[kilty55]

i use montolit hole cuters,they fit onto an angle grinder,have prob used each one 30 to 40 times each now and still rip through anything.

 

[simhopper]

you should be getting 30+ holes from the PTC bits on porcelain,

these bits require good pressure to be exerted on the drill and must me water cooled at all times on a slow speed drill

If the tip snaps its because you have not done the above

Once they become blunt use them on ceramics and stone

 

[Paul R Cox]

Thanks all. I wonder if you could use one of these cutters without the pilot? Either using a guide hole in a piece of "softish" material or by starting at a slight angle? The angle method is how i've always started off with smaller bits. I appreciate though that the larger the diameter, the harder this would be. Has anyone tried this?

 

[Gazzer]

What about the Marcrist range as they do away with the pilot hole,
Tradetiler Tile Marcrist PG850 Porcelain tile drilling system

Just another option.

 

[doug boardley]

can't remember what make my hole bits are, but they're really good, done scores of holes in porc and still plenty of life left in them, altho the pilot gave up months ago. But what I do is, cut a corner in a piece of tile or ply and clamp it onto the tile to be holed, and just use the ply/tile off cut as a guide and an aid to stop skating

 

[Arthur@Reidheat]

We have been using a Marcrist set of diamond drills which are water cooled.
We have used the range up to 110mm and found them to be very good.
If they begin to loose their edge with hard surfaces the advice is to drill into breeze or brick which cleans the diamonds. This is true and to date we have not had to buy replacements.
They have been in weekly use since about November
Hope this helps

Arthur@Reidheat

 

[doug boardley]

good first post Arthur

 

[White Room]

Good post Arthur, go to the new members mate and introduce yourself

 

[redlee]

When using the marcrist bits i found them too easy to twist and distort on hard porcelain (7mm bit) because of the thinness of the neck, the dewalt diamond bit was similar in price but more sturdy and longer lasting.

 

[Arthur@Reidheat]

The bits we have are blue in colour & have a threaded hole to fit an arbor through which water is pumped. There is another version of the Marchrist bit which is a hollow tube - we thought that these may not last & so we shelled out about £300 for this set.
We have tried various 'tube type' drill bits but they do not seem to last for us, generally someone forgets to put enough water with them.
As I say we have had this set since about November & at the time of writing all seem to be ok

Tradetiler Tile Marcrist PG850 Porcelain tile drilling system

Regards

Arthur@Reidheat

 

[redlee]

Yep they're much better spec'd than the ones i've used in the past, should hope they last a decent amount of time at that price. As you say the water is crucial i normally use a plant sprayer type as it gets the water right in the hole.

 

[Paul R Cox]

Thanks all, will check out the Marcrist.

 

[Dan]

Remember that with the 365Drills you can bill the drills to the customer, per job. Though I hear what you're saying if you need to drill hundreds on a big job, perhaps 5 365drills on the invoice would look a bit suss'.