Q
Qwerty
A customer asked me to lay a run of travertine window sill tiles with a half bullnose to match old 70's ceramic half bullnose tiles on sills elsewhere in the house (the trav was the closest match for pattern and colour).
I had been in the market for one of these for a while now so went ahead and bought one. I had to go for the smaller 5mm half bullnose to match the radius of the tiles in the rest of the property.
I set it up on the Dewalt with ease, but did have to lightly hammer the alloy spacer (provided with it) into the centre of the wheel as it was a tight fit!
When using it I soon found that even with the saw set to its lowest drop height, it still couldn't reach the far side of the tile when the bed was pushed fully in. I ended up making a spacer from an off cut of around 5cm in depth to place on the bed between the tile I was profiling and the flat edge of the bed. This allowed the profiling wheel to make contact with the whole length of the tile.
I ran it wet (no harm and kept diamonds cool) and it worked a treat. I did notice a couple of slightly deeper thin grooves in the profiled face of the tile. On closer inspection of the cutting wheel I noticed 3-4 diamonds standing proud of the smooth radius. A quick tap with a pry bar got rid and it sorted that.
I found the wheel produced very consistent, accurate and quick cuts. I was able to profile 14 tiles & 12 coasters (freebies for the customer!) in well under an hour. It left me with a profile that I have got to do very little extra polishing on, a few tram lines but nothing too drastic that the variable speed Makita won't sort out in half an hour.
All in all I'm well chuffed with it. I have yet to buy a profiling wheel for the grinder, but using it like this in a wet cutter was great!
10mm (R10) would have been better IMO as would have produced a more rounded profile, but I will be buying a 10mm soon and the cost of this 5mm one was offset in the price I charged my customer so I can't complain!
I had been in the market for one of these for a while now so went ahead and bought one. I had to go for the smaller 5mm half bullnose to match the radius of the tiles in the rest of the property.
I set it up on the Dewalt with ease, but did have to lightly hammer the alloy spacer (provided with it) into the centre of the wheel as it was a tight fit!
When using it I soon found that even with the saw set to its lowest drop height, it still couldn't reach the far side of the tile when the bed was pushed fully in. I ended up making a spacer from an off cut of around 5cm in depth to place on the bed between the tile I was profiling and the flat edge of the bed. This allowed the profiling wheel to make contact with the whole length of the tile.
I ran it wet (no harm and kept diamonds cool) and it worked a treat. I did notice a couple of slightly deeper thin grooves in the profiled face of the tile. On closer inspection of the cutting wheel I noticed 3-4 diamonds standing proud of the smooth radius. A quick tap with a pry bar got rid and it sorted that.
I found the wheel produced very consistent, accurate and quick cuts. I was able to profile 14 tiles & 12 coasters (freebies for the customer!) in well under an hour. It left me with a profile that I have got to do very little extra polishing on, a few tram lines but nothing too drastic that the variable speed Makita won't sort out in half an hour.
All in all I'm well chuffed with it. I have yet to buy a profiling wheel for the grinder, but using it like this in a wet cutter was great!
10mm (R10) would have been better IMO as would have produced a more rounded profile, but I will be buying a 10mm soon and the cost of this 5mm one was offset in the price I charged my customer so I can't complain!
