Occasional tales from a French fixer-upper

[Newey]

All ceramic tiles I've ever drilled have been without the hammer action to go through the top "glazed" part then put on the hammer for the rest.

[mangocrazy]

I was told explicitly to never use hammer action on tiles. Presumably the hammer action didn't cause the tile to shatter? They are very brittle and will snap if you look at them wrongly in my experience.

[Newey]

The tile will shatter if you hammer through the top surface, once through the top surface the part underneath and can take a hammer, if you have an old tile/offcut give it a try, I'm guessing tiles are the same the world over.

[mangocrazy]

I've got a Trug full of old offcuts/used tiles. I'll give it a try tomorrow...

[Newey]

Put some tape where you want the hole, it helps the drill from sliding about or use a small metal drilling bit to pierce through the glazing then use your masonry bit

[Count Steer]

I've used this type many times to drill ceramic tiles and never had any problems.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-tile-g ... _container

I think my set is diamond rather than carbide but I'd have to check to be sure. Once you're through the glaze it's usually easy peasy. I have sometimes used a drop of water and the tip about sticking a bit of masking tape on is

I think you can use a drop of oil instead of water. (The old school way of drilling glass used to involve making a little ring of wax as a dam to hold a pool of oil but technology has moved on. When I worked in engineering ceramics the machine shop was diamond everything and lots and lots of water/coolant but the work pieces were jolly hard all the way through...you could make tool bits for lathes for high speed machining out of it so it was a bit like picking yourself up by your socks iyswim - what do you machine machine tools with? ).

[mangocrazy]

I've used this type many times to drill ceramic tiles and never had any problems.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-tile-g ... _container

My original set were exactly like that and have served me very well, but faced with the tiles I've fitted recently, they just fell apart or took aeons to drill a hole. I might acquire a set of the super-duper Bosch ones linked to by Screwfix, as tiles for flooring is pretty much de riguer over here.

Agree about the masking tape trick...