Is this Wall Chaser with Laser any good ?

ahll

Hi I just seen any offer in Aldi for a 1700W Wall Chaser with Laser for £44.99. Has anyone bought one of these before and would you recommend one ?
Does this seem like a good price ?

paul_h

I've not seem the one in Aldi, but in my experience (as an Electrician) wall chasers tend to make an unbelievable amount of dust. It's OK in an empty house, but if the house is inhabited it can make a real mess. If can you connect good dust extraction up to it, then it will be better, but there will still be some dust flying about.;)

Personally, I just use a grinder with a diamond-tipped masonary disc - the blades tend to be thinner than the blades in chasers, and make less dust - but it is harder to fit up dust extraction. Two parallel cuts, then chop out the middle with an electrician's bolster.

ahll

paul_h wrote:

I've not seem the one in Aldi, but in my experience (as an Electrician) wall chasers tend to make an unbelievable amount of dust. It's OK in an empty house, but if the house is inhabited it can make a real mess. If can you connect good dust extraction up to it, then it will be better, but there will still be some dust flying about.;)

Personally, I just use a grinder with a diamond-tipped masonary disc - the blades tend to be thinner than the blades in chasers, and make less dust - but it is harder to fit up dust extraction. Two parallel cuts, then chop out the middle with an electrician's bolster.

Yes it seems as though you can connect a dust extracter to it.

Is an electrician's bolster different to a regular builders bolster ?

Can I ask what do you put conduwit(white plastice pipe stuff dont knwo how to spell it) in the wall and then what do you use to fill in the hole and make the wall good again ?

paul_h

ahll wrote:

Yes it seems as though you can connect a dust extracter to it.

You will still get some dust thrown even with extraction.

ahll wrote:

Is an electrician's bolster different to a regular builders bolster ?

An electricians bolster is narrower, usually about 3" wide (but some prefer a little smaller), with parallel sides and slightly longer in proportion. Any bigger than 3" would be too big to chop out for a backbox, and it gives you a bit more control than a builder's bolster.

ahll wrote:

Can I ask what do you put conduwit(white plastice pipe stuff dont knwo how to spell it) in the wall and then what do you use to fill in the hole and make the wall good again ?

Assuming you are attacking a masonary wall, you can use either plastic conduit or capping. Just plaster over conduit, or fix capping with capping nails (small masonary nails with a washer attached a little way down the shank) and plaster over. A general purpose patching plaster will do fine.

Capping is cheaper, and there's usually less chopping out to do.

For composite/egg-box walls, that is walls which are two plasterboard sheets with something inbetween - usually a cardboard boxform, but can be foam, etc. - you need a different approach. Make the cut out for the socket/switch with a padsaw, then get access to the top of the wall and use some implement to make a path down for the cable.

Stud walls can be 'interesting', especially if you need to get a cable right down to the bottom.:rolleyes:

ahll

paul_h wrote:

Assuming you are attacking a masonary wall, you can use either plastic conduit or capping. Just plaster over conduit, or fix capping with capping nails (small masonary nails with a washer attached a little way down the shank) and plaster over. A general purpose patching plaster will do fine.

Capping is cheaper, and there's usually less chopping out to do.

Thanks for the information. Can I ask what 'capping' is I looked for it on Screwfix but nothing came up. Is there another name for it ?

save-a-lot

Hi

Try
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A331823&ts=83245&id=31046

that is the stuff you need

blunderbuss

i have never seen one of the aldi wall chasers myself but ive got a silverline 150mm chaser and it sounds like a very similar machine. has the same dpeth of cut, same blade size etc.

as for whether it's any good, the silverline is really very very reasonable. it is not too heavy but still cuts like a hot knife through butter. the dust extraction port is at the front of the machine (most seem to have it at the back) which worried me a little as it seemed a bit unconventional but i have mine connected up to a hitachi qb35e dust extractor and they make a cracking team. not much cleaning up afterwards at all, probably thanks to the hitachi vac which is really powerful. so yep you can get a really good chaser set up for not a lot of money.

got mine here : -
toolbaydirect.co.uk

just look for wall chaser and you'll find it easy enough

NOTE silverline wallchaser isnt available in 110v though which is the only downside, if youre a sparky and need to work on site you will probably need to fork out a bit more, get a makita chaser instead. hitachi vac comes in 240 or 110 though so no difficult choice to make there

ormus

more spam, for a 4 yr old thread.