ALDI Wall chaser

[Tim S]

Shamelessly lifted from the IET web forum:

the ad date, just got one from Bexhill, East Sussex for 39.95. Quite a few (>10) left in the pile.

Generally as you'd expect for a chinese jobbie (it's NOT a Makita/Bosch/etc). But despite that, it does seem fairly solid. Comes with

2 spare diamond discs and the spindle assembly looks robust. 3 chasing widths (spanner and a fair bit of fiddling to change) and knob adjustable depth. Cutsy cheap laser too.

Haven't run it in anger but I did spin it up and it's about as noisy as you'd expect, but seems stable.

With the caveat I haven't tested it on a wall yet, I reckon that for a single job like mine it's worth it even it it died afterwards (though it claims a 3 year warranty) - still cheaper than hiring. Probably survive longer than that.

Cheers

Tim

Got an 11w semi-rugged fluorescent inspection lamp with a surprisingly long mains lead for 3.99 too. I am now an ALDI convert :)

[George]

Aldi tools are not made in China otherwise you wouldnt be looking at a 3 year guarentee.

You'll get more out of it than 12 months,my Aldi Biscuit jointer is regulary used weekly and is now 18 months old and still puffing away. :-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I picked up one of those too some weeks back. Not used it in anger yet. Did have to put it in the garage though, due to its extremely potent smell of rubber, although that seems to have dropped somewhat since.

[Tim S]

George coughed up some electrons that declared:

Really? OK, I *was* judging by the batteries which were made in Shanghai... Didn't actually notice a "made in" on the case or box, must have another look.

All good news. Wonder how they do it... The 4 discs alone would be 12+ quid even for cheapies.

Now all I need to make John Rumm's hoover dust bin and I'm good to go.

Cheers

Tim

[Owain]

I thought about getting some of them to go on top of the kitchen units for indirect lighting.

Owain

[George]

Shanghai...

I' talking about the machine not the laser batteries. :-P

[George]

Shanghai...

[Tim S]

George coughed up some electrons that declared:

Experience suggests that a set of "Golden Power" or similar batteries in the box means the rest of the unit was quite likely put together in China.

Not always true I know... Just a hunch. Not that important though. I just meant it didn't look bad for something that wasn't an industrially known "real-man's" brand

:)

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

George coughed up some electrons that declared:

Had to say, this made me laugh:

joker trying to sell the same thing for 60 quid + 15 PP. I suppose it's a "service" if you're a 100 miles from an ALDI...

:)

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

Owain coughed up some electrons that declared:

Not a bad idea. Standard two pin folded tube and there's an O-ring under the end cap plus the switch is under a membrane so it should be pretty greaseproof.

[Tim S]

George coughed up some electrons that declared:

This is it:

*am* surprised. Reasonable quality from Austria for tiny amounts of money...

[George]

Well before I first bought a couple of Aldi's tools I did look up were they where made,had I found they were made in china I would have left alone. :-)

[John Rumm]

Yup, even that only just copes - the rate of fine dust production from a chaser tends to overwhelm most collectors. It will be interesting to see how yours is for dust since it looks like it is based on circular saw technology rather than angle grinder. The rotation speed is under half that typical of many, so you may find you get coarser dust that is easier to collect.

For anyone interested:

smaller tighter cyclone might be better for wallchaser pre-filtering

- I built that more with woodwork in mind)

[Tim S]

John Rumm coughed up some electrons that declared:

Good thing is yours is known to work with a VAX, which I also have as my "dirty hoover", so I know it's going to work :)

The "bin" is going to get used to hoover up mouse crap and glass wool too plus all sorts of other sundries. I'd better buy a spare cone filter for the VAX (Been washed many times already, think it's getting a bit knackered...).

Cheers

Tim

[zaax]

See the cloud of dust coming from the back of the machine.

[Dave Liquorice]

I think you'll need it big time. Think of the amount of wall that is turned to dust and flung into the air a blown about by the motors cooling air...

Personally a channel chasing chisel in an SDS is a better option and does the job in basically one pass. After you cut the two slots you still have to cut the middle out.

[John Rumm]

I have used it with other domestic cleaners on the sucking side as well

- but the more airflow the better.

I tend to stick bags in mine for use with the cyclone... they last well since they don't get used much.

[John Rumm]

The chaser is very much quicker IME though. Much less noise as well. The centre bit can usually be popped out in lengths just by slipping a bolster into the slots and levering to the side.

[Tim S]

Dave Liquorice coughed up some electrons that declared:

Yep, used to angle grinders. This can only be worse...

I'll get a good mask too, as my project plan (yes, I have a plan, most of the numbers are guesstimated bollocks, but you have to start somewhere...) suggests 6 solid days of chasing and backbox sinking. I'll get it done in one hit, then lay in oval conduit and backboxes. Actual wiring will be done in stages later, as it's a clean job then.

Plan currently says Phase 1, 60% habitable by next August.

Good job I have an empty house. This would be practically impossible whilst living there. But I do need to quickly commission a temporary kids room (cheap bit of carpet, cheap LCD tv and some toys, so they have somewhere to rest after school/nursery while I do non toxic and non dusty things... Gotta get all the really filthy work over and done at the start on the project.

Cheers

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm willing to bet they are. Ignore where it says they are made - this is just a technical point about where the most value is added or somesuch which allows them to say Germany.

But it makes no difference anyway. China is perfectly capable of making superb power tools. It all depends on what the 'brand' is willing to pay. And the likes of Lidl and Aldi work to a much lower markup than say a B&D sold from a shed. So the end user is getting a better product like for like, cost wise. I've got a few basic Lidl power tools and quite a lot of their hand tools and they're all of satisfactory quality.