Question from Sam

Hi and thanks for the opportunity to pick your brains.

I am still at the stage of a million and one projects in my head and only one under my belt. Spend way too much time doing the homework on things rather than actually just getting in and having a go. But since you have generously offered this forum as a place to bounce ideas here goes…

I see that you are a fan of the angle grinder. These make me a bit nervous having my fingers so close to the action part of the beast. I do however feel very comfortable with bench grinders. At work I use them a lot.

We primarily use quite wide (approx 8cm across) drums diameter is probably also 8cm or so for shaping thermoplastics as well as softer materials into all sorts of weird shapes. I use 2 speeds but my question is whether you can grind/ shape ceramic tile (after rough cutting with nippers) with these. My drums at work are various grades of sand paper but I think you can get bench grinders with various masonry wheel attachments and both wet and dry grinders.

Any thoughts on whether this may be of use.

I know it is strange but I am entirely comfy with my fingers near these grinders.
(Hate/terrified of bandsaws with a passion so think the tile saw may be beyond my comfort zone too).

Thanks
Sam

Reply from Brett

Thanks for your question Sam – the very first!

Well the first thing is that I should qualify that I’ve never used a bench grinder for ceramic, and am only going on discussions with friends. Apparently you can get a diamond embedded stone which should work pretty well – especially if you can use it wet. My only concern (and the reason I’ve never tried it) is that you’d be pretty limited in what you could do with it. You’ve only got a 90 degree angle (at best) to work with on the edge of the stone. With an angle grinder with a diamond blade fitted, the blade is only 2-3mm thick, so you can get in some pretty tight places. I hope you can understand what I mean there. The diamond blade is also a lot more aggressive on ceramic than a masonry wheel.

I can understand why you’d be worried about an angle grinder, but they are FAR safer if you can fix them to a bench and you would get used to it pretty quickly.The main danger is getting hair or clothing near the wheel – and that’s probably a similar risk with a bench grinder. I’ve nicked myself a few times with an angle grinder – it’s far worse with a masonry wheel than a diamond wheel – it tends to burn or graze more than cut. Dust is the other main problem.

You really shouldn’t be so concerned about a wet saw though – the’yre pretty safe compared to a grinder and the more powerful the better – it really is like cutting through butter with a hot knife! Less noise and no dust too.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Brett

Reply from Garry

Sammy, if you value your fingers around those grinders, then hand files are a good alternative. There are flat/half round and round (rat tail) files especially for tilesand glass, and a wire carbide type that fits into a hacksaw frame. Available from good old Bunnings. I know I was always worried what would happen if you hit your finger with a diamond blade in the angle grinder, would you get a massive cut, or what? Well one day I found out… like Brett said, just left a bit of a gouge. Sigh! another bandaid. I mainly stick with the nippers now, and occasional use of a file. Less noise, less dust, fewer nicks, more traditional. But for a really tight concave curve, you can’t beat a wet saw or grinder. Masonry drill bits are another handy tool, good for placing a bird’s eye in the middle of a tile piece.

Keep those fingers safe…

The angle grinder is good for smoothing the lower part of the tile, especially on very hard materials like floor tiles. Gets rid of those sticking out bits easy that make your interstices too wide.
But you got to keep it away from the glaze though because it knocks off little chips from the edge and they look bad when you grout.
If you’re just a beginner and you like power tools, a club hammer is good ……. 😉

Reply from Sam

Thanks for all that info guys, I will keep a look out to see if anyone else adds their ideas. I feel like a little mosaic sponge – its all going in just a matter of whether I can retrieve the appropriate info at the right time.
Have a great day
Sam