Knowing NOTHING about these types of implements, is this something that would make cutting glass tile a mucho smoother job? Was it spendy?
Monica

I have a TM-75 that I used to finish up our bathroom and do the kitchen backsplash. It's a very nice saw. I paid $300 or so for it, but the last I looked they were selling for much cheaper. That may not be the case any longer.

As for cutting glass tile, if you're talking about little mosaics, I don't know that anything is going to make that really easy. Unless you build a jig to hold the tiles, they're just so small. When I was doing our slate mosaic, at least that was mounted on mesh to hold it- paper mounted glass mosaic tiles might just come loose from the paper w/ the cutting water.

Flyleft, did you buy the TM Plus saw or just a TM blade?

At first I thought you bought the saw. Then I reread and am now thinking you bought the blade.

The TM blades are pretty much all I use, the TM-7 blade being my favorite all-around. Nice cutting on harder porcelains, thin kerf, accurate, yadda yadda.

If you bought the TM Plus saw, bravo! I bought a Felker 150 years ago, it's been more than I need for 98% of my tiling/stone projects.

Mongo

Good morning :) monica, I don't think you'd want to use this for glass tile--it's ceramic/porcelain/stone/engineered stone kind of thing. I'm also cutting some thundereggs on it, but that's for fun :)

For glass I used Leponnitt nippers, as they're most recommended by mosaic artists--but glass tilesetters might use something a little more industrial...mongo, what do you recommend?

TM-75s are nice too--I just wanted something bigger to cut our 18" porcelain with...so we found this used a while back on craigslist, but I had a different blade on it that didn't work as well *at all*. Cutting the tile for the bathroom and laundry room floors was like working "against" the saw, rather than having the saw become transparent and working "with" it, iykwim.

mongo, I should have said the new blade is what makes the TileMaster we had before now start feeling like the new addition to our family...it wasn't really "part of our team" until we put this new blade on it--it's not a Felker--I should call OTM and ask them what it was, because I bought it originally for the silestone and it's just my absolute favorite blade. It wasn't a big name blade. I'll call today, and ask the guy there what he thinks of it in comparison to the TM-7. I think it's got a thicker kerf, though--pretty much 1/16" (but that's not the minimum I can cut off--I can do less).

It was so much fun with DD over the weekend, watching her with her hands on the tile, pushing it through--when it would finish the cut, I'd turn the saw off and she'd stand there with her hands on the tile, arms stretched, head down, like a conductor holding still to allow the last reverberations of a symphony to stop echoing in the auditorium before ending the moment...then she'd lift her head, look at me with a HUGE grin and say "how'd I do?" :)

O.K., I looked at the info and called OTM. The blade is called the Super Tsunami, and it's made by Alpha.

WOW.

Alpha makes good blades.

I have a 10" saw blade from them for cutting glass in my Felker wetsaw, and another smaller one for my angle grinder.

Mongo

Wow, so I could cut glass with an Alpha blade in a 10" saw??

What is the smallest size glass tile you've cut with it? And have you cut the colored-on-the-back kind with it successfully?

Alpha, like most blade manufacturers, makes an entire line of blades. Some designed for specific things. Some better suited to stone, some best at hard porcelain, some best for glass.

In many ways glass can be the trickiest.

The smallest I've cut? I've nibbled away at small mosaics. probably 3/4" to 1" squares in terms of cutting full sheets. I sometimes sandwich a 12" square sheet of glass mosaic between two pieces of plywood, with the part to be cut hanging out between the pieces of ply. It supports the small mosaics during the cut, preventing them from wandering.

Different glass sheets cut differently.

If cutting the colored-on-back, try cutting it with the face of the tile down. That may help if you're getting color chipping when cutting face up.

First true up the blade to the fence so it's parallel.

I don't have the "Tsunami" blade that you referenced.

Mongo

okay fly, now you have my curiosity piqued!

what is OTM?
I have the felker 150, can I use this new tsunami alpha blade on it? I need a new blade to cut glass tile (3x6) as well as marble.

where do you buy these blades?

i am feeling out of date in this conversation :)

Oh definitely, mongo, I wouldn't use the super tsunami on glass! :) I didn't think you meant that, don't worry. I know Alpha makes a wide range of products (I used their polishing pads too, on the silestone edges -- how much fun is that?! :))

Thanks for the clue about cutting entire sheets of mosaic--that helps a lot wrt future plans. I haven't tried to cut the painted-on-the-back kind, haven't even bothered considering them seriously because there were so many others I liked (through colored), but I had heard that they were the toughest because folks kept having delamination issues with the paint/foil etc. on the back, even mosaicists. It interacts with some adhesives, as well.

Pharoah, I just looked up on the Alpha website and I don't see the Super Tsunami anymore! I see the Typhoon,

I did find it listed in a catalogue, though, as coming in 8" and 10" (see below)

I could see the glass tile blades at Alpha, too:
http://www.alpha-tools.com/SearchResults.aspx
Do you use the Vetro, mongo?

Here is a link that might be useful: page 4, middle left.

Yup, I have the Vetro. A good blade. I'd rate the Felker GB-10 slightly better for cutting glass.

Mongo

Hello Pharroh,
Unless I'm mistaken, "OTM" is "Oregon Tile & Marble". They have showrooms and sell tools in their four West Coast locations. Here in Seattle, Washington. Also in Portland and Medford Oregon and in Boise, Idaho. I don't believe that they do any mail-order business but Master Wholesale carries the Alpha blades and they certainly do internet and telephone sales. You can also try Construction Complete for quality blades and saws.
Shaughnn

Thanks Fly and shaughnn, i need to get these cool blades...

Agh, I spaced answering part of your question...that's what I get for taking a break from work and posting...thanks, Shaughnn.

And mongo, great to have that recommendation for the Felker glass blade. I'll get that instead of the Vetro.

You know, I looked up the Tsunami again and it sure does look like it's made by Disco-Sea, not Alpha as the guy at OTM told me this morning...it's listed in the Disco-Sea section of one catalogue and the link I provided is to their own catalogue...

Shaughnn, do you have any further info on it? Maybe the OTM guy had a slip-of-the-tongue, and I'd hate to mislead Pharoah...

Here is a link that might be useful: another page where it's listed

A blue Disco blade with it's mesmerizing 1750 rpm spin...the hum of the tile saw...the background beat of hammer hitting nail...

Hang a mirror ball from the ceiling, put on a little Donna Summer, and you be stylin'!

Suffering from the night fever,
Mongo