Tool for digging grooves in walls

[Robert Irwin]

thanks for the £150 wall chaser link - I'd somehow managed to miss that last time I was on screwfix. I can just about justify it as the place is covered in surface nmounted wiring and pipework - not to mention all the cat5 computer network cables I want to put in, phone lines etc etc Only downside is that I'd kinda been considering the SDS drill with roto stop to use the chisel on some old floor tiles. Decisions, decisions...

The drill attachment looks a bit lightweight for some of the brickwork I need to go through - and my drill isn't that heavy duty so I reckon it would knacker it.

Once again - thanks!

Robert

[Andrew Mawson]

Robert,

Screwfix are doing a really cheap 5Kg blow SDS drill with roto-stop for only £29.99 - I am very impressed with it for the price. I have two professional Hilti sds drills but they aren't rotostop and this fills the gap. Amazingly it carries a 3 year guarantee - £10 per annum cannot be bad !!!!

Part no is 94802

Andrew Mawson

[PoP]

If you do buy that wall chaser would you mind reporting back here on what your experience of using it was? I haven't seen any reports on these forums about wall chasers and I'm looking for ideas for my birthday pressie list ;)

PoP

Replying to the email address given by my news reader will result in your own email address being instantly added to my anti-spam database! If you really want to contact me try changing the prefix in the given email address to my newsgroup posting name.....

[Steve]

Be careful with the SDS method on interior walls, especially if the walls are lightweight block. By the time you have loaded the chisel tip and pressed the trigger you can be a LOT deeper than you intended.

Steve

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've hired both a small one (Bosch) and a large one (don't recall what make). Both cut really quickly and easily. The large one was quite the most terrifying tool I've ever used. Also, it's size meant it couldn't get as near to corners. The larger one generated brick dust at about 10 times the speed any domestic vacuum could suck it up. They did have a cyclone vacuum cleaner to go with it (looked like a 4' tall dustbin), but I didn't hire that. A Dyson could cope with the dust from the Bosch, but you'll need to wash the filter every few times you empty out the brick dust. Bagged cleaners won't work with the volume of fine brick dust.

Some rental rates depend on wear on the cutting discs, so depending what you are cutting through, you might want to check that out.

[Robert Irwin]

Cheapskated in the end and hired an angle grinder - the hire rate on the wall chaser was £50 a day and a dust extractor big enough to cope was another £30 a day. Apart from that I'm working in the hope that work will buy me one when someone with a budget whinges about messy trunking for their network cabling. The amount of dust off the angle grinder is horrific enough anyway, especially as I gave up using the face mask since it always seemed to cause my goggles to steam up in seconds.... I've also got one of the £30 SDS drills and a chisel set on order from screwfix which will hopefully sort out the corners and wall sockets.

Robert

[Martin Angove]

And so long as you stay within the allowed "zones" or bury the cable more than 50mm (you're not going to do that in a normal wall with a channelling chisel) you don't need protection for the cable(s) at all. Off the top of my head, the allowed zones are within 150mm of a corner (wall/wall or wall/ceiling, NOT wall/floor) and vertically or horizontally directly out of one of those zones to an accessory (switch or socket).

Not entirely safe - assumes people won't put shelf brackets or picture hooks up within 150mm of a corner for example - but withing regs nevertheless.

On the subject of SDS channelling chisels, my £24 one from Screwfix just broke (snapped off in the chuck). It's only had a couple of hours' use, mainly in plaster but occasionally hitting a stone or a brick. Grrr... time to get on the phone I think.

Hwyl!

M.

[John Stumbles]

Mine did that too.

-- John Stumbles

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-+ The most dangerous component in a car is the nut that holds the steering wheel

[David Moodie]

snip

Just as I was about to buy one from Screwfix as well, thanks for the info. Now that I've had a wee look around I see that I can get what appears to be the same thing from Buck and Hickman/Farnell. Unfortunately no pic of the "chasing gouge" at £24.91, but the 75mm spade chisel that I'm really after comes in at a £20 (plus VAT), compared to £30 from Screwfix.

cheers

David

[Tony Bryer]

Wheelhouse in Hounslow provided me with a set of four SDS chisels (cutting, wedge, chasing and point) at £7.95 with 20% off marked price in the sale. They've survived better than the Homebase SDS drill :(

[The Natural Philosopher]

Surely there is one present on this group.

IMM!

He is a tool and he may have sufficient aptitude to dig a groove in a wall.