Chasing power tools

[soulman]

Could anyone recommend some decent quality power tools for chasing i want a decent grinder and decent wall chaser if they are any good. I use the good old fashioned chisel and lump hammer, old saw, and my faithfull hammered sds chisels, i tend not to use a grinder because of the mess, but i have had a nightmare this week just chasing in 3 sockets vertically down the wall it took me over two hours the sds was bouncing off the brick there must have been 1mm of plaster and then solid brick, the hardest was the backboxes. Any recommendations would be appreciated, as i have a large rewire coming up i think it's time to invest. I was also talking to another electrician this week who recommended buying a decent generator for large rewires as he just kills all the power then uses the genny to cut all the chases in one go, bit strange i thought if nobody is living in property i kill the power anyway, fit the new board and run a socket from that to power tools.

 

[SteveT]

I use a temp board, garage CU, couple of metal clad sockets, 10mm tails, kept in van

Full rewire empty property, power off disconnect tails, put in yours - works a treat

Makita chaser attached to 'Henry'

 

[soulman]

When working in occupied properties its a nightmare as i like to get all the chasing done in one go. with the fear of hitting a live cable, i,ve been thinking of making myself a board and the customer will just have to use that until the work is done

 

[m4tty]

Makita sg1250 wall chaser attached to Henry all the way mate

 

[Andy™]

i switch off all power on a re-wire straight away and run everything via extension leads. if occupied, get the lighting circuit finished day 1 and temp connect it. leave a few extnesion leads in various rooms for them to use

 

[alpha spark]

Are the makita chasers capable of chasing brick as well as breeze how long do the blades last roughly and how much do they cost to replace cheers

 

[revjames]

saw the title and had visions of a sparky running down the road in hot pursuit of a De Walt.....

 

[Andy™]

saw the title and had visions of a sparky running down the road in hot pursuit of a De Walt.....

you mean something similar to this

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V5vRWuSW3f4?feature=oembed

 

[kerching]

I bought an Erbauer fromm Trade Point the day it opened, first purchase, discount etc it was a no brainer. Bought it specifically for one job, conversion of a 2 bed bungalow into a 5 bed house!!!! Freaking awesome! Any road up, luckily it was unoccupied for the duration...mess? Flip me there was flipping dust every flipping where. Went home at night looking like a fricking snowman, tried connecting a Vac to it, it cried and sulked and spat its dummy out. Don't know about other makes but this was a tad dusty... :coat

 

[Manator]

I bought an Erbauer fromm Trade Point the day it opened, first purchase, discount etc it was a no brainer. Bought it specifically for one job, conversion of a 2 bed bungalow into a 5 bed house!!!! Freaking awesome! Any road up, luckily it was unoccupied for the duration...mess? Flip me there was flipping dust every flipping where. Went home at night looking like a fricking snowman, tried connecting a Vac to it, it cried and sulked and spat its dummy out. Don't know about other makes but this was a tad dusty... :coat

I tried the very same chaser once, if connected to a vac I may suggest a very powerfull one, the dust was just awful

 

[batty]

I had that with one of the sparky ones that SF sell you need a commercial vac to keep up with them. I personally use a Makita chaser with Henry vac. As for blades I just buy

 

[user 10734]

Similar to the others, Erbauer Wall Chaser and a Henry does the job nicely... wouldn't be without them now...

 

[lkayelectrical]

i got one of these

Ferm Power Laser Guided 1700w Wall Chaser Slotter | eBay

Laser didnt work but does the job done 3 or 4 rewires with it and loads of other small jobs still working ok paid for its self alll ready works fine dust wise with the numatic

 

[steptoe]

I had that with one of the sparky ones that SF sell you need a commercial vac to keep up with them. I personally use a Makita chaser with Henry vac. As for blades I just buy

 

[OnOff]

I'm debating hauling my Einhell (cheapo 1300W jobbie from Makro) chaser out again to do the other half of the kitchen BUT only if I can keep the dust down - its that awful old dense black breeze under bullet proof sharp sand render. When I did the other half of the kitchen I used it with my Earlex 1000W vac but the problem seemed to be that the air blowing out of the vac (as it's meant to) just blew what residual dust there was around the place. No problems TBH in terms of the actual chasing. Option of rigging a professional 110v, 2kW dust extractor I have that came out of a woodworking shop. Thinking to run a pipe from the vac's "blower" port to outside the room. I even sheeted the half of the kitchen I worked in as in a big piece of DPM duct taped round all the edges but it still seeped out.

Can I ask does anyone manage truly "dustless" chasing that you would be happy to do in an occupied & decorated customer's place? I've seen "dustless" offered in the local freebie papers but are they meaning surface trunking?

 

[batty]

Are the earlex the ones wickes sell I have one in the loft used it a few times but found them not very good as that also seemed to blow dust out. As said I find henry's fairly efficient as long as you have a good dust bag in.

 

[OnOff]

Are the earlex the ones wickes sell I have one in the loft used it a few times but found them not very good as that also seemed to blow dust out. As said I find henry's fairly efficient as long as you have a good dust bag in.

You're right in that my "Earlex" did come from and is indeed branded as Wickes but from a few years back (its a grey/black one). I have to get the filters now from TLC and with the TLC bought combi filter I had to drill a hole in the vac so the locking tab of the (TLC) filter would go through and lock. Had to strip it a while back down to component level and blow it out with the air hose. Might bite the bullet tomorrow and try and finish the chasing but rig the big 2kW extraction unit and see how that fairs.

 

[OnOff]

Dug out the big woodworking Numatic 115V industrial extractor (3kW MAX / 2.4kW IEC) and had a play. A roll of duct tape to attach to the chaser and a Celcon block. NO DUST WHATSOEVER! Just need the wife to go out so I can try it inside the house............

View attachment 3297

UPDATE: Well it was pretty much dust free chasing in the kitchen with this set up. So much so that when the missus came in she said "I wondered how you did it (so neat) without making a mess". The DOWNSIDE is that the Einhell chaser will only do 25mm depth which isn't deep enough for the 20mm conduit so just bought a cheapo one off eBay that'll do 40mm deep.

 

[OnOff]

I'm actually VERY impressed with this for the money. ONLY downside is the motor not being 90 degrees to the blade shaft - would have been better if it was perpendicular. Getting tight into a LH internal corner needs careful planning. But cutting wise it does the job with ease to 40mm deep and 28mm (30?) wide. Looks a bit toy town but sturdy and feels like it will pass the "drop" test.

Brand New Andrew James 1700W Wall Chaser 2 discs 150mm | eBay

 

[Graham Lister]

Kango all the way, wall chaser too much dust. Using a wall chaser in a place with any kind of furniture is a sure fire way to lose customers unless you have 87 dust sheets.