How do I cut squares into my very expensive tiles using core diamond tile drills ?
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How do I cut squares into my very expensive tiles using core drills ?
I just spent a fortune (thousands) on tiles which have already been fitted. But I now need to cut a porcelain tile to fix a plug socket and a light switch. How do I cut the tile so that I can fit the switch flush to the tile. Its a square
A: Using our BFKMX porcadrills its possible to cut a series of circles into prefitted porcelain. The "square" does not have to per perfect, just hidden from the eye. Mark out the switch onto the tile and then cut a series of circles into a pattern that falls within the footprint of the switch. You should find three holes is enough for most fittings.
And because there is no pilot drill with our kit the core floats over existing cut-outs to grind only the portion of tile covered via the drill plate. This makes it easy to stitch drill the tile and open it up until you have a big enough void to fit your item.
This is the content of the BFKMX and you have enough selection to make various diamater bores into the tile.
Use the diamond drills in combination with the correct bore in the drill plate. Take your time. And the work will look excellent
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Article on drilling porcelain by Richard Hazell Dec 2006
Currently there is genuine difficulty dilling porcelain tiles. But before we dive into the details of that statement lets explore recent events.
Today the in-style is contemporary. But what is contemporary? The look seems to be an overspill from commercial enviroments such as large buildings, hotel rooms, resteraunts, even airports and shopping plazas. Plus there are the articles in fashion mazines, tv home make over shows, bathroom and kitchen showroom pieces. Even our travels abroad, holidays and work place seem to hold key elements of a contemporary look. So what are the elemets of a contemporary look
It is generally agreed the contemporary look is minimalist in design, makes use of stainless steel, glass and natural colours like stone, browns, beige, grey. Add lots and lots of granite, slate, travertine, marble and of course porcelain. Wall coverings are light and plain. Trim appears to be very dark natural wood. Finishes sharp and clean. And clutter reduced to a bare minimum. So forget about repeat prints, chintz, stripes, patterns, fleur de lie, covings, ornate plaster and other such decoration.
The look it seems needs to be almost industrial, very hard wearing very commercial, very long life and very difficult to break or damage.
Tile stockists have also noticed and report a continued increase in demand for thicker, heavier and larger stone. Clients appear less interested in the standard square ceramic tiles chosing instead to work with products that give an unfussy minimalist look for example a floor to ceiling wet room instead of a few splashback tiles.
"The growth of the hard tiles market continues unabated: Consumption of porcelain tiles alone is predicted to double in the next 10-15 years. And not only is the demand for hard tiles growing, the trend for 'floor to ceiling' tiles is equally strong" c4carbides
But tilers and plumbers note that once a client fall in love with the materials then the trouble begins during installation. It seems tile shops have been selling the material but are a little slow backing up the sales with good instalation equipement.
Undaunted the public contine to want the material, shops sell it, and installers groan when they see it. Some tilers and plumers walk away from porcelain tiles fearing both the cost and weight of the material, the complexity of installation, the larger sizes and the cost of cutting the matierial. In contrast DIYers are keener than ever to "give it a go". And so decent tilers able to work with very large tiles are much in demand. And its a shame because with a little knowelege the process can be shown to be quite straight forward. Being able to work with stone means people are willing to pay a good premium for these types of jobs.
Cutting material such as granite or porcelain is in fact not that difficult in a straight line. Its easy to cut a straight line with a cheap tile cutter with a decent diamond blade. No the problems start when boring holes into it. Getting holes into these rather thick and rather heavy stones has been until now a bit of a dark art...
There exists great debate in cutting porcelain but recent conclutions seem to be going in one direction only. To cut into porcelain the most imporant choice is the material to do it. Diamond is of course one of the hardest materials on the planet and so it makes a great deal of sense to use diamond. But with diamond comes cost. Some claim carbide is a better choice. But with carbide comes heat. And if carbide gets hot it goes blue. And when goes blue it goes blunt. Preventing this requires water. Lots of it. A carbide drill used with plenty of water will cut porcelain. But therein lies the problem. Plenty of water is not the thing to have in a newly installed area. And so it just comes down to diamonds.
Once you get your head around the idea that only diamond can do the work then carbide and the water part is eliminated. Eliminating water is a good thing. But dont confuse it with the total elimination of water. Diamonds set into metal crowns need to be kept cool otherwise the metal heats up, expands and release the diamonds. Some water is required to act as a coolent for the metal, and also as an aid to wash away the ground out material.
Now we know only diamond is capable of doing the work the next challenge is applying the diamond to the drilling surface. One method is to clamp the diamond crown into a fixed pillar drill. The tile is placed underneath and a hole formed by pulling down on the drill lever. The fixed pillar drill prevents drill slippage by gripping the crown firmly in place. There are three major disadvantages to fixed drill cutting. The first is most obvious in that if the tile has already been fitted to the wall then it cannot be moved to be drilled. The second is that the throat depth on the drill governs how far you can push the tile back. Some cheaper drills have a shallow throat depth which can be problematic on cuts deep into the tile. The final problem is portability. Most installers would prefer not to be carrying heavy pillar drills about on work sites.
To improve portability and achieve the drilling of vertical preinstalled tiles a method had to be developed to place the diamond crown onto the tile without it slipping. The first method was to fit the crown with a pilot drill. The pilot sits in the middle of the crown with the purpose of drilling a small guide hole first. Once drilled the pilot then guides the crown onto the tile to hold it while the diamonds cut out the actual hole. But this procedure is also not without its faults. Most pilot drills are not diamond but in fact carbide. As we know carbide if allowed to heat melts easily so has to be kept cool. To prevent heat building up the kit is further supplied with an arbor. The purpose of the arbor is to introduce a continuous stream of water to cool the pilot. At the point of drilling the kit must be pumped with water which makes for a messy operation and the use of extra equipment which adds to the complexity of the job and adds cost to the user. The other cost is of course the pilot drills themselves. Most carbide pilots are not cheap and yet they have a relatively short lifespan. And finally when using pilot drills it is possible to pierce or puncture hidden obsticals such as pipes that may lie undetected behind the tile.
And so an alternative method has been developed. By removing the pilot you remove the need for an arbor and a lot of water. Solving the problem of drill slip proved to be by reversing the way the crown was guided. Rather than secure the crown from the inside it is possible to secure it from the outside. Recently anti-slip drill guides have been produce in plastic which hold the crown steady from the outside at the point of drilling. The drill plate is able to stick to a slippery tile surface by the use of pad feet. Use of plastic is advantageous for a numbr of reasons to include flexibility on tile surfaces, non abrasive to the diamond crown, quickly able to wear to slight diamater tolerences of crowns. It is also cheap to produce thus significantly reducing the cost to the user.
A typical bathroom needs upto 30 holes drilled to complete it | |
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The provision of cheap diamond drilling solutions throws up quite a few extra benefits. The first is that precision drilling is available en mass. Diamond crowns provide a perfect finish in any material including cheap ceramic. Now you might think there would be no demand to drill ceramic with diamond but you would be wrong. At todays affordable prices the quality of workmanship achievable is highly improved. That has got to be good for the tiling industry becuase tilers at any level can now drill neat accurate holes into any tile at any angle. And lets face it that finish is what the customer is going to see for many years - and appreciates. An example might be where a rennovator uses inexpensive tiles to achieve a minimal "look" relying on the quality of the fixtures and fittings to add the value to the room to sell the house. By upping the installation game and producing accurate neat holes the installer can mimic the look of very very expensive rooms quite easiliy. Diamond drilling allows that possibility. Drilling with diamond also speeds up a job in that fast accurate holes can be bored into the tile with zero waste. Because the diamonds grind rather than drill they will not break tiles reducing costs. They are also fast to use and on softer material have a huge lifespan. In fact it would be nearly imossible to wear out a diamond crown on a ceramic tile no matter how many were cut.
Drilling solutions today are now very different to that of a few years ago. Back then there was a drought of decent equipment able to bore neat holes into very tough materials. Today we see a clever range of methods and equipment made available at great prices and giving better results. Its likely the trend for hard materials will contine but its a comforting thought to know that if fashion does change to softer materials at least the new equipement developed today will be just as capable of working on those tile surfaces.
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an owever many DIY hobbyists and even professional tilers are put off attempting this sort of finish
Although diamond is expensive it delivers superior results compared to carbide by cutting quicker and easier through granite worktops, porcelain tiles, glass, fiberglass, travertine pottery and many other hard materials.
Each kit comes complete with a flexible drill plate. This essential item prevents the drill slipping on your expensive tiles, granite or boat hull buy gripping any surface including uneven ones. It is simple and needs no other attachments such as expensive arbors, messy water pumps, hoses or other attachments.
We will help you: - save time - save money - get neater results - get faster results
Flexible guide plate grips the tile surface fimly so you can drill without slipping.
The drill plate will not rust. It will not scratch glass. It cushions the diamonds to protect them during drilling unlike metal which could be harsh, abrasive and inflexible. Our drill plate will last for many many holes.
You can easily achieve professional results above: We made it easy for you!
Some professional tilers refuse these jobs fearing both the cost of material at prices of £40psm+, and their extra hard properties. Be assured with our product this is no longer a problem for you. We provide full instructions and everything you need to make holes.
Until now holes were cut with industrial diamond drilling rigs with internal arbors costing upwards of £300 each or outsourced to specialist companies off the site. For example a tiler would pay about £20 per hole to a specialist company £36 for granite. If you are a DIY-er or a professional only used to ceramics then we just made it easy for you to move into porcelain, granite and other such hard finishes.
Installers be brave! The future is contemporary and clients are willing to pay extra for "floor to ceiling" luxury. And at less than the cost of a takeaway our bathroom fitters kit is fantastic value plus a throwaway "one job" price. Why leave a £300 drilling rig in the van for someone to nick ! Other systems look more like an operating theatre with water pumps, clamps, special drills and contraptions. You are drilling a hole not performing a heart bypass.
If you are still not convinced they work then read our customer feedback. The good news is others already bought it, tried it and can tell you about their experience. Treat yourself to a kit, get an offcut from a tile center and give it a go. We ask you to buy it and try it once...! Our diamond equipment will help you achieve the best results and you will be using a set of these on every installation job.
We have many repeat installers coming back to us. And when they price jobs for customers they build these into the job. Why should you have to outsource this task? Let us help you complete the task yourself - onsite - and earn from it! Interestingly for a typical bathroom up to 30 holes can be required for one installation. What you charge your client per hole is a matter for you. But remember to consider wall fixings and simple items such as
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Even cuts perfect holes into Fiberglass for marine applications like boat or yacht hulls. Kit cars etc !
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charge £36 per hole for granite worktops or £20 per hole for tiles" We are aware local hire shops supply diamond drilling rigs for £56 per day plus diamond costs. They supply you with the rig and a selection of industrial diamond drill bits which you pay only for what you use. So your final bill would typically be a weekends hire of 2x £56 ( £112) plus diamond usage of about £50 and don't forget to add on VAT in the UK. So in total for a weekend hire you can count on spending about £200. plus your valuable time and petrol for collection then return. In contrast we will save you time and money by offering a value for money disposable "use them a few times" system. If you do want to outsource then we can also provide our own drilling service Of course another advantage our products give you over rental - is that you don't need to return anything. It may sound obvious but when you hire something - you have to take it back and that costs you time! Our products are designed to be used on one job only - Simple, cost effective, Easy to use and disposable. - And professional |
Installers love this system because they know their job costs, can tell the customer and build it into the job cost and it also allows them to take on these premium paying luxury finish projects.
Expected tool life about 2 to 6 holes per drill bit in very hard material . More if used on a drill press used with plenty of water
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comes the science bit ! | ||
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Don't bother trying to use anything made of carbide or like this on the right. You will waste your time, effort and money. Tiles produced today are much harder than this tool can cope with which is why you need a diamond hole cutter.
Diamond drills are used on glass, stained glass, ceramics, ceramic tile, porcelain, porcelain tile, limestone, marble, granite, slate, stone and fiberglass. Drills used on wood or metal have a sharp metal tip or teeth, that cut into the material. These types of drills do not work on glass, marble, etc. as the tips do not "bite" into the extremely hard material, and cause heat buildup that burn up the bit and cause "heat fractures" in the material. Carbide tipped Spear Point drills are sometimes used on the "softer" types of hard materials - like untempered glass, sandstone and marble and some of the less hard ceramic and porcelain tiles. While they sometimes work, they tend to chip the hard surface very badly, leaving a rough hole and often cause breakage due to fractures from the chipping and heat. Diamond drill bits are designed differently - they have diamond tips that "grind" into the extremely hard materials. |  |
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Core drills only drill out a portion of the resulting hole, so they tend to drill much faster than blunt nose drills. Core drills can be used to drill large holes and can be used on most nonferrous hard materials such as glass, stained glass, ceramic, porcelain and fiberglass, ceramic or porcelain tile, limestone, slate, marble, granite and other stone materials. Bonded diamond drill bits have the diamonds bonded to the the edges of the drill bit tip, generally using an electroplate bonding process. These drill bits are generally slow-speed bits and are fairly inexpensive. During use, the diamonds eventually wear off of the bit due to the hardness and abrasives of the material being drilled. Bonded diamond drill bits must not be used on metal, concrete, or masonry and require proper speed and adequate water lubrication.
The life of any type of diamond drill bit depends upon the hardness, abrasiveness and thickness of the material being drilled and the specific drilling techniques used (drill speed, pressure and lubrication), however, the diamonds of a drill bit don't actually wear out as much as they wear off due to heat and friction caused by the extreme hardness and abrasiveness of the material drilled. Drilling in glass, ceramic, marble, etc. is a slow process compared to softer materials such as wood or even metal. A fairly deep hole can be drilled in wood in just a few seconds, while it can take 20 or 30 seconds or longer to drill a hole in standard 1/8" thick glass. In some very hard stones and tiles, it may take 2 to 3 minutes to drill only 1/4" deep. Using diamond bits to drill in hard materials is not difficult, however, it takes time. A person should consider that they aren't 'drilling' a hole, as much as 'grinding' a hole. | ||
Fantastic results! - below are porcelain tiles!
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