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Problems drilling ceramic tiles... :o(


joidevie
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I seem to have created a problem for myself. I've layed large floor tiles on my bathroom walls (on top of old tiles). I now need to drill a number of holes for brackets & shelves.

Problem - drilling into them ! Really slow progress and plenty of red hot drill bits..  :o(

Hammer drilling (a slightly brutal hammer drill without any light settings) is simply smashing the tiles apart...  :o(

Bought a 5mm 'glass/ceramic' drill bit (pointed like a spear) and easy... Except after 2 holes.... Blunt..  :o(

So, €10 per two holes ???? Is this really the only way ?

Many thanks..

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You can do it with an ordinary masonary bit, you know, the ones with a tungsten tip.

Put a bit of masking tape over the part you want to drill an then mark the position on that.  This stops the bit skidding off the mark.  Use a slow speed and steady pressure.  As soon as the surface glaze is penetrated you will make good progress.  Be careful as the bit goes through the tile and into the wall behind as this is when the tile is most likely to crack.

Slow and setady and you'll get there.

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[quote user="expat paul"]
I use good quality masonary drills and not using hammer setting, starting with a small size to make pilot hole then gradually increasing to the required size, reducing the chances of cracking. If it does kill a drill its only the cheaper small one.
[/quote]

That works for me too

Danny

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Thanks all for the advice.. So, I guess buy the best (most expensive) 'tungsten' (any suggestions on brands or French 'spec' to look out for) and work up.. I suppose it may even be worth a 'glass' drill bit for the first mm and to start the hole could be useful too..

By the way, those diamond bits look the business.. But I'll try to go French on this one.. This country's tile mad (here in the South) so there will be a way !

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A good way to start the drill in exactly the desired place is to scratch through the glaze there with a tungsten tipped scriber.  Then start off slowly with a 3 or 4mm bit until there is a dimple big enough to take the hardened tip of the full size drill you are using.  It takes a bit longer but worth it if you need the holes spot on for a bracket or whatever.

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I give up.. New (best quality) drill bits and 2mm in 20 minutes... At this rate it will take me 20 hours to drill the 10 holes I need!!

At €20 per hour (a reasonable wage equivalent) - that's €400 of time. Insane. I reckon 10 x "glass/ceramic" drill bits (one per hole) is €100.. And around 5 mins each hole to drill..

I wish I'd used plasterboard !

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[quote user="sheldonrobbo"]

are you sure the tiles are ceramic not porcelain.....the latter are much harder and far more difficult to drill

[/quote]

I'm not sure - on the box it says 'ceramic tiles, dust pressed' but the branding says "porcelanico made in Spain by REALSTONE" ?

If they are porcelain, any more ideas on drilling other than a fortune on the 'glass' drill bits ?

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.. Actually, just watching Youtube seems that lots of water is a very good idea.. A sprayer or sponge.. And ideally a diamond bit, but as I'm only doing a few 5mm rawplug holes, I may chance it with a handful of the glass bits. Time is of the essence and it's available here..

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I have for many years always drilled floor or wall tiles using hammer action, you need a good variable speed SDS drill and to start with a small masonry bit (I use 5.5mm), the trick is to start very slowly and support nearly all the weight of the drill allowing just a tiny bit of force to the hammer action, whatever you do dont put your weight behind it like normal, this is the reason that it must be an SDS action.

Once the glaze is penetrated you can up the speed and apply more force and then go up progressively on drill size, after the initial pilot hole there is hardly any risk of breaking the tile if you are sensible.

I have drilled hundreds of holes this way, most of them for clients on some very expensive tiles and have yet to break one, - famous last words.

IMHO the diamond bits just serve as unecessary revenue earners for the manufacturers in this application.

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Enough of this rubbish.

I am a professional tiler, with a lot of floor tiles that are double fired you will not touch them either with tunsten carbide or spear shaped glass/tile drills which are tunsten carbide anyway.

J.R. and all you others, some floor tile are soft enough to use tungsten carbide on others are not.

You will save yourself a lot of sweat and broken tiles using the thin walled diamond drills developed and used for the job.

365drills.com are just one of many, you can now get them at B&Q, screwfix and therefore in the French arm and tile shops. My first set came from Italy via the RUBI tile cutter shops also Porcelenosa.

You will need plenty of water to either dip the bit into or use the Blu tack trick mention earlier.

Run the drills very slowly, I use my cordless screw driver on its slowest speed and then only on half throttle, too fast and the diamond grit will be rubbed off as it gets too hot and the bonding softens.

A 6-32 mm hole takes about 10 mins you can do it faster but you shorten the life of the drill.  In a softer tile you will go through in around a minute.

Drill the same size hole through a thin piece of something to use as a guide otherwise the drill will skate around. The 365drills.com come with a template and they will send mail order.

I am over on the 20th PM me if you can't get any and I will send one on to you.

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I usually break the glaze by holding the drill bit on the required spot, while its in the chuck then rotate the chuck by hand while leaning heavily on the drill you can generally hear when the glaze gives way. Then I just drill as per normal I too have kryptonite floor tiles but by taking it slow  and using decent masonry bits got there in the end.

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[quote user="teapot"]

Enough of this rubish.

J.R. and all you others, some floor tile are soft enough to use tungsten carbide on others are not.

[/quote]

 

Oh well what would I know then?

I am just a humble jack of all trades, professional in many (but not as a carreleur), that likes to try and help others on this forum by sharing my experience of over 30 years, not opinions or "I would have thought"'s etc.

But as I said, what would I know? Apart from how to spell rubbish perhaps? [:)] , so I will just carry on converting my large property doing trades that I am not qualified for.

 

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IMHO the diamond bits just serve as unecessary revenue earners for the manufacturers in this application.

J.R's gone native,

If you really want to help people do not write statements like the one above, unless you have had the benefit of owning and using the excellent diamond tile drills.

Just because 30 years ago we did not have these drills does not make it a reason not to buy them now.

Thank you for pointing out my typo, [:$] after a busy day drilling 16 holes in floor tiles to come home sit down with a coffee and read that poor guys post who only wants a bit of advice on drilling very hard floor tiles and be confronted with old wives tales on drilling holes was enough to fire me off. [:-))]

The only one missing was running the drill backwards, yes I have heard it said!![I]

Good news, with the diamond core type tile drills you can run them backwards! and you get a bit more life from them. [:)]

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Thanks everyone - clearly a topic with many approaches..

As an update, and for the benefit of the forum, I tracked down some diamond drill bits - effectively the same as the '365' brand mentioned earlier. They come under the TIVOLY brand - 'Triplex Diamond' and each individual bit comes with a plastic guide plate. Around €15 each (6mm & 8mm) . They were only available in my huge Castorama branch and not in more local brico shops..

They're working very well, and I use a hand plant sprayer to squeeze (almost pump) water at the drilling point which really helps. Money WELL spent!

In truth, these were very hard tiles.. Tavertine, in contrast, is a breeze to drill.. !

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