tacking cable to brickwork

[tg]

I'd appreciate advice/experiences of a good tool for tacking cable to an external brick wall, typically round cable between 0.25 and 0.5 inches, such as network or coax cable. The staples would have to be round crown to go neatly around the cable. Something cordless would be good. I have a couple of arrow cable tackers but these are meant for internal stapling into wood such as skirting boards etc. I appreciate a cordless tool might get expensive. I've tried ringing some tool places but I'm tired of speaking to housewives that have never even picked up a screwdriver, and trying to hammer in nail based cable clips is frustrating, they just bend and fall away. Thanks for any advice.

[John Rumm]

That sounds rather large for network or coax...

First thing would be to go to an electrical wholesaler and get some decent cable clips with masonry nails - the difference is substantial on hard surfaces.

Another option is "pin plugs" (Tower make them). these are small 5mm diameter wall plugs designed to be nailed into. Drill a small hole, and pop it in, then nail as normal.

If you really want a nail gun type fixing, then I expect you would need to look at commercial cable trunking type fixings which can be nailed on with a cartridge nailer (Hilti etc). Often used for supporting and fixing cable tray supports in concrete buildings.

[Steve Firth]

Like a hammer?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You can get small wall plugs designed to take the nail in a standard cable clip. Obviously a lot more work than simply hammering them in, but maybe less than other methods. Last time I looked B&Q had them - but along with the cable clips rather than wall plugs.

[Tim Streater]

We've been busy *removing* all our external cable as it was shittily mounted and where they wanted to cable to enter the house in some cases they'd managed to spall the brick in question.

All I can say is don't drill into the bricks, go into the mortar.

[Adam Funk]

That's the only kind of hammer I have. :-(

[stuart noble]

I use 25mm x size 4 screws and the small yellow plugs. I have to enlarge the hole through the cable clip very slightly. I suppose if I had a lot to do I might search out the proper bits, but this gives a neat enough job

[Andrew Mawson]

... ah he must be using 10base5: The bright yellow sheath will look very tasteful round the outside of the house :)

I still have some vampire taps and the tool for installing them somewhere

AWEM

[Steve Firth]

[Tim Streater]

Ah yes the tool for making holes in the cable for the taps, without shorting the shielding. I never quite got the hang of that back in '83.

[yendor]

I use tie plugs, a 6mm hole and hammer these in. you then put a tie wrap through it and round cables. You can cut the tie wraps and add more cables to the bunch as needed. May be overkill for a single cable.

Or a Hilti shot fire gun, you get different fixings depending what you want to wall. This also may be overkill for light brick work.

A hammer and decent cable clips work fine for me most of the time, and are quick and cheap.

[Bill Wright]

Is the mortar strong enough to take clips? If so, just use good quality clips.

Don't bash hard with the hammer. A large number of lighter taps works far better. The nail point had to break the mortar, bit by bit. Use a small hammer. 8oz is about right.

Bill

[Adam Funk]

Thanks for that cautionary tale: I'll stick to the non-electric hammer. (Homer's is cordless!)

I'll refrain from comment on the armchair.

[Rick Hughes]

There used to be a manual tool for fitting clip to wall, steel tube about 3/4" diam, with an inners sliding rod. ... you placed it over the ckip, nails went inside a barrel, you hit 'tother end of barrel wit 'ammer and nails went in fine.

Prevented the usual problem of pins flying off at an angle when you tried top hit then into brick. Bit like an industrial strength 'pin push' you use for panel pins.