We cut and laid down 1100 sq feet of slate tile about 3 years ago, and did all cuts with a $99 tile saw from Home Depot. Worked just great, I think we did go thru a couple of blades, tho. There were a good number of cuts because we had 16" tiles.

Your current and future tile projects sound very much like our own. Based on recommendations from folks on JB's forum, we invested in a Felker FTS-150 right after deciding to tile our entire master bathroom a few years ago. It'll run you over $500 new but it does a nice job. Since then we've also tiled our kitchen countertop, although we had to have some of the 28" long tile we chose cut by a stone fabricator. We have another bathroom project in the works so our saw has turned out to be a pretty good investment.

Here is a link that might be useful: Felker FTS-150

P.S. If you're doing the tile work by yourself, you have my deepest admiration. If you're hoping to have some help, I've always found that buying DH nice tools/equipment encourages his participation and when the job is done, aside from saving a bundle on labor costs, he ends up with some nice "toys" for his collection and we can both take pride in our work. I really love DIY projects!

Hint: Down the road (when you're sure your tiling career is over) you can always sell your tile saw too. They seem to have a pretty decent resale value. In fact, if you don't want to spend quite so much initially, you may want to look for a used one instead of buying new.

yadax3 - thank you :) Luckily, my DH will definitely help me out, but all the tools I buy will remain MY toys! LOL - I have a collection of tools that already outdo MOST guy's garages...and now that I'm buying woodworking tools (for cabinetry projects) and now these tile working tools...I'm gonna be a proud mama of even more tools. I love tools. lol Your attitude sounds much like mine - I'm really loving the DIY projects. We've saved thousands of dollars already doing everything ourselves. In fact, the only "professionals" we've had to "hire" are the granite people to fabricate and install our granite countertop (which should be done this Friday!!). Even in this, we saved hundreds of dollars doing the demolition and prep work ourselves and only paying them to do the actual fabrication and install.

There is a great satisfaction in working on your own home, saving a lot of money and learning how to do all this stuff yourself - lots of personal growth and fun here!

I couldn't agree more. I think we got started doing DIY projects either to save money or because we couldn't get anyone to show up. But then there was the drug addict who made a mess of our floor installation (which we had to finish ourselves) years ago. Oh, and I'll never forget the gang of teenagers that showed up with their boom boxes and girlfriends to install my carpet but then left my carpet laying on my driveway while they left to cash their paychecks - and it RAINED while they were gone! Nope. Come to think of it, we probably got started doing DIY just to reduce the stress in our lives. Having control over the entire job, especially the quality of the work, means everything to me.

However, we did hire pros to do our drywall work because DH was afraid I'd get too picky about the texture and he was right, but the pros weren't perfect either. We also hired a pro (loosely speaking) to build an addition off of our master bedroom because of new county building requirements. like earthquake anchors. Although, if the big one hits, we know one wall of our house will still be standing when it's over. :-)

We recently finished giving our kitchen a facelift and like you, the granite on our bar was installed by the pros. However, as I mentioned, we did tile our own countertops. It was surprisingly difficult as compared to our bathroom though - mostly because of the cabinets not being square with the wall, using large scale rectified tile, and the aggravation of setting tile on the apron. But, of course, it's always worth it in the end as you said. I can't wait to get started on our other bathroom!

Enjoy, and good luck to you!

While I am sure the Felker is a better tool, I didn't feel I needed to spend that much for my occassion tile projects. I tried a cheap, little tile saw like fairegold used, but I didn't feel it was adequate for my more intricate cuts. I bought a Chicago wet saw (on sale + e-mail coupon) at Harbor Freight for less than half the cost of the Felker, and I was delighted with the cuts. Granted the assembly schematic was poor, but the picture on the box did the trick. The saw has already paid for itself, but it will stay in the basement 'til the next project rolls around. I wouldn't dream of selling it.

Here is a link that might be useful: wet saw

One trick for extending the life of diamond blades in tile saws (brick saws also) is not to recirculate the water.
Use it outside with a garden hose and let the water just flow over the pan.
Running the suspended fines back through the cut adds extra wear to the diamond matrix (and some is always carried back).
In the winter in a basement is one thing, in good weather outside single shot is better.

Use it outside with a garden hose and let the water just flow over the pan.

Or into a bucket with the saw pump in it. :-)

Good recommendation!

I have to agree with the others concerning the Felker saw. You can't buy a better saw than Felker/ Target. As for the saws at Harbor Freight, or ANY of HF's tools, I wouldn't trust them any further than I could throw them. You MAY get lucky and get a decent tool for DIY use, but I've heard some horror stories about their tools not working straight out of the box, and there's no such thing as customer service after the sale, from what I'm told.

"Or into a bucket with the saw pump in it. :-)"

No, that just recirculates the swarf back into the cut again adding more wear on the edge.
Single shot is one pass and let the water and swarf go on the lawn.

I think you misunderstood me. Set a bucket up next to the saw. Have the hose running into the bucket, with the saw pump in the bucket. Keep the plug out of the tray. Clean water goes thru the saw from the bucket, and dirty water ends up on the lawn thru the tray.

Kinda like your set up. But different. :-)

We've used the ~$99 HD tile saw for three projects so far (two slate; one ceramic) and it's been great. I'm sure there are better ones, but we didn't need them.

I just have an adapter fitting that allows a hose to be connected directly to the saw inlet.

Okay-- now, WHERE'D YA GET IT!! :-)

I think I'm going to go ahead and get the Felker TM-75.

Have you guys had a need for a Grinder as well? If so - which would you recommend?

Made it up from fittings.
Even Evil Orange has enough to get a male hose bid to 1/2 inch plastic tubing that fits the saw inlet on mine.

Thanks-- I'll check into it.

In the past I had been able to borrow a 10" Felker, then last week I impulsively spent $300 on the 7" Husky wet saw from Home Depot. I'm very pleased with it (one job in, though), and am doing 16" porcelain floor tile at the moment. It's light enough for one, but seems like a solid, durable piece of equipment (we'll see). It also does plunge cuts and mitres.

And it's light years ahead of one of those $100 POJ's ("Pieces of Junk"....just my opinion)

Well I also have the $99 model since at the time we were only going to do 1 tile job. It has now done 5 tile jobs and is still going strong. It just finished a job with 12inch grainte tile and worked like a charm. Had i known we would use it so much I would have gotten an upgraded model but I don't think anybody needs to hang their head in shame or be labeled as buying "pieces of junk" just because circumstaces dictate a $100 saw as opposed to a $300 or $500 jobbie. Ripping each other down never helps humanity.

Maddie

re a grinder: I've recently made extensive use of a Makita 4" grinder (N9514, I think), with MK blades. The most interesting thing I can contribute is that my DH evidently mounted the blade backwards, but it works *so* much more smoothly and handleably than when it's mounted what is supposedly the correct way. I got spark-free, chip-free gliding movement from it, but when it was turned around I got chips, sparks, bounces, etc...

Just thought I'd throw that in. I'm also needing a sander for tile so I can take down the shine on the top edges of the bullnose--I need supposedly a 150, which is what my tile guy used on the edges of the field tile that would show to make a wonderfully touchable but still not shiny finish.

Fly-- ANY orbital sander will do. The "150" is the grit of the sandpaper needed to match what your installer is using.

Speaking of the Felker TM-75 tile saw, they now have a $100 mail in rebate available on it till the end of the year. This means you can get a $300 saw for only $158!!!! This offer is too good to pass up. See it at this website link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Felker Special

I was in the similar situation once after lots of search i found a good tile saw from ciciliot site. I think it might me useful for you or any one in a same condition.

Hi all, your question is quite intrusting in my opinion yes you can paint the ceramic tile but before painting on it first see the tile that the tile is not wet or if you want more information I search a web on net I think it will help you this web tell all about different types of tile, marbles and ceramic so if you were interested visit the website which is given below. http://www.ciciliotandson.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Colour of marbles