How to Make Holes in Ceramic Tile

RON HAZELTON:
Here’s my friend Armem Tavy with another tip for tiling.
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ARMEN TAVY:
Hi, I’m Armen Tavy and I’m going to show you several different ways to make a hole in a piece of ceramic tile. 

RON HAZELTON:
Armen first draws the hole at the desired location then extends lines from the rim of the circle to the edge. 

Next he carries these lines around to the back of the tile where he reproduces them. 

Inside the rectangle formed by the intersecting lines, he draws the same circle on the back of the tile. 

Using a hand-held grinder fitted with a diamond blade, he carefully cuts out the rectangle, the blade just barely perforates the tile face.

Then, he flips the tile face up and using a [?..] hammer gently taps on the cut area until the waste material falls out.

Another way to create a hole in ceramic tile is by using a carbide hole saw made just for this purpose.  Depending on the thickness and hardness of the tile, this can be a bit slow going but patience will usually pay off.
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