Not another "which tile cutter" but...

[monkey3]

So this isn't really another which tile cutter thread exactly.


I'm currently rebuilding my en suite and main bathroom and I'm at the tiling stage. I'm tiling with 400 x 600 x 12mm travertine. and to try to save a bit of money on hiring a saw over many days (and so I can take my time with the tiling) I bought this:
Vitrex PRO 800 800W Tile Bench Saw 240V | NoLinksToThis

Oh woe is me.

So it didn't cut straight. But after talking to Vitrex directly they said I could adjust the back stop, which I did. Now when the blade's not running it's almost perfectly aligned with the edge of a straight edge but when I cut through a tile it ends up about 4-8mm off over 400mm which is worse than REMOVED poor. I think the blade / motor itself is mounted slightly off straight with respect to the runners. Needless to say it's going back as it is sooooo not fit for purpose.

I think I'm going to hire one from HSS for a weekend and see how far I get but I wanted an honest opinion on what I'm going to get from there quality wise.

Is there anywhere else I should try instead or is there another tile cutter I could look at that's going to cut straight and straight out of the box for £2-300?

Thanks for your extremely valued advice.

Russell.

 

[Qwerty]

I thoroughly recommend you buy new, then sell on afterwards for less than hiring one. The vitrex 750 is a good budget cutter, but if you can stretch to a Rubi ND200 or DU200 it would be better. Good luck!

 

[DHTiling]

It will be movement on the tile saw head unit..or blade wander... Slow cutting might help..

 

[doddy41]

Just use an angle grinder with a decent blade

 

[monkey3]

I thoroughly recommend you buy new, then sell on afterwards for less than hiring one. The vitrex 750 is a good budget cutter, but if you can stretch to a Rubi ND200 or DU200 it would be better. Good luck!

I think I'm going to try out an ND200 (I don't want to waste any more tiles as they really aren't that cheap) and combine it with a marcrist ck850 in that case as the Rubi seems to get mentioned a lot on here in the other "which tile cutter" threads.

It will be movement on the tile saw head unit..or blade wander... Slow cutting might help..

I did try very slow cutting but I can see one edge of the trailing side of the blade catching the 'just-cut' part of the tile. It really looks like the blade isn't quite parallel with the cutting line.

Just use an angle grinder with a decent blade

I'd love to but I'm really not that good.

 

[beanz]

I often wander about this, as my mates dw250 does the same thing. I get the impression that the blade actually pulls the tile off line, but could be wrong.. To combat this, I hold the edge of the tile and move it while cutting, to keep it on the line. Works well enough

 

[White Room]

I was shown many years ago by another tiler how to use the Rubi and it was..to skim the top of the tile with the blade rather than cutting a directly thru the tile and it continued like that so the blade would follow the line which was cut originaly , it worked for him and I did see his point.

 

[monkey3]

I often wander about this, as my mates dw250 does the same thing. I get the impression that the blade actually pulls the tile off line, but could be wrong.. To combat this, I hold the edge of the tile and move it while cutting, to keep it on the line. Works well enough

But surely with a tile cutter that costs as much as the dw250, it should cut straight without any manual intervention. I figured that with the Vitrex, it's at the very bottom end of the bridge saw market and so maybe I'm simply not paying for decent quality, although again I'd at least expect it to cut straight out of the box.

I was shown many years ago by another tiler how to use the Rubi and it was..to skim the top of the tile with the blade rather than cutting a directly thru the tile and it continued like that so the blade would follow the line which was cut originaly , it worked for him and I did see his point.

Unfortunately the cutting depth is not adjustable on the Vitrex or I'd give that a go.

 

[Dan]

They're a pain in the back side when they don't cut straight.

 

[DHTiling]

I think I'm going to try out an ND200 (I don't want to waste any more tiles as they really aren't that cheap) and combine it with a marcrist ck850 in that case as the Rubi seems to get mentioned a lot on here in the other "which tile cutter" threads.



I did try very slow cutting but I can see one edge of the trailing side of the blade catching the 'just-cut' part of the tile. It really looks like the blade isn't quite parallel with the cutting line.



I'd love to but I'm really not that good.

Lift the blade right up if you can and just cut into a tile about 1mm to 2mm deep... then take measurements from tile edge to see how straight a line it has cut... if this is true then you have blade or head unit wander when cutting full depth.. a thicker blade can combat this but some times it is the flange holding the blade that allows the blade to wander.

 

[monkey3]

They're a pain in the back side when they don't cut straight.

That they certainly are!!!

Lift the blade right up if you can and just cut into a tile about 1mm to 2mm deep... then take measurements from tile edge to see how straight a line it has cut... if this is true then you have blade or head unit wander when cutting full depth.. a thicker blade can combat this but some times it is the flange holding the blade that allows the blade to wander.

Unfortunately there's no ability to lift the blade on this tool. But I did run the blade along the a known straight edge which I used to adjust the back stop and it was pretty much bang on. Then when I cut through the tile, in the space of a 400mm tile, it ends up anywhere between 4 and 8 mm off.

It's going back tomorrow anyway, I think I'm going for the Rubi ND200.