Transcription
Hi, I'm Charlie White and today I'm going to show you how to drill into porcelain using two of the best drill bits on the market.
Now, you may have seen my previous video where I showed you how to drill into a hand glazed clay tile with an Armaker 6 mm porcelain tile drill bit. But I've had some really valid comments on that video from you on things like, "If I drill into porcelain, won't it crack the tile? Shouldn't I be using a diamond tipped drill bit?"
So today I thought I'd deal with those queries by showing you how to drill into porcelain using my trusted Armeg drill bit, but also a diamond tipped drill bit. So in today's tool kit, we've got an electric drill. We've got the 6 mm porcelain tile drill bit from Armeg and a tub which we're going to fill with water to cool the drill down with. And we've got the 6 mm dry diamond tile drill bit from Herbau.
The Armed drill bit has an arrowshaped tip with something called diamond ground tip geometry, which basically means that the drill bit is designed not to wander when you start drilling into the tile. It also comes with a normal 6 mm masonry drill bit, which is quite handy because once you get through the tile, you mustn't keep drilling into stone wall behind with your drill bit because you'll damage it. So that's what this is for.
The diamond tipped drill bit, on the other hand, is a completely different design. There's no arrow shaped tip here, just diamonds. And because it's a dry drill bit, we don't have to keep cooling it in water whilst we're drilling through the tile.
Okay, so let's get started. We've got the porcelain tile and we're going to use the Armega drill bit. You see immediately with the particular design of this drill bit, it starts drilling and it doesn't wander in the tile. I'm keeping it cool by dipping it in the water.
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One of the comments I had in one of my previous videos was, "If I don't use a diamond tip drill bit, will I crack the tile?" Well, but I think you can see from this, the drill is drilling beautifully into the tile and it's not cracking. Whilst you're drilling, be patient. Don't push it in too hard. Just let the drill bit do the work. Whatever you do, keep cooling the drill bit whilst you're going.
Okay, we're through. And you can see we've got a beautifully clean hole with no cracking around the tile.
Right, I'm now going to show you how to drill the porcelain tile with a diamond tipped drill bit. A word of caution before we start. If you've already got one of these drills and you haven't got a tile guide, you might think about getting one, because this is what happens if you try and drill a porcelain tile that doesn't have the Armeg's arrowshaped tip without a tile guide. Tile guides are around £15. Details where you can get them will be in the description at the end of this video.
But if you haven't got one, what you need to do is put the drill bit on the porcelain, brace yourself as much as you can, apply decent pressure, and just try and quickly drill to make a sort of guide mark on the tile like this. I have just got this hole started. You need to get the hole started or use a draw guide. Otherwise, you'll find this drill bit does wander.
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With this drill bit, you just want to apply gentle pressure and again let the drill bit do the work. Okay, we're through with that one. Pretty clean hole, I would say. Not quite as straight as the hole drilled by the Argit. It's just wandered a touch, but there might be something to do with my drill speed.
So, what conclusions do we draw from this? Well, if it was me, I have to say I would still buy my Armeg drill bit over the diamond tipped drill bit. There's a few reasons for this. Yes, it's £10 more expensive at 2526 rather than the 1516 for the diamond tipped drill bit, but it covers a much broader spectrum of tiles from granite, marble, ceramic to softer tiles. It is water cooled, but with a little pot of water by your side, you can always keep the drill bit nice and cool.
The other good thing about this drill bit is that the recommended drill speed is a maximum of 900 RPM, which is more or less in the range of most domestic battery powered drills, the sort of thing that you're likely to have at home. The other major plus of the Armeg drill bit is the diamond honed tip geometry of the actual drill bit itself. Because of the arrow shape of it, it centers beautifully on the tile. It doesn't wander and it gives you a really true hole.
Now, the diamond tip drill bit to my mind has a few disadvantages. Disadvantage number one is it's only suitable for ceramic, marble, and porcelain. Secondly, because of the shape of the drill bit and its flat bottom, it's very hard to get the drill bit started without using a tile guide. Tile guides are an additional £15. So, by the time you bought the drill bit and the tile guide, you spent pretty much the same, if not slightly more than you would have done if you bought one of these drill bits.
The other disadvantage of this drill bit is the optimum speed is 2,00 to 3,000 RPM. Now, the chances are your battery powered drill is going to function about 1,00 to 1,600 RPM. So, to get that sort of drill speed, you really need to have a mains powered drill. And I'm pretty sure nowadays most people don't have mains drills. they're more likely to have a portable battery powered drill like this.
So to summarize, if you're drilling into porcelain, I would still go with an armeg tile drill bit rather than a diamond tips drill bit. The shape of the drill bit ensures that the drill bit doesn't wander when you start drilling into the tile, and it'll give you a nice clean hole. But remember, keep it nice and cool the whole time by dipping it into water. And when you get through the tile, use the masonry drill bit that's included to go into whatever's behind so that you don't damage the drill bit.
Details of all the tools I've used in today's video are available in the description at the end. You can subscribe to my channel by clicking on the link here. If you've got any comments, leave them after the video. be great to hear from you and I may be able to give you a few hints and tips on the projects you're working.