new tiler / help needed in wet cutter choice

[Hoppy]

Hi, i`m looking to purchase a wet cutter for domestic / private work, i`ve looked at wet cutter forums but they go back to 2012 unless i`m looking in the wrong place, any upto date advice, i've heard the dewalt 2400 has problems with slight wobbly blade ? is this true, the sigma looks a beast but a little costly and a bit large to take in to a customers house, I was looking to spend around £400 but got drawn to the dewalt until I heard the wobble thing, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Ttt1601]

I've got a dewalt, amazing machine, never had a problem with wobble, and know a few people with them as well, no wobble problems. As long as you don't need it for the large format stuff, I'd say dewalt hands down is the one to go for in my Personal opinion

 

[bsc ceramics]

Rubi nd200 good little cutter had mine for years but don't use it much these days
prefer the grinder. but it never let me down. good luck.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Dewalt!

 

[Andy Allen]

None of the above could you use in a customer house.
I have a vitrex pro tile cutter and with good dust sheeting can be used in customers houses.....with a decent blade there great everyday cutters.

 

[Unused Account 1]

All about a good blade ,nd200 had mine ten year used every day as used good blades easy to cut

 

[bolts]

I have a vitrex pro tile too, does the job and picked it up second hand for £110.00 so a bargain really, it had only been used for one job.
there's a ruby DU-200 on Gumtree now for £110.00 in portsmouth or a Vitrex in Walsall area for £100
No idea what part of the country you are in but hope it helps.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Is it this vitrex that you are meaning?
Bit small for stone work.

 

[bolts]

No, Mine is the bench saw.

 

[On one]

View attachment 92418
Is it this vitrex that you are meaning?
Bit small for stone work.

I have one of these in the van.......never sees the light of day!.......the knife is thicker than the blade and so jams the tile......s'pose I could change the blade,but manage to get by using a grinder and a good blade.

 

[Hoppy]

thanks gents, a few questions, which model vitrex, bridge saw or table saw, whats a good blade, are we talking dna(i have`nt got a clue), what is the footprint on a dewalt machine (not the stand) whats a good grinder & blade?
regarding the bridge saws and dewalt, as the blade cuts from above when cutting a corner out of a tile does this mean you have to finish cutting with snips or something, i've always used a table saw which cuts from underneath, basically my main stream was plastering but the demand is more tiling. also as for used items i live at the end of the world in swansea, thanks again.

 

[JerryB]

I'm not a tiler (just done 1st serious DIY job), but how about an engineer's view of blade wobble. I have the Vitrex pro 750 cutter as in Timeless John's photo above, for its quiet direct drive motor, larger than average table, quick release fence, and price. On 1st switching on, guess what, loads of wobble. It seems many would send it straight back, but a little investigation seemed easier. The blade's drive washer is clamped against a small shoulder on the drive shaft. We can be sure that the machining of the shaft will ensure the shoulder is exactly square to the shaft axis. But it is immediately obvious that the shoulder is too small (around 1.5mm I recall) to provide positive location of the washer. How much wobble you get is going to be down to luck. So 1st step was make sure there is no grit/gunge/rust on the shoulder or washer. Then pop the blade on and nip up finger tight and rotate by hand to check for wobble. If its too much slacken the nut, rotate the blade 1/8 of a turn relative to the shaft and try again. Keep going till you hit a "sweet spot". You may need to do similar with the drive washer. By this means I got total side-to-side wobble down to 1/10 mm - which is as close to zero as you could wish. Its all too random and a lot of hassle, but the blade did remain undisturbed for the whole job. A better shaft design is needed, no doubt more expensive, and I guess a lot of these cheaper machines will be similar in construction so I wasn't keen to look around further.

One other thing with this machine is its plastic chassis, to which the table and motor are independently bolted. There being no rigid machined cast metal connection between the two, it was not surprising to note that the plane of the blade was not perfectly aligned with the machined grooves in the table, so you need to allow for this when setting the fence.

 

[JerryB]

Just realised I should have replied to wrighty also. The knife is'nt thicker than my blade, but its close!. It needed very careful alignment with the blade when screwing it on. Despite this I was also caught out by jamming tiles. Thats when I discovered the mis-alignment between blade and table grooves, as my fence which I had so carefully aligned with the grooves, was pushing the tile in the wrong direction. I guess you all have your own way of using these machines but what I do is use a 1m straight edge placed lightly against the blade, align the tile's cut line with this, and then set the fence against the parallel side of the tile. Of course if there is no parallel side, you just have to have a steady hand...

 

[bsc ceramics]

yeah what he said..ha ha

 

[Sam68MvAgusta]

Don't go for the nd200, I had one and it was the worst tile cutter i've bought. I've also got a dewalt, the blade does wobble now but I put it down to bending the blade too much trying to straighten the cutting line, it's still a great machine. I have just bought another Vitrex pro, they need a different blade in for cutting porcelain but ideal for in house.