80mm Octagonal Waste Grate

[pauliegorby]

Hello All
I am retiling my laundry floor and can not replicate the accuracy of the original tiler in cutting the octagonal waste grate in the tile. There must be no more than 1 mm play and the cuts are very accurate to all sides. The hole is very close to the side of the tile and it has not been broken as well. I have tried with an angle grinder with diamond blade (too rough and keeps breaking the tile) and also a dremel with diamond wheel (tile too hard) but neither seem to work.

Please help me as I am running out of tiles. LOL!

Kindest regards
Pauliegorby

[Tankstand]

I did away with my octagoanal ones with my recent reno and replaced them with square chrome ones. Much easier!

[Toyboy]

I fitted my old 7 1/4" B&D saw with a fine diamond blade and then fitted it upside down to my B&D workmate as a 'table saw'. By closing the sides so that only a small gap exists either side of the blade, you will have the (almost) perfect tile cutter. I have been able to cut tiles to within less than 1ml tolerance.
Soak the tiles in a bucket of water before cutting. This keeps the blade and tile from overheating and thus avoiding tiles cracking. Don't forget to wipe the tile dry before cutting, you don't need water dripping into the electrics.
For drilling, there is a specific drill available for this. It is shaped somewhat like a spear and I have never cracked a tile yet with one of these.
By the way, when cutting tiles, if you adopt my method, keep the face of the tile uppermost so that you will have clean edges. A piece of wet & dry paper on a sheet of glass will round over tile edges nicely.
If all this sounds a bit confusing, I will attempt to photograph my setup for you, if required.
Just as an aside, if your budget will allow, buy a thin commercial, high-speed blade. Mine cost around $150.00 a long time ago and is still perfect. I have even sliced concrete pavers with it and it is still 'as new'.
Hope this helps.