Drilling Porcelain Tile WTF?

[GhostFist]

Tile aint my thang. I never do it or work with it. If it aint wood I aint no good. None the less, there's a pantload of tile on this bathroom set i'm working on. I need to drill pilot holes through porcelain floor tile to allow clearance for #8 wood screws to drill into the stage decking below. I've used diamond bits and diamond coring bits and fried them both. I guess I'm stronger than diamond, or dumber than tile. Who's got the trick for this?

 

[fdengel]

Found this, thanks to Google: http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22310

While I have no experience with this personally, the first thing I thought when I read your post was, "I wonder if he should be working wet or at a lower speed with the diamond bits?"

Based on some of the responses on the above thread, looks like I was right...

You should be making the surface wet to keep the bit cool as you are working, and keep it wet, so that the heat that builds up on the bit doesn't wear it out prematurely.

Also, they apparently make special bits specifically for drilling this type of tile:

http://www.armeg.com/ptc-porcelain-tile-cutters.asp

 

[GhostFist]

Ya been going slow and wet. Haven't had time to review your link yet but thanks for the tip.

 

[upscale]

Ya been going slow and wet.

Add to slow and wet ~ even pressure and not too much of it. For example, if you're drilling vertically, the proper pressure would be less than the equivalent weight of a small hand drill. My suggestion would be to practise on a piece of tile if you've been having trouble. When you've found a good feed rate, you should be able to duplicate it by copying the same type of scraping sound.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32294&cat=1,180,42337

 

[joiner1970]

We normally use the armeg type bits with the hollow core and either keep dipping them in water or use the proper attachment. If you are drilling down then it might be an idea to surround the hole with putty then fill with water that way the bit is under water all the time. Good luck, I hate porcelain tiles a right pain .

 

[Vindingo]

Hammer Drill.

I drilled half a dozen holes yesterday in porcelain tile to hang some towel bars and such. 

A painter walked by and saw me killing myself trying to drill it with a T-15 and he said "Hilti gun pa pa pa" and made the gun hand gesture.

On hole with fes drill took like 20 min.  Hammer drill set to lightest hammer setting on the Hilti took 10 seconds per hole, with surprisingly clean holes. 

If you've got a lot of holes to drill, it might be worth investing. 

 

[Alan m]

look up 365 drills.

 

[GhostFist]

Cheers for the suggestions guys. I managed to get the job done using a better quality diamond coring bit, high rpm as per manufacturers recommendations and a fair bit of water. Took about five minutes per hole but was a nice clean job.

Tile drilling bits are not part of my standard kit and was forced to use what the shop had available. Made them buy some better stuff this morning.

You get what you pay for.