the reason I am asking is I am tiling a center island in my kitchen with porcelain tile, and its almost all bullnose which is nothing more than a piece of tile with one side sanded down ( taking the sharp edge and just rounding it off a little. )
they charge an arm and leg for these bullnose pieces .. and it would be so cool to use a wet sanding belt or something like that to make my own.
anybody have any thoughts .. ?
thanks a bunch
mike
If it is glazed you are going to lose the finish. In any case if you do decide to do this, wear a serious dust mask and eye protection - wash your clothing immediately. The tile guy did this to our tiles (there were no bullnose pieces for the tile we wanted) but our tile was not glazed. (I can't find that type now which is a real shame given how nice it was). Good luck (and think of porcelain dust as glass dust - which it is only probably worse).
thanks dkat
a lot of the bullnose I see doesnt have the glaze on the rounded off part .. so this may be ok ...
now for the mechanics .. would I actually have to use a wet sander .. or would any ol sander do .. ?
and Ill remember your warnings about it being glass dust ..
thanks
My opinion would be wet sand but it is just that - an opinion. No experience to back it up.
i use a wet belt sander on glass all the time. you don't have to wear a mask, as all the dust is captured by the water. you could also use a lap wheel, or a diamond stained glass grinder, which would be faster as the diamonds will remove material faster than the sander. if you're really good at it, you could use a wet saw with a diamond blade, and your tiler could do to this for you as they probably are already using one. you can use the side of the diamond blade for smoothing.
i wouldn't do this dry at all. the heat buildup could cause the tiles to crack.
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