I'm tiling my bathroom floor with some large ceramic tiles (33cm x 33cm aka 13" x 13") and I'm having difficulty cutting them. I'm using a simple glass cutter, because the tile cutter for such large tiles is too expensive, and an angle grinder with a diamond disk gave a pretty dismal result (not to mention an absurd amount of noise).
The glass cutter worked like a miracle – for the first tile that I tried to cut diagonally (corner to corner). After that, it's the same problem over and over again:
I've scratched a pretty deep line with the glass cutter (even faintly visible in the picture), and I've positioned the tile-to-be-cut on top of an already glued tile on the floor. The scratch line matches the tile edge. Then I hit the corner with my fist to break it. And the result is in the picture.
In the middle it breaks as it should, but closer to the edges it ignores the lines. This is still salvageable with tile nippers (I need the big piece), but it's annoying. What am I doing wrong?
Best Answer
After wasting my money on tile nippers (they don't cut where they are supposed to any better that what you are having, IME) I went the dry diamond blade in an angle grinder route, and short of a wet saw I can't justify, would not do it otherwise. With dust mask and eye & hearing protection, of course; incredibly loud should not be something you experience directly. With a tiny bit of practice it was able to give me excellent results, and I even got to the point where I was mitering wall tiles (redoing an old bathtub with the old tiles needing to be re-used, and no outside-corner pieces available.)
The worst part for my job was cutting very small tiles, but the method I used for that might help depending what your problems with quality of cut are - I had to clamp them in between two boards to hold them steady for a cut and provide a straight edge to follow.
Also the usual "use of an angle grinder generic advice" applies - don't force it, don't let it twist in the cut. Practice on some of your waste tile offcuts.
Alternatively, see about renting a wet saw at the local tool rental place, but if you have a dry diamond blade and an angle grinder, you should not need to, IME.