On 10 Nov, 00:48, Frank Erskine wrote:

What's the matter with matchsticks? *All this stuff about Uno, SX, SF
and UX - ain't it all just sales blurb?

No. Matchsticks have two problems: they're slow to fit and also
while they work fine in solid brick, they're poor in crumbly or
perforated materials. Even the good old asbestos Rawlputty (fine
stuff!) doesn't work on a cellular block with deliberate holes moulded
into it.

If you're a DIYer, you're mostly going to be plugging holes in the
same house, with only a couple of different wall constructions to
worry about. Find a plug that works and it'll probably work for
everything. If you work on different sites though, you'll see the
advantages of a dedicated plug (and that probably means Fischer) once
you encounter an office building with some bizarre construction made
of stacked Toblerone bars or something. Then you go anywhere
commercial (or housing association!) and fixings start having to be
metallic and fireproof. Read the Fischer pages, as pictures are
clearer that text.

I _mostly_ use cheap parallel polyethylene plugs with an anti-rotation
barb. These are copies of the original Fischer S plug from the '70s.
At present I'm using Tesco own-brand, because you can't beat 25p for
400! Low grade plastics or tapered plugs though are reasons to run
away.

Just what is the point in tapered wallplugs? Likewise trying to use
traditional tapered woodscrews in them? All your expansion, if any,
is going to be at the useless shallow end.

For Fischer plugs I mostly use the simple S, just because it's a
tougher plastic version of everyday cheap plugs. The SX are good in
funny moulded blocks with holes in. The UX replace the old squashy
rubber tubes for clamping to the back of things and are the closest
thing to a truly universal wallplug. The FUs I haven't used, as every
simple two-part expander I've used like that has been weak and risky
for tearing one leg off. Although Fischer's are probably better than
most, I still wouldn't trust that approach.