Hey, guys!
In this video, we’re going to be taking a look at Montolit’s Minipiuma manual tile
cutter.
This is a great manual tile cutter for kitchen back splashes if you want to have the tile
cutter on the countertop.
It’s also awesome for small bathrooms that don’t have enough room for a wet saw or
a larger manual tile cutter.
The Minipiuma can cut through ceramic, porcelain, glass mosaic, and it’s very efficient.
So we’re going to do some test cuts and show you what the Minipiuma is all about.
As you can see, the Minipiuma can fit on a countertop that’s only about 25 3/8 of an
inch deep.
So the nice thing is you can just do your work right on the kitchen countertop, or you
can even do this over top of a vanity in a bathroom.
The great thing is, there are four—one, two, three, four—rubber pegs on the bottom,
so you’re not going to be scratching the countertop with this tool.
The Minipiuma is going to excel at subway tiles.
So it doesn’t really matter what size subway tile.
You can cut up to 14 inches long for a straight cut, and 10 x 10 for a diagonal cut.
So this is a 4 x 12 subway tile.
This is a bullnose.
We’re going to make some cuts on this and show you how accurate the Minipiuma is.
And if you’re cutting, for example, 6 x 6s down for let’s say a shower curb, it’ll
definitely be able to handle that too.
And also glass mosaics.
The lighting is actually better outside today in Pittsburgh, so we’re going to take the
Minipiuma out there and make some cuts.
As you can see, this is a protractor on the Minipiuma, and you can adjust this to pretty
much any angle that you want up to 60°.
On the left-hand side, you can see they have it labeled 15°, 30°, 45°, and 60°.
On the right-hand side, it goes 15°, 30°, and 45°.
So it’s really nice to have this protractor for accurate cuts.
One thing that you should know is that all the increments on the protractor are in the
metric system.
So just be aware of that.
There is a specific way that you want to cut tile with the Minipiuma.
You want your tile to be nice and flush with the protractor.
And you want to hold the tile at the top with your non-cutting hand.
You want the additional cutting system—this blue peg here—to be in the “up” position
and gauge the titanium blade onto the surface of the tile and score it.
When you get close to the top of the tile, you move your hand—your non-cutting hand—to
the bottom of the tile and complete the score.
Make sure the additional breaking system is in the “down” position.
Grasp this metal part and the handle with your cutting hand, and then make a downward
movement with your non-cutting hand to break the tile.
And there you go.
That’s how you cut a tile with the Minipiuma.
Those are the basics of it.
So we’ll do that again.
You want the additional cutting system to be in the “up” position.
Hold the top of the tile with your non-cutting hand.
Engage the cutting wheel.
Score.
Move your hand to the back of the tile.
Complete the score.
Break the tile, or split the tile.
So as you can see, the Minipiuma is very efficient, and it makes really great cuts.
Now obviously, the quality of the cut will depend on the tile and how well you score
it.
Now, let’s say you want to make a 45° cut in the tile.
It’s not a problem.
So there’s a lot of versatility because of the protractor here.
What about bullnose?
How small of a cut can you make on a bullnose?
You can make about a 1 cm cut with this particular manual tile cutter.
It might be a little but hard to see, but this cut is about 5/8 of an inch.
The stop on the protractor allows you to make quick, repeated cuts of the same dimension.
So as you can see here, we have our 4 x 12 subway tile.
You can just have the subway tile stop there and keep making the same cut over and over.
So it’s a really nice functionality to speed up your project.
And if you’re wondering about the quality of the cut, this is a standard 4 x 12 from
a local home store.
So it’s not the highest quality tile, but the Minipiuma did a great job.
So in order to cut glass mosaic, you need one additional thing with the Minipiuma, and
that is this rubber mat.
This is called the Mosakit rubber mat, and you need to put this down over top of the
base plate of the Minipiuma.
Same thing goes for the Masterpiuma.
There’s a notch in the center of the Mosakit mat.
That fits over top of the ridge on the center of the Minipiuma.
So it’s really simple.
You just want to put this mat in that ridge.
What the mat does is protect the white paint on the back of any glass tiles so that the
paint doesn’t chip.
Because if the paint chips on the back of a glass tile, it’s not going to look so
pretty, and it’s going to be hard to fix.
So we’re going to go ahead and show you how easy it is to cut this glass mosaic with
the Minipiuma.
You want the additional cutting system in the “down” position, and you simply want
to crack or split each tile.
So there you go.
You can see how it makes a really nice cut.
You just have to score these glass tiles very carefully.
In the back, the paint is not chipped as well, and that’s really important for these glass
tiles.
Another really cool thing about the Minipiuma is it comes with a case.
So all you need to do is fold up the protractor—well, move the handle back first—fold the protractor,
and this fits really nicely into the case.
The case also has an additional storage space.
So if you want to put any kind of additional tile cutting accessories in here, you can.
Really easy to take on the go.
So here’s the question: How much is the Minipiuma?
It’s about $295-$300 online.
No doubt it’s an investment.
But well worth it if you’re putting a back splashes or subway tile showers.
It’s going to help you save a lot of time, and it’ll make really great, clean cuts.
So, thanks for watching this video.
Make sure you hit that subscribe button, and we’ll see you in the next tutorial.
Take care!