External mitre profiling tool

[Concrete guy]

Update. All the modified parts arrived for the tools yesterday. I assembled three and all looks good. However I can't send anything out without a good test.

So we ran one of the first today on a regular grinder and on a speed variable dry flex. So far with a 10mm Limestone tile and 10mm Marble tile.

It cut perfectly, in limestone and marble, dry (at slow and fast speeds) right down to the last 1mm then there was breakout and chipping on the edge.

Basically I've had the guide washer made 1mm too small so it allows the cutting head to cut very slightly too deep.

So the good news is, it works! The bad news is, I need another set of guide washers run up before I can send the first ones out.

I've also yet to run it on Porcelain and we've yet to try it wet. Dry we had it running at full speed on a dry flex machine on the marble and the finish was good.

So sorry, there's a further delay, but I'll update once the next batch of washers arrive.

 

[Peter]

Getting there Alan, keep us updated.

- - - Updated - - -

Getting there Alan, keep us updated.

 

[Alan.P]

Just checked in to see the progress, I like your style in not wanting to send out the tool until it's 100% .............. cheers

 

[Concrete guy]

I've ordered some more washers at a variety of sizes in 0.25mm steps so I can test a couple of these and get them spot on.

It's no good sending them out not right, it would cause all sorts of grief at both ends.

I guess it was a lot to hope it would come out perfect from the word go, but it's frustrating that a single inexpensive piece is stopping us getting them out.

It's a little bit of trial and error now until we get the perfect washer size, then it's all go.

 

[Alan.P]

I can wait

 

[Cstiling]

Looks like a great little tool , good to see it coming along

 

[foggy34]

nearly there gr8 wud be interested in this product and admire ya honesty and perserverience

 

[Concrete guy]

We had some progress today, I was starting to wonder if Stone Masons took the entire month of January off!

We tried the tool today with various washer sizes and it was plainly obvious when we hit the right one, it just worked as we hoped.

So today the mitre tool was run using a variable speed Matika grinder, dry, on 10mm thick marble, granite and Porcelain and a slightly thinner sample of Silestone quartz.

I brought the results home but it's too dark now to get decent close up images so I'll photograph over the weekend and you'll get an idea what finish this creates.

We learnt the following today.

Material determines the speed of cut rather than tool design.

These (materials) all cut dry, and as such we didn't bother with a wet test, on the grounds that if it works dry it will simply be faster and more controllable wet - so we don't need to test it.

This tool is not suitable for use on an angle grinder (circa 10,000 rpm) you simply can't control it. Particularly on porcelain, it "skips" during cutting. It will grind about 80% of the mitre fine, but once you get down to the detail the speed combined with the aggressive nature of the cutting head creates breakout and you end up with an untidy mitre.

The porcelain was by far the most difficult product for the tool to deal with, The marble and quartz it sailed through, at pretty much any speed dry.

We tried a piece of granite, it happened to be Blue Pearl, with a coarse grained granite of that nature you needed to be slow to stop fracturing of the thin mitre edge.

Back to the porcelain, we didn't have any to hand to I popped down to the local CTD and bought a sample tile that was described as 10mm polished Porcelain suitable for walls and floors. This is Grade 4/5 and pretty dense. I figured it's unlikely you'll be mitring grade 5 flooring porcelain, it's more likely to be wall stuff but we needed to test this on some pretty dense product to see how it worked.

After a few runs it was obvious that we needed to be running speed 1 (the slowest) on the machine dry. Surprisingly this didn't slow the cutting down a great deal as the cutting head spent 100% of the time in contact with the tile surface rather than skipping about and ground it away evenly and neatly. I was timing what we were doing and I'd estimate it's going to take around 3 to 5 minutes to mitre a 300mm porcelain edge to a finish.

Surprise number 2 was the finish of the entire mitre was smooth, almost as if it had been finished with some emery paper and all smoothed off - not a sharp edge in sight. That wasn't something I'd even thought about.

We now need to run up a batch of the correct size washers, I'll get that done by a small precision engineering company in Norfolk next week at which point the first pieces will be available.

So I'm happy it works as intended but I'm a little disappointed it's not going to work on a grinder as that would open up the market tremendously.

I could modify the tool by using a less coarse grade of diamond allowing it run faster, that would create a few issues - heat and lifespan. So the compromise is it's got to be speed variable and unlikely that anything over 5,000 rpm is going to produce anything that would be considered acceptable results.

I'll add images over the weekend of cut edges so you get an idea what it can do.

 

[One Day]

Good news Alan. As for grinders, everyone should be using a variable speed anyway. :mad2:

 

[Tony73]

Hope i'll have it in couple of weeks :hurray:

 

[Concrete guy]

Hope i'll have it in couple of weeks :hurray:

I had four of this size washer run up for tests and I've only used one as it was immediately obviously correct so I have a limited few available straight away. I do need to dismantle and assemble each one though.

 

[CJ]

Kept an eye on this thread with interest. Well done ATS for thorough testing.

Big shame that I now need to look at a variable speed grinder/polisher, as I do tend to use my basic grinder for most stuff nowadays.

still be interested for stone work though.

- - - Updated - - -

Reserved list (including anyone who expressed an interest earlier in the thread).

It looks like I need to up the order already.

If you want to add your name simply copy this post - add it on and post.

Same if you want off the list.

1. Impish
2. Sir Ramic
3. graythetiler
4. andy tiler
5. Tony73
6. poynton phil
7. AliGage
8. Alan.P
9. Wingn
10. cam_Low
11. rainsco
12. Houston

13. CJ

 

[Concrete guy]

My Mason customer recommend the Makita variables. He's been a Flex man all his life being a stone Mason, but says they no longer warrant the premium over the Makita's at least not for a dry variable speed machine.

 

[One Day]

He's a wise man then. I swear by mine. Just a poor on/off switch lets them down. Dead man paddle is better.

 

[Concrete guy]

He does like his Flex CSW 4161 saw though, that is a nice a bit of kit. (now replaced by the CS60 I think).

I've got some blades in the pipeline to fit that machine.