socket boxes in walls

[chris French]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

We had moved on over here in the thread to talk about fixing UPVC window trims.... :-)

[Graeme]

Sorry, my fault. I should've started a new thread.

[Owain]

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote | > Like the professionals who installed all my socket and switch | > pattresses using floorboard nails (honestly) ?

I think I've done that. If they're held firmly, what's the problem?

| In a Barrett show house I did some work on later, the boxes were | all nailed in place with clouts. The central heating programmer | in flex - extended from the original position with chocolate | blocks as connectors behind the plasterboard. All ground floor | sockets spurs off the one and only ring which was upstairs. One | of these kitchen spurs had three doubles on it. | Most of the boxes were 1" types, and mounted so far behind the | dry lining there was a gap between the top of them and the back | of the plasterboard, and longer screws needed. Not a grommet in | sight, and no earth sleeving.

I presume Barratt did use a NICEIC registered contractor? :-)

Owain

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I dunno. I'd guess the bodges in the kitchen were done by a 'handyman' as it was the show house. The boiler was boxed in and tiled round so you couldn't remove the cover for servicing...

[John Armstrong]

Just make sure the box doesn't slip down a bit while the plaster is still wet if you want it to line up with other switches/sockets. Guess who had to hack one of his kitchen socket back boxes out again because it didn't line up.

[Ric]

Just looking at the Bosch PBH 2200 RE - this says nothing about rotary stop but has a feature called "Vario Lock" - can anyone confirm if this is the same thing?

[John Rumm]

That would be the green bosch for 80 quid at Argos then?

According to the catalogue it does have "chisel mode" - which is the same thing as roto stop. I can't tell if you can lock the chisel bit in one position or not though.

(You get three classes of tool in this respect, no lock at all - often the budget makes - hence the chisel bit is free to rotate at will. Fixed position lock - i.e. the chisel will not rotate but you are stuck with either one (or on the better tools) a number of fixed postions. And a variable lock, where you can set the exact rotation of the chisel and then lock it in that position).

[Lurch]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 22:52:34 +0100, Richard Savage strung together this:

When you say pattresses I assume you mean the metal boxes in the wall. Nothing wrong with nailing 'em in, you can get expensive cartridge fixing systems that do that now.

[Lurch]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 11:11:20 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" strung together this:

Ah, well, in a show house anything goes as long as looks pretty.

[David]

Yeah, the variable angle poistion lock is what is available with the Bosch SDS that I have, that was puchased from Argos last year. I imagine that it is the same model, although I don't have the details here.

cheers

David

[Ric]

Cheers for that - would you recommend it?

[usenet]

My Stayer that, when I bought it, was a cheap SDS has all possible options I think:- Rotary only Rotary + hammer Hammer only with shaft free to rotate Hammer only with shaft fixed at any angle you fancy.

It also has a safety clutch which I only discovered recently when using it to do something where the bit stuck (can't remember exactly what), the noise of the clutch made me jump a bit.

I'm very impressed with my Stayer, it seems to be maintenance free (no greasing recommended in the manual) and has done everything I've asked of it over the past couple of years.

[David]

It is the only SDS that I've used so I've nothing to directly compare it against other than my old hammer drill, which is no comparison at all. I have been very happy with its preformance so far and have no complaints

It has done a lot of work in chisel mode, removing floor tiles that were cemented down, removing some bathroom tiles, channelling up the wall for shower supply pies to sit in, etc. It has even been used for a bit of drilling on occasion :-) ,going through brick and concrete no problem, if it is the same version it has a electronic speed control which was useful when drilling some tiles and I wanted to keep the speed low.

cheers

David

[Ric]

That's good enough for me! Think I will get one - thanks again for the help.

Ric.

[hudsterou]

You did screw the box to the wall when you put it in the hole, didn't you? Or at least no-more-nails it....

[hudsterou]

Works really well for castrations, vasectomies, circumcisions.. etc. etc.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Probably same would have happened to my friend, except in that case the drill swung round and hit something solid, so it would up the SDS bit instead;-)