Cutting long curve in tiles.

I run a small renovation business mainly renovating inner city units (new kitchens, courtyards etc). I often use trades people for some jobs and also do a fair bit of the work myself.

Due to the lack of available decent tilers in Perth and also because I've had a fair bit of experience with tiling (building bathroom display cubicles for a tile company) I've been doing a lot of the smaller tiling jobs myself. Every now and then a job comes along that really stumps me...:confused:

The story is this.

The customer has a large open space that houses the dining room, the lounge and kitchen. The dining section is to be tiled and the kitchen and lounge are going to have cork tiles put down. The tricky bit is the joint between tiles and the cork.

The customer wants the join to be a long (6m) curve :eek: . I should also mention that the tiles are porcelain and the curve is to be cut so the concave side is in the tiles.

Marking the tiles is no problem as I can lay them out on the floor and draw the radius but it's got me stuffed how I'm going to cut them and what trim to use. The only way I can think to do it is by cutting each tile at through the points that the arc makes on each edge and then grinding back to the arc but given the way the procelain chips I don't even want to think about this. Also the fact that about 20 tiles will have to be cut in this way freaks me out.

Also the customer wants a smooth transtion between the tiles and cork so no raised trim that overlays the tiles and cork. It will also mean that the cust will have to be pretty bloody neat.

Any ideas??? I'm stuffed:rolleyes:

I'd cut them very slowly by hand with a grit coated wire hacksaw blade and smooth the sharp corner up with a tile file.

As these are porcelain I don't think a grit coated wire will come close to doing the job, the tiles are simply to hard and anything other than diamond will not do the job IMHO. I guess if the arc is shallow enough a diamond blade in a 4" angle grinder may do the job but I don't fancy your chances of a long free hand graceful curve unless you have a steady hand. Sorry not much help hopefully someone else has done this before.

John.

Both options I'd considered but to cut about a centimeter with a tungsten rod saw took about 20 mins and destroyed the saw. The angle grinder was also a no go. Slotted and turbo blades chipped the hell out of the tile. The continuous blade got so hot it started to melt :eek: and also chipped the tile.

About the only way I can cut them is using the water cooled diamond saw...

Know any lapidarists out your way? A slab saw (ours is kero-cooled diamond...) will do what you want, although to get a truly smooth curve you'd have to do a bit of freehand grinding with either the side of the blade :eek: or a cabachon grinder.

I think that if you set out the curve with masking tape on the floor as it would look with each indivitual tile cut straight, it will look like a smooth curve anyway. Is it possible to involve the client in the decision? I'm sure if you explain the problem they'll want the 'clean' edge. The adjacent cork tiles could be cut on the smooth curve, with grout takening up the gap. The eye will follow the smooth curve, methinks. You could also make a feature of the joint, with shaped timber, or dark self-levelling epoxy, or something like that.
LED flashing strip-lighting embedded could be entertainment, and giude them to the dining table in the dark:rolleyes:

Den

There is a diamond glass grinding tool used by stained glass makers which would work to shape the tiles.

It is a box with an electric motor driving a diamond wheel about 15mm diameter. This is set vertically in the top of the unit which is has a water trough and a perferated top plate . A piece of sponge soaks up the water and rubs into the wheel you then have a wheel which is spinning at 90 degrees to the flat top of the unit you just put the tiles onto the surface and move them in any direction against the wheel.

My wife got one to do stain glass with and when I did the bathroom I used it to make the holes for the taps etc. I drilled a few holes anound in a circle and knocked out the middle put the tile over the wheel and ground the circle round and as large as I needed it.

The tile to cork transition could be a problem especially if there is any great difference in the thickness of one to the other. I assume you have that one covered seeing the customer doesn't want a trim bit between them.

Awesome. That glass grinding tool sounds like just the shot. Do you have a brand name? My head's telling me to walk away form this job but me heart seriously wants to work out how to do it and add another photo to the portfolio.

Unfortunately ther curve is enough so that straight cuts on the tiles are not an option.

I like the idea of led's through the strip. "Ladies and gentlemen, in the event you consume your second bottle of red during dinner, a row of lights on the floor will guide you to the lounge." There's a market for this in my place at least:D

dalejw - i have some tilers laying a showroom floor at present, usinf ceramic tiles. The layout feature quite a few curves, and we have had the tiles laser cut. Cutting was done by a specialist in his workshop, who works with a computer controlled cutting machine, and the results are perfect. It does come a t a cost, however, it may be the only way to achieve the reult you client wants. It might be worth your while to see if you can find someone in the area with this capability, and get a price.

I just looked the maker up on google, here is a link to the products. You can see they have a few versions of the machine and what the diamond wheels look like. I'm sure a glazier who does stained glass would have a contact for this or similar products. Once you have one I'm sure you could find uses for it on other jobs. It was a few years ago since it was purchased but from memory it was about $80.

http://www.oaktreesg.com/inland-grinders.html

Must admit I like the laser cutting idea.

Yeah, I like the laser cutting idea and I'd also explored waterjet cutting. The problem I have with both of these is that I'm buggered if I know how I get a drawing for the machine to follow. By the time I lay the 40 sqm of tiles before the curve small errors will mean that the curve isn't in line...

Unless I start at the curve...
Hmmmm...