A mate is re-wiring the back of his place and 'apparently' I'm gonna help him this weekend by chasing some of the wiring trunking slots with a 'cheap' (£99?) Erbauer twin disk slot cutter thingy he bought today
So I have my gloves, goggles and ear defenders ready and 'Henry' is ready for dust extraction duty. ;-)
Any hint's / tips re the use of the above please (and is it going to do 10 x 1.4m runs) before it burns out (if I'm gentle with it)?
All the best ..
T i m
p.s. What's the current practice for pinning then covering the trunking pre skimming the entire wall please .. screws, obo nails, gripfill, render, bonding etc..?)
You have no idea what fun you are going to have. You will need a very good mask for this, the dust you will produce will live in your memory forever :))
These things chuck out dust at a phenominal rate. You'll need goggles and dust mask. I suspect you'll have to empty the vacuum bag very frequently, since if it is fine enough to catch the dust, it will clog very quickly. Personally, I use a cyclone cleaner which is particularly good for this sort of dust (a Dyson works well, but it will sand-blast the inside of the dust container).
Set the blade spacing to match the width of the trunking. Draw a line down the wall and then cut to it by eye. You will snake around enough that this holds the oval trunking in place. If not, tap the odd masonary pin in where it sticks out. I did once nail a batten guide and cut a perfectly straight slot, then found the trunking falls stright out when you put it in place ;-)
If skimming the whole wall, when you've mixed the plaster, start by forcing it into the slots before applying to the rest of the wall, but there's no need to do this as a separate coat unless the slots are particularly deep (I usually set the tunking a few mm below the surrounding surface). Oh, and PVA the tunking (with the rest of the wall) so the plaster sticks to it.
If you have got a dust extractor on the Chaser that can be fixed to an old hoover then do it. it may well push the vacuum over the edge but the dust you'll save is worth every penny... Anyway you can always use it as an excuse to buy a new Dyson. ps read the insructions carefully. check the direction of cutting... usually you start at the top and drag down the wall. if you start the other end it will rip it out of your hands and boy do it hurt.. as you can tell i'm speaking from painful experience.... good luck for your "dirty weekend" Richard
The dust from your hair will block your shower. Well into the following week. He is not your mate.
It's the worst DIY job possible - working half-blind with a dangerous powertool, gagging on the dust. If I ever have to do it again I'll hire a wet cutter, or else an industrial-spec extractor fan to clear the room.
Oh no, gone are the days of a hammer and chisel. You could have had the £99 and just hacked the wall.! So long as you have gloves, goggles or safety glasses and a dust mark, you will be OK.
Funny enough I've just recently finished using the very same £99 Erbauer. It's a wonderful piece of kit once you get on top of the 'foibles' (sp). 10 x 1.4m is nothing for it, it will be fine.
1: On the underside, dust extractor part of the chaser, by your right hand to the rear of the discs is a metal web to stop big lumps of plaster heading into the hoover. This does get blocked with said same big lumps of plaster which cause Henry to overheat and cut out. Trust me, you do not want to be chasing without Henry running. What they say about dust is true. Before each chase, check, tap, clear the machine.
2: The 'dust hood' on the Erbauer is designed to work only when the whole machine is running flat on the wall. It is not at all efficient unless it is flat on the wall. Dont even try to run a gentle mark and then go back. Start at the top of the chase, aim to get the machine sunk flat onto the wall ASAP (which means dust goes up Henry) and then
*gently* work downwards.
3: The double disc thing does not like running forwards. Start away from you and pull it towards you, not the other way round. This pulls the machine onto the wall rather than kicking away from the wall.
4: If you try and rush it, the overload protection *will* kick in. The first few times this happens you think something is wrong and try squeezing the trigger harder .... it doesn't work. Just learn to let the machine take its time.
5: Wear a decent mask, goggles and ear defenders (I see you've mentioned that already!).
6: Even with Henry running, there is still some dust so just assume you won't be able to follow your centre line accurately. Mark a line about
34mm left of your chase centre (measure it on the machine but IIRC its about 34mm) and use this to guide you along the left side of the dust hood.
7: Since doing an awful lot of chasing with the machine, I've had to do a chase 'by hand' with an SDS and chisel. I'd rather stick to the Erbauer - but I wouldn't use it in an already decorated room.
8: Use masking tape to seal of doorways into the rest of the house.
Understand, the Erbauer is a messy machine but it is the dogs doojies if you're not too worried about dust, have got the hang of it, and have got a lot to do. I'd still rather use it than go without :-)
Report back, let us know how you get on! ... cough, cough, spit, spit, hewwey (sp) up lumps of plaster, etc etc :-)
Hi Guys, thanks for all the replies and sorry for the delay in getting back .. I can thank a touch of food poisioning for that ;-(
So, the wall chaser still sits in it's box and the job looks like it's posponed to next weekend (funny how he doesn't want to do it himself) ... ;-)
So, if I understand you all correctly there may be some dust right? ;-)
Luckily there are windows on two sides so I can open them and hope for a breezy day (and it is quite a big undecorected room).
It did cross my mind though why don't they (or I) make a complete shroud (with built in / sealed rubber gloves like a shot blasting cabinet) with the vac take-off that contains / removes all the dust?
A commercial solution would have a GRP / ally frame glazed with thin polycarbonate sides, fixed to the chaser via some swinging arms (allowing the cover to retain alignment with the machine) and lightly 'tensioned' down to the machine to takup the gap between unplunged to plunged height?
As a matter of interest, and hoping that someone's still keeping an eye on this thread, these things are designed for use in concrete block I believe? How do they cope with brick, stone, cast concrete?
My reply was based on using it on brick and internal render. It was one of those 'fifties' houses where the render was made out of what feels like titanium :-) You could easily melt a couple of masonry bits in a standard hammer drill on it.
To be honest I reckon the chaser would be less messy and easier to use in concrete block. That's just an opinion though!
Consider that the chaser is, after all, just a double angle grinder using diamond blades, with depth adjustment.
My house is exactly like that. And, in fixing about 100' of MDF skirting I did burn out 5 masonry bits! This render also laughs at Obo nails, which simply bend.
What the hell is it made of - I would actually believe titanium!
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