sinking plug sockets into walls...

[Thomarse]

Hi,

I have some plug sockets in my bedroom which are the external box type, just screwed to the wall. I am currently decorating the room and want to get these sunk into the walls so they are a little neater.

I have done this before, with a hammer and chisel, but the results werent great as the back edge of the hole i created wasnt very flat and so was hard to drill into and screw the metal insert to.

I know you can buy guides from B&Q etc that you place on the wall and drill a series of holes which you then knock out, but I wonder if anyone has any experience of using these and whether they are any good? Is there another method I could use to get this job done?

They are solid, brick walls, not plasterboard partitions.

Thanks

Tom

[John Rumm]

Amazing what you can fix with a bag of bonding plaster! ;-)

Yup, tried one, but never use it... by the time you have screwed it to the wall you have probably wasted more time than you save.

The way I use is to offer the box to the wall, and draw round it.

Stick a 20mm chisel bit in the SDS and mark the box depth on it. Then run round the perimeter line sinking the chisel to the depth mark.

Swap to a 40mm chisel, start about a third of the way in from the left and chisel in and toward the left until you have the left hand end sunk to the right depth. Repeat for the other end, and then you can take out the centre bit and level up the back. If your SDS has a decent speed controller then it is easy enough to plane down the back of the cut out.

With practice you can do a box in under five mins.

[TMC]

When I did these by hand I marked around the box used a 40mm 'electricians' chisel to cut the outside to depth or at least through the plaster. Then used a scutch chisel to cut out the brick. The teeth on the chisel allowed much better control and less chance of cracking the brick. 2lb lump hammer for both chisels.

And then there was SDS

Tony

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just bash the hole out as best you can and make good afterwards. It's (nearly) impossible to make a perfect hole, so if you have to make good anyway it's not worth the bother trying. As regards fixing to an irregular hole whack in some one coat plaster and then the box - supporting if needed until it goes off.

[Sam Farrell]

You could hire a box cutter with an SDS drill and do a proper professional , and quicker job. Have a look at

to see the sort of tool I mean.

You cut it out with the large round attachment then square it off with the box. For two gang you cut two holes and use a two gang box cutter to square it off.

Sam Farrell.

[Thomarse]

at

see the

messagenews: [e-mail]...

Thanks guys, all sound advice,

I think in teh interests of keeping costs down, as it isnt something i will be doing alot of in the future (I hope) I will just take a happy medium by drawing around the box and drilling the edge with my drill then drill the middle out in rows and chisel carefully from there...

I must admit last time in my ignorance and excitement I just started knocking the wall with my bulky chisel... so If I managed to make that good in the end (just) I think the hole drilling approach will be more than adequate for me.

I do agree though, the template from B&Q that i mentioned in my original post is a waste of time when I think about it, I can do the same job without it.

Cheers again

Tom

[Ben Blaukopf]

I've been using one of thee (on loan from a friend for the last 18 months!) and it's great. BUT the main bulk of the whole is drilling out, not chiseled out, and consequently it chucks dust everywhere.

Ben

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are a bit coy about the bricks it will work on without damage to it as it's a fairly expensive item. Have you used one and found it a great boon over an SDS and chisel?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thomarse laid this down on his screen :

Don't be afraid to make the hole a little oversize - there is nothing worse than the box being a perfect fit, with no room to get the plaster down the sides because the gap is too narrow.

[Lurch]

On Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:58:33 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" mused:

I've got one and had all the boxes in a kitchen and dining room done in a couple of hours, including measuring\marking out etc... The bricks were mediumly hard. On hard bricks a combination of the box cutter and a decent SDS chisel works, albeit a little slower.

[Steven Campbell]

Not sure what the proper way is but I try to do the opposite and make it a perfect fit. I make the hole as tight as possible, that way I don't need to plaster round the box as the socket overhangs the box.

Steven.

[Brian Sharrock]

I've used one ( the single 'box' size). I gave it up as a waste of time , because the sheer amount of brick-dust that the rotating disc grinds off was ... disturbing. :)

I've found that the techniques of SDS+chisel to outline the aperture then a combination of the cranked 'channelling chisel ;' together with straight chisel is faster and less messy. {BTW, I use tan envelope stuck to the wall plus plastics sheeting laid under the cut-out seems to cope with most of the debris.

I use the cranked channelling chisel to 'get behind' the skirting board, anyway

[Lurch]

On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:58:16 +0100, "Steven Campbell" mused:

I'd start off aiming for a tight fit, if it goes wrong I'd loosen off a bit more for a better key for the filler\plaster\whatever.

[John Stumbles]

Toolstation do a brick removing SDS chisel with a flat end with V-shaped teeth. You can use that a bit like a scutch hammer for sculpting masonry without skating all over it or digging into it as you do with a normal chisel.

[Andy Dingley]

They were great for use with hammer drills.

These days, with SDS drills, there's no need. Make yourself a crude stencil just for marking out (or use a wall box) and then just chisel freehand to the line. With the vastly improved chiselling power of SDS, you can freehand it through anything up to concrete with hard aggregate.

You will of course have an SDS drill with a rotation stop, and a suitable set of chisels, including a plaster-chasing spoon. Foolish not to.

The back can be rough as anything, just focus on getting the sides fairly neat.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The circular cutter does about 25 holes into bricks (commons) and then very suddenly goes blunt. So that's about £2 per hole. If you've got a lot to do in a short time, that can be well worth it. The squaring off cutters are completely useless and just get jammed in a solid brick wall. A chisel bit for squaring off works just fine.

[Steve Firth]

In soft brickwork I use an SDS claw chisel to sink a box, because it makes it easy to create vertical sides and a flat base to the box.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Andrew Gabriel wrote: |! |!> The circular cutter does about 25 holes into bricks (commons) |!> and then very suddenly goes blunt. So that's about ?2 per hole. |!> If you've got a lot to do in a short time, that can be well |!> worth it. The squaring off cutters are completely useless and |!> just get jammed in a solid brick wall. A chisel bit for squaring |!> off works just fine. |! |!In soft brickwork I use an SDS claw chisel to sink a box, because it |!makes it easy to create vertical sides and a flat base to the box.

Do you have a URL for "SDS claw chisel" Google failed me this time :-(

[Steve Firth]

No, I go to the local tool shop to buy them. They are rectangular bars with several small pyramid shaped teeth on the cutting face, the same as the claw chisels used by masons to dress stone.

[Mick6]

Fourth item down (Square hole cutter):

be interested to hear from anyone else who's used this. I've always resisted the circular cutter type as I guessed it would produce oodles of dust - which others have just confirmed.