I suspect that I am about to have an awful lot of channels to cut in a house in preparation for some plumbing and cabling later on.
Whenever I have done this in the past I have generally used a hammer and chisel, or when I was feeling particularly frustrated an angle grinder (I shan't be doing that again).
So I am considering adding a wall chaser to my inadequate armoury of tools. I suspect that over the years it will get plenty of use.
So, my question is, are these as filthy as an angle grinder or can I expect beautifully neat channels and not a drop of dust to be seen anywhere?
Aldi have one on "special" for £44.99 (Started on Sunday 23rd July) this one has a port for a vacuum cleaner, so I expect this will reduce the mess quite a lot, but I doubt it will me able to suck it all up!
I can't post a link, as for some stupid reason, as soon as the weeks specials start, they are removed from the Aldi web site!
I'd be careful about using a vacuum cleaner. The instructions for our bagless model specifically warn not to use it for plaster dust. Presumably it clogs and ruins the filter?
That is certainly true of Dyson, useless for DIY cleaning, filters clog almost immediately with plaster and cement dust. As regards chasing I use an SDS with chisel, if I want a particularly "tidy" chase I drill a series of holes along the course of the chase before chiselling.
Not such a great idea to "neat" channels. They stand out like a sore thumb when replastered. I use a gouge in an SDS drill for chasing into walls. This makes a very neat job but leaves a slightly ragged edge which can be plastered invisibly.
See Screwfix parts 16724, 13029, 16606
Also:
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gouge third from left is very useful.
A rake is also very handy for this sort of work:
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is a comb with a TCT tip but I can't find a picture of one of those, I buy them at my local supplier. Combs are excellent for making a flat bottom to any channel and they also make short work of punching in the edges to the channel. If I had to use just one SDS chisel for chasing walls, this would be it.
I hired a Hilti industrial wall chaser and an equally macho dust extractor a few years ago. Despite the bag on the extractor becoming rapidly filled with grey dust (about the grade of fine flour), a thin film of dust was deposited on everything. Luckily I covered the things I hadn't/couldn't remove with polythene dust sheets first. If you get one of the Aldi jobs, also get a decent workshop vac and a stack of dust sheets.
The noise was quite incredible, and even with decent ear defenders I felt temporarily deafened. You must wear a mask and googles too.
I'd recommend a SDS as a more useful way to spend 50-100 on a new tool.
I went into an Aldo today and they had 15 of these chasers. The 18v two battery 1 to 1.5 charge drill at £19 takes some beating it is of good quality too. The chargers is quick and cuts off. Well made mouldings and very solid. 3 yr guarantee.
Exactly twice as filthy -- imagine using an angle grinder in each hand;-)
This is rubbish. A Dyson is the only domestic cleaner I've found which comes close to handling the dust output of a plaster chaser. I can get 3-4 cylinder fulls of fine plaster dust before the filter needs washing. (The post-motor filter has never needed changing.) This is a 6 year old DC04 which has been used for building work all its life (wasn't bought for it, but worked much better than one that was). If you are going to use a Dyson for this, get a spare filter so you can pop it when whilst the other one is drying out. However, beware of a couple of things:- the dust will sand-blast the inside of the clear dust cylinder, so it won't be clear anymore, and when emptying, note that a cylinder full of plaster dust weighs more than the handle on the cylinder is designed for (no I haven't broken it, but I suspect I came close on one occasion). Other than that, it works great.
A Henry worked for about 1 minute until it had got too clogged, which to be fair, is some 4 times longer than any other bagged vacuum cleaner. However, a Henry has significantly less suck than a Dyson, which means even for the short period it did work, there was still loads of dust spewing out from the sides of the chaser.
Wall Chasers make very tidy chases, although that's not necessarily a good thing. When making good afterwards, your eyes are very good at picking out any evidence of the straight edges which might show in the final decorations, whereas a rough edge will not be as noticable. If you are inserting oval trunking into the chase, cut freehand to a line -- the natural undulations in your freehand cut will grip the trunking until it's plastered in. I did once tack a piece of wood up the wall to act as a guide, and the oval trunking kept falling out of the perfectly straight chase;-)
The spark that did our recent part-rewire used a Bosch Blue one. 2 diamond cutting wheels at adjustable distances apart. Connected to the hoover made virtually no mess - the messy part was taking a bolster to the now cut channel and that falling out on the floor. Was quite impressed. AIUI - it wasn't cheap - but as he put it - same cutting wheels as when I got it 3 years ago - gets used several times a week - does the job - what more could I want.
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