Belt sander to trim ceramic tile?

[Shred]

Hi,
I've taken off the old style high wall mounted toilet cistern; there are 9 tiles to be replaced. I bought some 150 mm plain white tiles and all the other stuff, never down any tiling. When I do a dry run to see how they fit, they don't! The old tiles probably go back to 1957 when the house was originally built. They are slightly smaller than the new 150mm, like 149 mm. They were very tightly set together.

Is it possible to use my belt sander to take off a mm or two from 3 tiles so they will fit?
or is the only (cheap) way to get a tile scorer and use pliers to snap of say a 3 mm line? or do I have to get a proper tile cutter, just to cut 3 tiles?

Thanks

[China]

To make things realy simple contact a supplier of discontinued tiles (yellow pages/Tile shops), they wiil be expensive $4-5 per tile,you could try the sander, I think you wiil go through belts rapily, try one and see how it goes, or take them to your local tile supplier they wiil most likely have a diamond saw and cut them for you.

[Toolin Around]

Doubt a belt sander will do anything. Diamond wheel in an angle grinder is probably the cheapest solution. Or find someone with a tile saw.

[AIRMAN]

With most tiles they have different size gradings that are allocated to a batch, for example you could buy 450 sq tiles but they may have for example 6 size grades ranging from 447mm +/- 1mm thru to 453 +/- 1mm. Thats why it's always important to not only get them all from the same batch but also the same size as the difference on larger tiles can be as much as 5 mm between the biggest and smallest grades. I would go to a tile shop and they may just have some that are smaller than 150mm sq.

I don't think you will get any where with a belt sander and you will end up with a sharp edge which will look funny against the other tiles.

[Shred]

Thanks everyone,

You've given a lot to go on; I didn't realize there was so much variation in tile sizes! If the original layer had used wider grouting it would've been easier

Thanks

[Honorary Bloke]

Doubt a belt sander will do anything. Diamond wheel in an angle grinder is probably the cheapest solution. Or find someone with a tile saw.

Toolin' got the right idea. for so few tiles, just catch 'em in a vise and grind 'em down on the edges with a masonry wheel.

[Ronaldo451]

When did we go metric? Some time after 1957 methinks.....

I have used a beltsander to trim ceramic tiles - just make sure you buy a few cheap, really coarse belts coz it does chew thru em...

[brettsyoung]

I've done this before. I clamped two pieces of steel with timber strips around the tile leaving the bit for removal exposed and placed the lot in a vice. Then use a masonry wheel in the angle grinder and take the excess off. I found you need to hold the grinder almost horizontal (ie parallel with the steel strips), over the top and along the length of the steel and do it in fast sweeps across the whole tile, removing a bit at a time to keep it flat. Too slow or to much angle and the tile chips or goes wavy. The steel is the guide to stop you going too far. With my tiles I needed the wheel to turn into the dress face of the tile - the other way made the for tiny chips in the glaze. Assuming this technique works on all tiles, one tile for practice and you'll be an expert.

[Shred]

Thanks again,

good point about metric!: 'cos I thought 5.9 inches is an odd length!. OK so the tiles were done since then. (Now you've got me thinking: what was the 'standard' size in the imperial days? before 1967?)

Anyway you've told me what I wanted to hear. I've really got the belt disc grinder to sharpen shredder blades, so I might as well use it for something else. But I might ring a tile shop as it sounds so easy if they have slightly smaller tiles..

Thanks