Hey all I want to make some clay caves with terra cotta pots for my plecos and cichlids. Anyone know how to cut terra cotta without cracking the whole darn pot? OL
Cutting terra cotta pots
- Thread starter Allan01230
- Start date
I've tried many many approaches... hack saw with and without water... dremel tool with and without water... a few others...
The only way I was able to get a nice celan cut was with a diamond bit blade on a miter saw... but it gummed up the blade so bad it made it very very cost inefficient... not to mention the time spent...
In hte end... I find it much cheaper and easier to just break them and use what I come up with... If I break it and get it close I can use pliers to chip away small areas...
But as for creating a "clean cut"... I've completely given up...
The only way I was able to get a nice celan cut was with a diamond bit blade on a miter saw... but it gummed up the blade so bad it made it very very cost inefficient... not to mention the time spent...
In hte end... I find it much cheaper and easier to just break them and use what I come up with... If I break it and get it close I can use pliers to chip away small areas...
But as for creating a "clean cut"... I've completely given up...
you can cut them with a wet diamond saw blade. They sell them for around 30 bucks. lol
or just take that 2 dollar pot and some pliers and try to make precision breaks for a door way.
or just take that 2 dollar pot and some pliers and try to make precision breaks for a door way.
ha! I was wondering if there was a good answer to this question . . . I've been following nc_nutcase's method for years . . . dang!
I had a barely used diameter diamond blade for my miter saw and decided to use it on a terra cotta pot... I used a squirt bottle to keep it moist (refilled it at least once)... placed the pot upside down on the miter table... and gave it a go...
It started out very impressive and then cracked the pot about 1/3 of the way through despite moving very very slowly...
I suspected the clay gummed up the diamonds to much...
I cleaned up the blade to give it another shot... I then realized the terra cotta pot appeared to put more wear on the diamond blade than cutting 20 linear feet of Hardi Board (basically concrete plywood).
The second attempt with the diamond blade also started out well... and I stopped to clean the blade several times... about 3/4 of the way through I decided the diamond surface was worn to nothing and progress was basically stopped. I stopped before breaking the second pot.
In the end I spent about 4 hours and a $40 blade making one terra cotta pot cut in half...
If I bought $40 worth of pots and used pliers for 4 hours I would expect to have about 10 that were close enough to the same thing...
It started out very impressive and then cracked the pot about 1/3 of the way through despite moving very very slowly...
I suspected the clay gummed up the diamonds to much...
I cleaned up the blade to give it another shot... I then realized the terra cotta pot appeared to put more wear on the diamond blade than cutting 20 linear feet of Hardi Board (basically concrete plywood).
The second attempt with the diamond blade also started out well... and I stopped to clean the blade several times... about 3/4 of the way through I decided the diamond surface was worn to nothing and progress was basically stopped. I stopped before breaking the second pot.
In the end I spent about 4 hours and a $40 blade making one terra cotta pot cut in half...
If I bought $40 worth of pots and used pliers for 4 hours I would expect to have about 10 that were close enough to the same thing...
I usually take a chisel at the right angle and hope for the best. I'll have to try the plier method next time.
i just randomly smash it wher i want the hole haha but most of the time i just lay them on there side
