Fastest Way to Drill Porcelain Tiles?

A common question we get asked here at Millcot Tools – what’s the fastest way to drill porcelain tiles?

There’s no real straightforward answer as porcelain is an extremely hard material which can be difficult to drill if the correct drill bits aren’t used. From our experience of selling tile drill bits for several years we’ve discovered that by far the quickest way to drill porcelain wall and floor tiles or porcelain patio slabs is by using a dry diamond hole cutter on an angle grinder.

These drill diamond hole saws don’t have a pilot bit (the diamonds are brazed onto the outer rim of the hole saw – brazing the diamonds onto a point to create a pilot bit is practically impossible and they would quickly fall off exposing the bare metal of the bit itself underneath) and therefore a guide or careful positioning of the drill bit prior to drilling needs to be used.

Mostly the drill bits can be started on edge but this requires a firm hand to prevent the drill bit from running across the tile and damaging the surface.  The speed of the grinder will ensure the drill bit starts cutting quickly and once the edge of the drill bit starts to penetrate the surface of the tile the drill bit can be gently eased to an upright position until the complete drill bit has begun to cut into the tile.  Once this has happened the drill bit then needs to be used with a gentle oscillating motion to prevent the complete circle of diamonds on the face of the drill bit being in contact with the tile all at the same time.  This allows the diamonds that aren’t in contact with the tile to cool slightly before coming into contact with the tile again.  This prolongs the life of the drill bit greatly and this gentle oscillating way of drilling is highly recommended. 

So, in summary, by far the quickest way of drilling porcelain tiles is by using an angle grinder and dry diamond drill bits with an M14 shaft for mounting directly onto the thread of the grinder.  These are available from our main website - https://www.millcot.com/Products/Dry_diamond_core_drills