Sigma 12E XL 245cm cutter, first impression & trial.

[Old Mod]

Needs to have 12 rails and loads more plastic.
Like a Rubi

It's a thought!

 

[Old Mod]

Nah, just messing. I had an early play with one a while back and they are awesome.
Wonder how they'd manage with all the over-fired highly tensioned porcelain we find?

Very good question mate, in a way I’d like to have the opportunity to test that out, but I’m not so sure I’d like it in reality, especially if it failed miserably.
Job would get suddenly very difficult.

 

[One Day]

It's the massively powerful and fast breaking action which i think might make a difference.
Might call Derek tomorrow and suggest a test. I have some absolute nightmareish 1200x800 semi-lappato porcelain at the moment and the old 3em just can't manage a clean break.

 

[One Day]

Great review and vids by the way Marc!

 

[Old Mod]

I often see that small cut being done on the sigma but it is always just cutting a tile in half.
what would be the smallest cut you could take of a full tile ?

like the white foam block.
marc, how think should it be to get the best out of the cutter? Tile completely level ?

So been giving your questions some thought Julian.
Can’t state these as facts, but more my conclusion really.
Yes I’d say the piece should be Level, at least when it’s being scribed anyway.
I would guess the most successfully achievable small cut would be half the width of the breaker foot, so that equal pressure from the foot is applied to both sides.
I’m sure we’ve all had cuts go awry when the work piece leans to heavily to one side and lifts the waste side up.
Anything less than half the width of the breaker, and I’d probably give myself a 50/50 chance of making it.

That’s just my applied logic Julian, if @antonio or @LEE MAC could shed more light on the subject I’d be very interested to know their answer.

 

[Old Mod]

Great review and vids by the way Marc!

Thanks Mark, it was all a little rushed, but I think it gets the idea across.

 

[Old Mod]

Oh yeah, sorry, the polystyrene blocks came in the packaging and have turned out to be quite useful in supporting these 35kg slabs.

 

[Italy]

So been giving your questions some thought Julian.
Can’t state these as facts, but more my conclusion really.
Yes I’d say the piece should be Level, at least when it’s being scribed anyway.
I would guess the most successfully achievable small cut would be half the width of the breaker foot, so that equal pressure from the foot is applied to both sides.
I’m sure we’ve all had cuts go awry when the work piece leans to heavily to one side and lifts the waste side up.
Anything less than half the width of the breaker, and I’d probably give myself a 50/50 chance of making it.

That’s just my applied logic Julian, if @antonio or @LEE MAC could shed more light on the subject I’d be very interested to know their answer.

Giuliano's first question I understood, the second did not. I answer tomorrow. sleep now

 

[Italy]

Giuliano's first question I understood, the second did not. I answer tomorrow. sleep now

first answer is from 150x75 1 cm from the full tile, but with 160cm battipav. but the difference is made by the tile brands. sigma xl I haven't tried anything yet

 

[LM]

So been giving your questions some thought Julian.
Can’t state these as facts, but more my conclusion really.
Yes I’d say the piece should be Level, at least when it’s being scribed anyway.
I would guess the most successfully achievable small cut would be half the width of the breaker foot, so that equal pressure from the foot is applied to both sides.
I’m sure we’ve all had cuts go awry when the work piece leans to heavily to one side and lifts the waste side up.
Anything less than half the width of the breaker, and I’d probably give myself a 50/50 chance of making it.

That’s just my applied logic Julian, if @antonio or @LEE MAC could shed more light on the subject I’d be very interested to know their answer.

It’s never been specifically explained to me the reason for the side arms being short in height so this is only my thinking as to why a company that thinks things through so well have designed the side arms on the cutters as they have. When you score a tile you need to have some space for the adjoining cuts to fall into so that gravity is able to do its bit in the breaking of the tiles. We often have our machines resting on surfaces that aren’t necessarily perfectly flat with that in mind the space below the extended side arm allows for tollerance with this issue. We can place a pice of off cut etc under a side arm to adjust its height if nescessary or not what ever that lay if the land dictates. In all my years of using Sigma tile cutters this is how I’ve thought of this and it works for me. Someone may well come along with an official explanation that dismiss my thinking on it but that’s how I see it and it works for me. Every day is a school day for me so I’ll gladly take onboard any other reasoning for it.

 

[One Day]

I've been using Sigma over 10 years now and with large tiles, especially 1m+, I always prop my side arms to the point that they JUST support the tile.
I tend to use an old kneeling board which is medium dense foam.
Two advantages -
One - you don't need as many arms as an octopus to support the tile while cutting.
Two - It compresses easily enough not to affect the break and drop required by the spring beds.

So I agree 100% the support arms are too low and baggy.

 

[LM]

For the reasons I’ve stated above though I wouldn’t want the side arms to be any different, it allows for flexibility.

 

[Old Mod]

Totally agree @LEE MAC @impish
That’s always the explanation I’ve come up with.
Hence the white polystyrene cubes under the slab.
The only question that remains is what is the smallest size cut that can be obtained from a full piece cut on a sigma.
And is there a reason for it.
My theory is equalising the pressure either side of the breaker foot, should give the highest success rate.

 

[LM]

Totally agree @LEE MAC @impish
That’s always the explanation I’ve come up with.
Hence the white polystyrene cubes under the slab.
The only question that remains is what is the smallest size cut that can be obtained from a full piece cut on a sigma.
And is there a reason for it.
My theory is equalising the pressure either side of the breaker foot, should give the highest success rate.

Imo it depends largely on the material and it’s temperature Marc.

 

[Old Mod]

Imo it depends largely on the material and it’s temperature Marc.

I’m sure you’re right Lee, going to try over the next few days to see what we can achieve, and hopefully in a few different ways.
Let’s see........