How and what to drill porcelain + Photo & Video

Among modern facing materials, porcelain stoneware stands out with particular strength and durability. These qualities cause some problems during the installation process. In particular, drilling holes in ceramic granite tiles can cause serious difficulties. How to drill porcelain stoneware and how to properly carry out the drilling process - these two problems will be given attention in this article. Because the fragility and hardness of porcelain stoneware implies the choice of a special tool for solving this difficult task.

Tool for drilling porcelain stoneware

Today, you can drill holes in ceramic and porcelain tiles with three types of tools: diamond bits and two types of diamond drills . We briefly describe each type of tool and determine how comfortable diamond crowns are for this purpose and what drill should be used to drill porcelain.

Diamond drill bits are often used for drilling holes in porcelain stoneware. Low cost - their main advantage.

They reduce the end pressure when drilling, and also make it possible to significantly increase the speed of the process. The main drawback of crowns is a small working resource. Tile of porcelain tile 8 mm thick with one such crown can be drilled no more than five times.

This may look like a crown with electroplated coating.

Sintered ring diamond drills can be successfully used for drilling porcelain stoneware, although they are more often used for drilling concrete and similar strong materials. The thickness of the working part of such a drill is from 2 mm. Such drills are used infrequently due to high end pressure. Their disadvantage is also a low drilling speed: it takes 3-5 minutes per hole. Despite the shortcomings, ring diamond drills have a serious advantage: their working life considerably exceeds the life of the crowns and amounts to more than 100 holes for a single drill.

Diamond-drilled ring drills.

In general, I think it has become clear now how to drill ceramic granite tiles, now let's talk about how to carry out the drilling process itself. If you are interested in what types of drills are, to work with different materials, see the article: Types of drills - we select a tool for drilling metal, wood, concrete and tile.

How to drill porcelain stoneware: practical advice

Drill porcelain stoneware only from the front. To save the life of the drill, the holes are sometimes drilled about 2/3 of the thickness of the tile, after which some of the thickness that is not drilled out is knocked out with a sharp blow. In this case, the edges of the hole are often chipped from the back side. In order to make them hidden, the tile should be drilled only from the front side.

It is better to use a special drilling machine or drill stand for drilling ceramic granite tiles. This not only extends the service life of the drill, but also simplifies the work, and makes the drilled hole smooth and neat. Drill should be used two-speed, because when drilling with a diamond drill, porcelain stoneware high speed is not required. Do not use a percussion drill, as you can simply split the stoneware tiles with a drill bit.

Before you drill the porcelain stoneware, , do not forget to place fiberboard or plywood under it in order not to accidentally damage the surface with a drill. The drill should be directed vertically. Do not allow the drill bit to tilt strongly with respect to the tile.

This common mistake often leads to tile destruction or drill failure.

Diamond drills heat up during operation and should be cooled to prevent microcracking and destruction. This problem is solved by supplying coolant (water) during drilling directly to the drill. In addition, to prevent heating should work at medium speed.

When cutting porcelain stoneware under industrial conditions, systems of constant coolant supply are used. At home, the drill can be cooled with ordinary water from a plastic bottle. In the cap of the bottle you can make several small holes through which water will be supplied to the drill. You can do even more simply: cool the drill with a sponge that is thoroughly moistened beforehand.

Cooling the drill with a dampened sponge.

If the drilling is done correctly, a carefully drilled part of the tile that follows the diameter of the drill will fall out of the tile. It is not a problem if small chips appeared on the back of the tile: they will be filled with glue, and this will not affect the quality of tile laying.

Be sure to check out the video below, you will learn from it what tools and accessories for drilling of porcelain stoneware are available on the market and how they can be used.

Video: Diamond drill bits for porcelain stoneware and fixtures