RE: OT: DIY advice

["Steven Dickson" <sdickson@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [ukha_d] OT: DIY advice

Guys,

bought the box sinking tool from screwfix at the weekend, I've used it to chase the wall for
about a dozen sockets so far.  It's OK....  Wouldn't say it's absolutely brilliant, the 3 minute claim is a bit on the enthusiastic side, but maybe it was just the block my house is built with, ^&*!"£% hard stuff. 

It could be used without a rotary stop drill if you don't have too much to do - the mandrel spins on the square 'chisel' as a safety feature.

You'll need a powerful drill to use it, and a good grip of the thing whilst using the large circular cutter - this is the slow and dusty bit.  The square 'chisel' isn't bad, makes a good clean cut and doesn't damage sound plaster too much, in fact by the time you have the faceplate screwed on you wouldn't need much finishing other than where you've tracked the wall for the conduit.

The only problems I've discovered so far are: when drilling the pilot hole you may be unfortunate enough to hit a soft void, joint in the blockwork - not a problem until using the round cutter and then with the torque involved runs off a bit and you end up with an oval oversized hole. Secondly, the pilot hole can be used as the securing hole to fix the back box - but only if you have a good selection of rawl plugs and perhaps some gripfill, as it also tends to end up elongated at times.

I've got a similar version of the conduit 'chisel' tool as well, IMO it's quicker to mark up the wall, rough track it with an ordinary flat sds chisel, and use this to finish it.  It's too slow otherwise.

I'd agree with James about the angle grinder option, but only if the room is totally empty of anything 'nice', and extremely well sealed with tape around any door, vent, hole leading into the rest of the house.  Simply closing the door isn't good enough - SWMBO will kill you otherwise.

If you've got a lot of tracking to do, hire the proper diamond tipped chaser, and an industrial vacuum cleaner to sit outside, costs about £35 a day from HSS, and includes wear to the blades - much quicker and cleaner, but still use dust sheets.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: James Hoye [mailto:james.hoye@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 20 November 2001 10:14
To: ukha_d
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] OT: DIY advice

> Anyhow does anyone have any advice on the best way to chisel out chasings
> for cables in the wall - I have quite a lot to do - unfortunately
> we have a
> concrete floor

>
> I was wondering if an angle grinder or SDS chisel drill was the way to go
> with these. - rather than a chisel and hammer!

If you don't mind clearing up VAST quantities of dust, then an angle grinder
will be the quickest.  Just cut two parallel grooves, and use a bolster (or
SDS+ drill and chisel) to remove the bit in the middle.

Otherwise, you could try drilling lots of holes along either side of the
channel and remove the middle bit as before - this will take longer though.

There are some SDS+ attachments that were mentioned on this list a week or
so ago for chasing walls.  Look at http://www.screwfix.com/ and find
catalogue nos. 6724, 6606 and 5097.  Someone bought one and I think
recommended it.  I've just got a DeWalt SDS+ drill with rotary stop that's
sitting in the corner of the office, so I can't (yet) comment.  Roll on the
weekend :)

http://www.home-automation.info/converting_single.htm and
http://www.home-automation.info/new_socket.htm give some information you
might find useful.

James H

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