ATM (More!) tile tool questions

[GregJ888@aol.com]

 Brian, Many of us have made mirrors with glazed tiles, just put them on
glazed side up, you will cut through it real fast once the tool is contact.
As others have mentioned, it is a good indicator of contact.

The easiest tiles to use come in a backing with spacing for grout.  That
spacing is fine.  For the 1" tiles I've been using, about 1/8-1/4" would be
fine.  

With the (kind of) standard 1" white bathroom tiles I've done several 6" f/4s,
but the tile gets real thin.  I've also done a few mirrors and tend to move
from grit to grit pretty fast.  The first mirror I did I really worked each
step, and ground a lot of extra glass.  6" f/6 or slower should be ok, 8: f/6
may be a little iffy but should work.  If you decide on an 8" (f/6 of faster)
you may want to pre-generate the curve, dumbbell weight, Iron pipe cap et. al.
You can also order the blank with the curve in it.

As a side note, I prefer the glass tools to work with.  On smaller mirrors I
use both depending on the mirror and what is available.  The only large mirror
I've done in a 20" and that was purchased with a generated curve, then used a
tile tool.