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Finally tried the painter's tape trick for drilling precise holes in tile
Put a piece of tape over the spot, marked it with a sharpie, and the drill bit didn't wander at all - saved me from cracking a $12 subway tile on my backsplash project.
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river9521mo ago
Did you do anything to rough up the tape first? lol I tried this once and the sharpie just beaded up on the slick surface, made a mess of my mark. Ended up wiping it off and using a little piece of sandpaper to scuff the tape before drawing on it. Worked way better since the marker actually stuck to the tape instead of sliding around. Also found that pressing the tape down super hard around the edges kept water from seeping under it while I was drilling.
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samflores1mo ago
That "beading up" thing happened to me too. I switched to using a fine tip paint marker instead of a sharpie, way better grip on the tape. Also learned the hard way that cheap blue painters tape is garbage for this, the 3M green stuff holds up way better under water. You ever try the paint marker trick?
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Made a mess of my mark" - that's putting it mildly, I ended up with a blob that looked like a Rorschach test on my tile. I get the sandpaper trick though, kinda like prepping drywall before you paint it. I just ended up using the cheap stuff anyway and pressing down hard while I worked, which was a disaster waiting to happen. The water seeping underneath is exactly what got me - the tape lifted right up and I was chasing the drill bit around the tile like it was a game of whack-a-mole. You two have clearly given this more thought than I did, but I'm stubborn and still think a good sharpie should work if you hold your mouth right.
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