Cutting Thick Porcelain Slabs – Our Top 3 Tile Cutters For The Job

Thick porcelain tiles tend to be one of the most popular materials for homeowners when deciding on their choice of patio. However, it can also be a cause of frustration if you’re a landscape gardener or flooring installer, as they can be quite difficult to cut when using traditional grinders or other cutters.

In this short blog, we outline the tile cutters we’d recommend for the job, as well as the best blade to cut 20mm porcelain slabs.

How Do I Cut Thick Porcelain?

Porcelain is a tough, dense material. When you cut through this with a wet tile cutter, a lot of heat is generated due to the friction. When too much heat goes into the blade, it expands and causes the diamond filaments to dislodge.

The more diamonds that are lost, the more work the blade is put through and therefore, more heat is generated. This will then quickly snowball out of control, leaving you with little to no diamonds left in your blade. The heat would warp the blade and cause it to cut out of line or crack the porcelain slab.

To prevent the above from happening, there are a few things that can help.

1. Use a larger diamond tile saw blade
   By using a bigger diamond tile saw blade, it means you’ll have an increased surface area to allow the blade to cool. You’ll also have more diamonds, meaning the blade itself will last longer.
2. Use a machine with plunge cut capability
   If the porcelain you’re cutting is particularly stubborn to cut, it helps to cut the material in 2 to 3 passes, instead of cutting it in one go. To achieve this, we’d recommend using a wet saw with plunge cut capability.

This would allow the water to sufficiently cool the blade and maintain a good amount of diamonds, and you can also sharpen/dress the blade by using one of these machines.

Diamonds are present throughout the metal rim of a blade. If you cut through an abrasive material frequently, this helps strip the metal back and bring some fresh diamonds to the front of the blade.

Cutting 20mm Porcelain Slabs

First and foremost, the two most important factors when cutting thick porcelain slabs are the size of the diamond tile saw blade you need, and the ability to plunge cut the blade using a porcelain tile cutter.

The blade size can vary and it’s important to make sure your tile cutter can house the size of blade you need, and that the blade is suitable for your machine.

Tile Cutters For Cutting Porcelain Slabs

#1 Rubi DC-250 Wet Tile Saw

The Rubi DC-250 is by far and away our most popular model of tile cutter for cutting thick porcelain.  With the right diamond blade, these machines will cut through any thickness of tile up to 85mm.

They also include a removable aluminium table and are ideal for longer tiles.

There are two models available:

Rubi DC-250 850 – for cutting tiles up to a maximum length of 85cm.

Rubi DC-250 1200 – will cut longer tiles, up to 120cm long.

Both of these tile cutters are available in either 110v or 230v versions.

#2 Rubi DCX-250 1250 Xpert Wet Electric Tile Cutter

An alternative machine we’d recommend is the Rubi DCX-250 Xpert 1250. It houses the same size blade as the DC-250 850, as well as the same plunge capability.

However, the motor is a little more powerful and is also available in a 1550mm bed version (DCX-250 Xpert 1550), which helps when cutting much longer porcelain slabs.

The DC-250 1200 is also capable of cutting these longer porcelain slabs, but you’ve got to lift the blade as far up as it goes and slide the slab underneath the blade. There isn’t much room for manoeuvre.

Rubi DCX Cutters

Rubi DCX-250 Xpert 1250 – for cutting tiles up to a maximum length of 1250mm.

As with the DC-250 machines, both models of these tile cutters are available in either 110v or 230v versions.

#3 Rubi DX-350-N 1000 Laser Level Wet Saw

If you want maximum power and performance for your money, then you might consider the Rubi DX-350-N 1000, one of Rubi’s most powerful tile cutters.

It houses a 350mm blade rather than a 250mm, which will make it last a lot longer. It also has a better motor.

However, this machine is best used when wired in to the mains, so you don’t have any issues tripping the fuse board. Yes, it really is that powerful.

There’s a whole host of great features and it also comes in a longer 1300mm bed version (DX-350-N 1300) but we’d only really recommend this machine for companies who supply tiles/slabs/sample materials.

This is available in 230v – the longer 1300 version is available in both 110v and 230v.

Best Blades To Cut 20mm Porcelain Slabs

There’s a lot of choice of diamond blades in the market for cutting porcelain. However, we can recommend four different blades for cutting porcelain slabs, based on your budget and job requirements.

#1 Rubi SPT Premium Diamond Blade – For 20mm – 35mm Porcelain

Rubi’s latest diamond blade is the SPT – and it’s especially designed with thick porcelain slabs in mind. It’s perfectly suited for cutting porcelain between 20mm – 35mm and comes with an “extra-long service life”, meaning you’ll get more than a few jobs done with it.

It’s also suitable for cutting all types of ceramics and natural stone, as well as being suited to electric tile cutters with a plunge-effect. If you’ve got more than one job lined up that involves cutting through thicker porcelain or natural stone, then the SPT blade is the one you’ll need.

PROS: Extra-long service life and especially designed for cutting thick porcelain on more than one occassion.

CONS: Not recommended if buying for just a one-off job, as there’s other more budget-friendly options available that will still get the job done.

#2 Rubi TVH Turbo Viper Superpro Blade

Before the SPT came along, Rubi’s turbo viper blade was found to last longer when cutting 20mm porcelain. Rubi have recently tested all of their blades against a varying range of porcelain slabs and this was by far the best of all the ones tested.

It’s thinner and has a lattice pattern on the binding, which enables the blade to cool down that little bit quicker, making the diamonds last longer. It’s also available in 250mm or 350mm sizes, so it’s ideal for any of the tile cutters we recommend.

PROS: Long-lasting, blade is quick to cool down, highly recommended for cutting thick porcelain

CONS: Because it’s thinner, you can’t use it to perform mitre cuts.

#3 Rubi CPC Porcelain Diamond Blade

The Rubi CPC blade has been a solid choice for professional tiler’s when cutting different grades of porcelain and remains one of our best-selling diamond tile saw blades.

However, it’s not as long-lasting as the turbo viper blade, but it’s slightly cheaper.

Available in size 250mm for the DC-250 or DX-250 Plus 1000.

PROS: Very reliable and popular among professional tilers for cutting porcelain.

CONS: Not as long-lasting as the turbo viper blade.

#4 Marcrist CK850 Tile Saw Blade

The Marcrist CK850 is another extremely popular blade among professional tilers, due to the range of different materials it’s designed to cut through. This includes terracotta, ceramic, marble, granite and porcelain.

Marcrist also offer a guarantee that they’ll be “the best diamond blades you’ve ever used” and offer a full refund within 30 days of your purchase if you disagree.

However, there’s quite a big jump in price for these blades, so if you only have the one job to do, or don’t often come across thick porcelain slabs, then it’s probably not the choice for you.

Available in size 250mm – to be used with the DC-250 or DX-250 Plus 1000.

PROS: Will cut through a wide range of materials including porcelain, ultra-thin and lightning-fast cuts with real diamonds.

CONS: A little more expensive when compared to the Rubi blades.

Our Choice For Cutting Porcelain Slabs: Rubi DC-250 Tile Cutter + Rubi Turbo Viper Blade (250mm)

If you’re looking at cutting thick porcelain slabs, then we’d highly recommend purchasing either of the Rubi DC-250 machines, and the 250mm SPT diamond blade to go with it.

The Rubi SPT diamond blade has been designed especially to cut thick porcelain and would be our recommendation as the best blade to cut 20mm porcelain slabs. The Rubi DC-250 is also the ideal machine for the job, without breaking the bank for something more powerful.

Shop Tiling Tools

You can find more of our wet tile cutters, diamond tile saw blades and our full range of tiling tools at buybrandtools.com

If you’d like more advice about any of our products, call our sales team on: 0114 251 3535 – we’ll be more than happy to help.