Wall chasers worth it or not?

[Tricky Dicky]

I have been busy chasing walls for cables with quite a bit still to do. With my right arm beginning to feel it bashing away at a bolster with a lump hammer so was thinking of easing the job somewhat with a chaser incidently Aldi have one available @ £79.99.

My big concern is the dust thrown up which is my experience with other power grinders etc. I note the chaser has a port to attach an extractor, how effective are these? The Aldi tool is probably at the lower end of the quality spectrum but as this partial rewire is probably the last time I will be doing this I only need it to last this job only.

Any recommendations welcome.

Richard

[George Miles]

I bought an aldi one with 2 disks but never use it. Today I'm using an angle grinder (some chases are wider than others) but as you say it creates tons of dust and sets off the fire alarms.

Maybe there's an anglegrinder with superior dust extraction which could be used for far more jobs?

[g]

[Pancho]

I used a wrox sonicrafter mutli tool with an old blade and a chisel, this was pretty easy.

The wrox sonicraft is just about the best diy tool I have ever bought, I hadn't realised what multitools were.

[Pancho]

Worx not Wrox, but is the idea not the brand.

[tabbypurr]

make your own cowl, then it'll extract as well as a chaser.

don't do that :) It's not the 1970s.

Good luck with that. I've given up on aldi power tools. The latest (multimeter) died after a few months. Before that the 2nd fix nailer died part way through its first job. Before that the angle grinder had a nut seizure, it was a cold day in hell before that was gonna let me fit a new disk. Before that the bench grinder turned out to be garbage grade, overheating after 5 mins, having a grinding disc made of something a bit like concrete, and bits that got in the way of doing Actual Work. Before that the belt sander kept burning the belt as one of the bearings was getting burning hot. Before that.... I'm done with their garbage.

anything but aldi, red devil & similar junk. Silverline is the tool lottery: you might win, you might lose. Either get your junk brands cheap eg from car boot sales or get something decent enough to do the job.

NT

[John Rumm]

I have the Sparky 125mm one[2], so can't comment on the Aldi version. However in general:

Yes, very worth it, although you will still need an SDS drill with a chisel[1] for some bits you can't get at with the chaser.

On my chaser the dust collection is actually *very* effective - very little escapes the shroud. However you *must* have decent extraction connected to the end of it. Many domestic vacuums will choke fairly quickly on plaster dust. I am content to use it inside a habited house - which is not something I would try with a normal angle grinder.

[1] Lump hammer and bolster gets old really quickly as you have discovered. I would not dream of doing it that way for anything more than one chase in soft plaster. [2] Not sure I would buy the same model now, but it was cheap at the time I needed it some years back! It has the ergonomics of a set of bagpipes, but it actually does a very good job. Draper look like they have cheap one that also looks like it should handle better.

[John Rumm]

Worth noting you can use them with only one disk fitted - handy when cutting free plasterboard, or for doing a chase wider than that permitted with the disc spacers. (i.e. do two single disk chases at the spacing required)

BTDT, never again - as you say the dust in unimaginable. Also heavy, difficult clean, and it gets everywhere in the house unless you mask doors shut etc.

That's basically what a wall chaser is...

[John Rumm]

You can get carbide and diamond segment blades[1] for multi tools. They will cut through tiles in situ and most other things. It would certainly work for a chase, but would be very slow in comparison to a wall chaser.

[1]

Yup, excellent for doing jobs that would be very difficult or impossible by other means.

[alan_m]

Possibly the bolster is the wrong tool. You may be better off with Scutch Chisel

blades

[Pancho]

Pretty much any blade worked. I just used old wood blades.

I've not used a wall chaser so can't comment. However I only had to do four walls and the time spent selecting a wall chaser would have outweighed the benefit, without even considering the cost. In comparison chiselling alone was tortuous.

It also didn't create that much dust, as you essentially cut and then chisel out blocks.

So I'm not saying this is the best way of doing, just something to do if you are diy as opposed to a professional.

[John Rumm]

Yup on softer plaster, pretty much anything will work. A different story if its plaster skim over render though!

The oscillating action does not tend to launch the dust into the air at speed in the way a rotating disk does. I find even sanding with a multitool makes less dust than some other ways of doing it - plaster dust seems to drop straight down rather than get airborne quite so much.

Even doing DIY I am impatient :-)

(A wall chaser will do a ceiling to floor chase in around 20 to 30 secs IME on plaster)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then buy from Lidl. Only problem is they don't keep things in stock, like Aldi do for mail order. Which means you get much better value. Of course it means you have to buy when things come up. Rather than waiting to the last minute.

[Jim]

[Andrew Gabriel]

I bought one from Screwfix 20 years ago (back when they were mailorder only), as I was doing lots of rewiring back then, and it is fantastic. It's a Ferm, IIRC, and still gets used occasionally today.

They chuck dust out of the dust port at a phenomenal rate, and very few vacuum cleaners will cope (probably not any bagged ones).

A Henry worked for less than 5 seconds, except during that 5 seconds, you can see a large volume of the dust is coming out in the Henry's exhaust, and after that the bag is completely clogged and it's no longer sucking from the wall chaser, so the dust comes straight out of the chaser.

The only vacuum cleaners which coped were the Dyson DC04 and DC07, and I ended up using those, but keep an eye on the dust canisters as they fill very fast and the dust is too heavy for the handle, so lift the whole canister out. Don't let the canister over-fill, as then the cyclone stops working and the dust will go through to the pre-motor filter and block it. No dust came out of the Dyson's exhaust - the post motor filters remained spotlessly clean. The dust will sand-blast the inside of the dust canisters which changes appearance, but not performance.

[tabbypurr]

I did once. More junk.

[Thomas Prufer]

Low-speed TCT cutter wall chaser.

This will not cut concrete or flint. It will cut render and brick. It is heavy, a beast, and the price makes it a rent-only tool.

However: it cuts a channel, not two slots. The channel is angled, so chasing horizontally one can cut so its angled slightly downwards. The teeth turn very slowly, something like 60 rpm, so there is relatively little dust and lots of gravel. The dust falls out, and doesn't get blown out. It can be used without extraction, though with is better.

Thomas Prufer

[billyorange007]

Many years ago I was tracking a block wall with an angle grinder in order to move a socket. Loads and loads of dust but it was a new house and we hadn't moved in yet. There was a sudden flash and the angle grinder lost power. Yes, I had tracked through a live cable. I was young and foolish in those days

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Be more specific. What similar power tools did you buy from Lidl which were junk?

I keep my Lidl receipts for such things, since it generally comes with a three year warranty. So far only needed to claim on one thing. Out of many.

As regards angle grinders, I've got a 9" Lidl mains one which has been lent out several times as well as fairly heavy use here. And certainly looks like it -well kicked. If it failed tomorrow, it would still have been exceptional value.

[Jethro_uk]

Pricey for DIY ... I wonder if you could hire them (in the UK - I bet not) ?

[ARW]

I always use a SDS drill and chisel bit. The chasers are never deep enough or wide enough for my needs.