It is incredible to think that the MONTOLIT Dual Splitting system, which “revolutionized the Manual Push Tilecutter World”, has now reached it’s 18th Anniversary since launch!!
Much envied and imitated by some, this splitting system is an important innovation within the tile cutter world, and is typically incorparated into our manual tilecutter – the Masterpiuma P2 Series.
Designed and Patented by Brevetti Montolit in 1993, the dual splitting device has, on a daily basis, been able to solve the splitting problems associated with very hard materials, especially to save the point corner of a tile when 45° cutting. It’s use is also brilliant for splitting the individual segments of sheet mosaic tiles.
Automatic, simple and effective, this special ‘flip down’ splitting device is made of a special plastic “NO SCRATCH” material that provides a clean split with no possibility of damaging or marking the surface of the tile.
Follow we can look the Special breaking system at work!
The Montolit Masterpiuma 125P2 Tile Cutter is designed for large format tiles and can cut up to 125 cm in length, 88 x 88 cm diagonally and up to 2.5 cm in thickness.
In the following video you can see the easy way of cutting by the use of the “push incision system“. This system ranks the Masterpiuma P2 range of manual tile cutters, made in Italy by MONTOLIT, as possibly the best in the world, and maybe, the only one with a system that guarantees an easy, clean and accurate cut on large format tiles.
If you are thinking of buying a second hand manual tile cutter, regardless of the make and model, it is essential before you purchase to check the following points:
1. Check the incision process working perfectly by doing a test cut. This will tell you if the incision wheel is sharp and that the handle moves freely!
2. Check the if the handle is a precision fit on the sliding bar. A loose fit could mean it is worn out!
3. Test the function of the square/measurement system, especially for a tile cutter with a removable square because, during time and with heavy use, the perfect square setting and locking pin may become worn or damaged.
These tips are valid for all brands and models of manual tile cutters with one or two bars, including push tile cutters or the old pull type models.
Please note, if you purchase a used tile cutter with two bars it will also be necessary to verify the compactness and attachment of the various components (bars, bushes and base).
Today, the online market for the purchase of used tile cutters is a widespread reality, and classically by direct internet sales.
If you purchase a used tile cutter off the internet, try if possible, to get the machine whilst it still has some manufacturers warranty or get the seller to give a warranty – unless you are sure it meets with the conditions we have mentioned!
Here in this Post you can find the basic instruction and information required to follow the correct maintenance procedures for the professional Masterpiuma P2 Series manual tile cutters.
- Check and clean the Metal support tables (if necessary change springs and Plastic Retaining Clip)
- Clean the Incision Handle, lubricate all moving parts and if necessary, – change the Incision Wheel!
- Clean the Sliding bar (tighten the side adjustment screw if the Incision Handle has wear or play in it)
- Check the Geometrical Square and reset by adjusting the stop screw to control the 90 degree alignment
- Replace, if damaged, the Measurement Guide and Measurement Square Stickers
Please view the following Video detailing maintenance procedures
The wall decoration depicting a horse has been designed with a special tile cutter able to cut curvesin most types of tile. This work is particularly interesting because it has been achieved not only using the Slalom S63 tile cutter, but also Montolit tile nibblers and an angle grinder.
In the video below you can see in detail some of the major phases during the execution project :
How to cut simple and regular curves in tiles
How to cut freehand curves in tiles
The best way to split curved incisions
Finishing corners of very small diameters
The repetition of identical curves on different tiles
The assembly of the tile pieces into the pattern created
With this type of manual tile cutter it is possible to make beautiful patterns to decorate walls and floors in the bath room, bed room, living rooms and entrances.
Some tile layers may even use this cutter to create detail in mixed flooring which uses, for example, ceramic and parquet together.
Using the Slalom tile cutter to make curved cuts in porcelain tiles is very easy and can be a valuable and economical substitute against the use of a Water Jet Cutter.
The only limit is that it is not possible to make tiny cuts which have very small diameters. In this case, the Water Jet will obviously remain the best solution.
Many Italian and International Architects and Designers made many creations using this special SLALOM tile cutter manufactured by Montolit.
Perhaps one day we will also appear in Vogue magazine ?!
Technical video for professional tilers, building schools and building materials dealers.
The Montolit Manager for the development of new products presents for the first time a video detailing all of the technical characteristics and secret functions of the Masterpiuma Series Manual Tile Cutters.
This video is mainly for professional tile fixers and building material dealers who need to broaden their knowledge of the Masterpiuma Cutter to resolve real problems that arise within modern day ceramics.
Here is a quick summary of the video.
The structure of the machine:
The tile cutter Masterpiuma (P2 version) is a light, manageable and easy to use machine.
The principal components of Montolit’s manual tile cutter are aluminium and steel (nickel and chromium plated)
To protect the machine from possible damage, the geometrical square can be positioned in the perimeter of the machine. Thanks to the quality of the materials used to make this cutter, a box isn’t necessary for transportation.
The tile cutter is composed of an incision handle made from an aluminum fusion, mounted on a steel bar, a geometrical square for tile positioning and a support arm for big tiles (The support arm extends to hold 63P2; 75P2, 93P2; 125P2).
Two special holes in the frame have been created to hold a spare wheel and pin in each.
Four anti slip rubber feet (natural rubber) guarantee the stability of the tile cutter during operation regardless of surface type.
Two metal support tables, mounted on springs, perfectly accept all types of tile during the incision and cutting phase.
Here is another important ‘secret’ feature! At the splitting position, inserted in the spine of the tile cutter, there is a heat treated steel insert. This adds strength to the body of the machine and also stops the aluminium casting wearing away when the tiles are ‘bent’ over the spine to split them.
A multi functional incision handle…!
The Montolit incision handle is a fundamental component of this manual cutter because it contains particular features useful in resolving the most complex problems found when using new generation tiles. These problems, usually only known by professional tile fixers, have taken on more importance in recent months because they are essential when laying the latest generation tiles.
Let’s look at the details of this multifunctional tile cutter:
The incision handle is purpose made with an ergonomic grip, designed to make it easy to hold during the cutting phase.
The incision handle allows the cutting of different width tiles without the need to regulate the height of the scroll bar.
For splitting the tile after incision, the incision handle is equipped with a dual splitting system, one fixed and the other automatically mobile.
On the top of the incision handle, there is an adjustment screw that regulates the tile width to avoid damage to delicate tiles – especially during diagonal cuts.
If the pressure is too great, without this regulation, the tile could be damaged as seen in the video.
To avoid breaking delicate tiles it is necessary to adjust the screw to the thickness of the tile and then use the ring nut the lock the screw. This ensures that the incision handle’s splitting feet don’t go lower than the chosen width.
Thanks to this simple but important device, even if you apply too much repeated pressure on the incision wheel, damage to the tile will be avoided.
A look at two other important features of the incision handle:
The hardened and milled roller allows easy sliding, during the cutting phase.
The incision wheel is made from tungsten carbide and coated in titanium, to give more flow and wear resistance.
Attention: after the incision the tile splitting takes place near the square (ideally the first 5cm). Normally at the end of the incision the handle is already in the correct position and no further adjustment is required before applying pressure to split the tile.
For 45° diagonal cutting the handle should be moved back towards the centre of the tile and, by lifting the handle up, the secondary splitting device is automatically lowered ready to split the tile.
Important! For best results don’t split the tile more than 5cm from the square.
The special geometrical square:
In the case of repetitive cuts with predefined measurement, it’s possible to use the stop.
The set measurement remains unchanged whatever angle
The geometric square enables the user to cut tiles at many different angles.
A strong regulation screw ensures the maximum precision for cutting at 90°
The measurement from the corner of the wall, in this case 28 cm, is easily achieved using the second graduated scale.
To cut at 45°, we advise the use of a suitable splitter.
The same dual splitting device coupled with a suitable rubber pad, is used to cut mosaics. For the incision of mosaics, light pressure is required.
As you can see in our video, the professional Montolit Masterpiuma series tile cutter cuts with extreme ease, especially the most widespread gres porcelain tiles, and incorporates different but simple functionality enabling the user to solve the most complex cutting problems which can arise with the new generation tiles such as the very hard, high thickness, glazed, thin (like Kerlite tiles), irregular and fragile tile.
Immediately after tests and experimentation during the Cersaie Fair, our additional splitting system“PIEDONE” is now available.
To set up the “Piedone” to cut big sizes of ceramic tiles(up to 120 cm) and for thicker tiles (up to 14 mm).
From today every item art. 125P2 will be sold including “Piedone”.
This splitting tool is available as an optional accessory for all masterpiuma tile cutters.
The main characteristics are:
- “Piedone” makes it easy to split big sizes of ceramic tiles (up to 120 cm) because of more efficient leverage.
- You can obtain the same advantages as above with thicker (up to 14 mm) porcelain tiles.
- The splitting tool make it easier to split very thin porcelain tilelike for example Kerlite™/ Cotto D’Este o Skin™/ Refin).
Pay attention: don’t press hard.
Set up:
- It is simple to assemble (it isn’t necessary to remove the steel bar)
Please follow the below instruction.
As usual, at Cersaie fair in Bologna, we had the possibility to show how to use our special tile cutter able to manually make curve cuts (also perfect radius) in tiles. This special machine named Slalom (S63) was one of the most appreciated items in our stand. During the fair we met a professional tiler from France that made a very complex and beautiful work using also our Slalom cutter. With this post we would like to show through this work, the potential of this manual tile cutter.
Following this link you can find a very good technical description of this work.
More posts about this machine will be published in the near future.
Brevetti Montolit presents Monster, the new and revolutionary manual tilecutter machine able to easily cut the innovative line of 150 x 75 cm tiles by Fiandre S.p.a.
A unique project in the world, developed in partnership with the prestigious Castellarano ceramics in order to give to the tilers the best tools for cutting tiles ActiveTM by Fiandre 150 x 75 cm (Clean air & antibacterial ceramic) – www.active-ceramic.com The big tile cutter Monster uses the classic incision technology but, differently from the traditional manual tile cutters, you can cut the tiles vertically in order to support the layers during this operation. The machine is covered by numerous international patents.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for any technical information (manuals) or suggestions about how to cut the new ActiveTM tiles with Monster tile cutter.
Brevetti Montolit S.p.A, in partnership with a famous italian tile producer, will present a “really BIG” innovation in the sector of tile cutting machines for ceramic and gres porcellatato stoneware.
Join us in this revolution!
Further details in the next posts…
Due to a very good and long technical partnership with our company, Cotto d’Este, one of the best tile producer worldwide, decided to insert Brevetti Montolit S.p.A in its technical documentation (ex. Kerlite – Cotto D’Este technical manual). This decision was made after successfully testing our tiling tools on different types of tiles, with a strong focus on the new thin tile named Kerlite.
We are proud of this partnership and, as usual, we will continue to work in order to support the tile companies to find the best solution to give to the layers the necessary tiling tools to cut and drill their new trendy products. For more detail: How to drill Kerlite
Dear Tilers, if you need Montolit professional tile cutters/tiling tools in USA (US) please write to
sales-dept@montolit.com
We will inform you about the nearest dealers.
Ciao
Montolit Team
Cotto d’Este, Marazzi, Graniti Fiandre and all the other prestigious Made in Italy Ceramics have been in the past years increasing dimension of the tiles achieving a 120 cm length .
The need to manually cut big dimension tiles has become an extremely updated matter amongst professional tile layers, since along with length also the thickness and hardness of these tiles have grown.
In order to follow the new trend of making growing tile format, Brevetti Montolit S.p.A has created Masterpiuma 125P2, the biggest hand tile cutter suitable to cut tiles up to 125 cm long (88 x 88 cm diagonal) and 2,5 cm thick, in an extremely fast and accurate way.
Special design solutions have been adopted to give to this professional tile cutter the necessary precision and resistance characteristics. The cutting handle slides on two parallel steel bars, in order to grant the rightness of the incision line. The aluminium structure (used for all the products range) has been reinforced with a steel bar creating the innovative stabilizing system called “Bi-Frame”
The support tables for large tiles are wide and resistant; they are composed of five tables with springs (4 fixed tables plus a bendable one). There is also an adjustable metal bar able to support the very big tiles also during special cuts.
The incision handle is ergonomic and suitable to guide the best push incision. It is important to remember that for very long tiles it is possible to make a good incision (only using the push cutting system) without creating physical problems (on the arms, shoulders and wrists) in time.
The goniometrical square maintains the same characteristics as those present on the smaller tile cutters of the Masterpiuma series, with a special rotation system that grants the right measure for any cutting angles SMAR (Same Measure All Radius).
Here we have a very old tile cutter that we found in Sweden. In this spectacular model a special manual system moves the tiles and the incision tools is fixed. The beautiful think about this system is the regulation system for the incision wheel that is make with a curved and elastic metal bar. This is an interesting and funny look at the past.
Ingeniousness of planning,perfection of the structure,sturdiness,these are some of the qualities that make the machines of Brevetti Montolit S.p.A unique and Long lasting.
However there are components that must be checked and eventually replaced in order to guarantee that the machines work properly.
We take in examination the incision wheels of the manual tilecutters Monolit – Piuma Series –
It’s important to know how to replace the incision wheel, because a good and correct incision is necessary to obtain a clean and precise cut.
Below you can find the instructions for a correct substitution:
1) Position the incision handle to the end of the machine.
2) Extract the pivot and replace the Wheel.
3) Insert the pivot again
- Attention – Insert the pivot and reposition the wheel in the correct side.
Below you can find the video for the correct wheel’s substitution.
Push or pull manual tile cutters? Which is the best solution?
Which is the best movement in order to optimize the tile incision/cut? There isn’t only one answer because it is necessary to analyze this matter from different points of view and decide after this analysis. Below you can find the main advantages and problems related to these two different ways of cutting tiles.
• The pulse and the arm move in a natural and ergonomic* way
• The arm movement is linear and fluid and takes advantage of the levers composed by the incision handle in the best way. This way to cut gives to the tilers the possibility to manage easily the incision power. This characteristic is, in a particular way, useful for tiles with non regular or very strong (special) surfaces.
• With the push tile cutter, the incision handle is immediately ready to split the tile at the end of the cut (it is not necessary to re-position the incision handle)
• In case of very big tiles, like the Marazzi, Mirage, Cotto D’Este, Graniti Fiandre tiles etc, etc, with a length bigger than 50/60 cm, the incision handle becomes a natural arm extension and for this reason the cut can be finished in the optimal position, without any additional body movement and without the necessity to stop and re-start the incision.
Main problems:
• The measurament square on which the tile rests is not very near to the tilers
Pull manual tile cutters model
Main advantages:
• The square on which the tile rests is very near to the tilers
Main problems:
• during the cutting operation, the arm and the pulse movement isn’t natural and ergonomic*
• it is not easy to generate a high incision strength, necessary for tiles with non regular or special surfaces
• It is necessary to re-position the incision handle after the cut in order to split the tiles.
It is possible to observe that both the push tile cutter model and the pull tile cutter model have advantages and problems. The final choice is up to the tiler, taking into account the different requirements.
* “Ergonomics (or Human Factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of the interactions among human and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance” by International Ergonomics Association (IEA)
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Main advantages: