Most of the walls in my house are rubble stone and lime mortar.
Unsurprisingly the lime mortar is too soft to hold a caple clip.
Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

The only solution I can see at the moment is to put all the wire in
conduit which is screwed to the wall (they are drillable) and then
plaster over the conduit.

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?

Please, no mentions of Part P, I know all about it and I have a
friendly NAPIT registered electrician who will inspect and provide an
installation certificate!

Fash

On 15 Jul 2005 05:19:22 -0700, "Fash"
wrote:

Most of the walls in my house are rubble stone and lime mortar.
Unsurprisingly the lime mortar is too soft to hold a caple clip.
Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

The only solution I can see at the moment is to put all the wire in
conduit which is screwed to the wall (they are drillable) and then
plaster over the conduit.

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?

You could replace the nails in the clips with very fine long screws,
and plug the walls.

Or even glue the cable to the stone.

--
Frank Erskine

Frank Erskine wrote:
On 15 Jul 2005 05:19:22 -0700, "Fash"
wrote:


Most of the walls in my house are rubble stone and lime mortar.
Unsurprisingly the lime mortar is too soft to hold a caple clip.
Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

The only solution I can see at the moment is to put all the wire in
conduit which is screwed to the wall (they are drillable) and then
plaster over the conduit.

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?


You could replace the nails in the clips with very fine long screws,
and plug the walls.

Or even glue the cable to the stone.

I noticed the NTL bloke using some kind of plastic plug that you
hammered the cable clip into. Looked like he was drilling a 3mm or so
hole. Haven't seem them around but no doubt electricians would be
familiar with them.

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:02:45 GMT,it is alleged that Stuart Noble
spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

Frank Erskine wrote:
On 15 Jul 2005 05:19:22 -0700, "Fash"
wrote:


Most of the walls in my house are rubble stone and lime mortar.
Unsurprisingly the lime mortar is too soft to hold a caple clip.
Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

The only solution I can see at the moment is to put all the wire in
conduit which is screwed to the wall (they are drillable) and then
plaster over the conduit.

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?


You could replace the nails in the clips with very fine long screws,
and plug the walls.

Or even glue the cable to the stone.

I noticed the NTL bloke using some kind of plastic plug that you
hammered the cable clip into. Looked like he was drilling a 3mm or so
hole. Haven't seem them around but no doubt electricians would be
familiar with them.

Saw them years ago, I believe they were labelled 'pin plugs'. White,
about 1" long by 1/8" diameter. At a pinch you could probably get the
same effect by drilling and then plugging with thin dowel, preferably
hardwood.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
*no* account be allowed to do the job."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

You can either either special rawlplugs designed for nails, or you can
predrill a 2mm hole (experiment for the best size) before hammering the nail
directly into that.

Christian.

I noticed the NTL bloke using some kind of plastic plug that you
hammered the cable clip into. Looked like he was drilling a 3mm or so
hole. Haven't seem them around but no doubt electricians would be
familiar with them.

Saw them years ago, I believe they were labelled 'pin plugs'. White,
about 1" long by 1/8" diameter. At a pinch you could probably get the
same effect by drilling and then plugging with thin dowel, preferably
hardwood.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
*no* account be allowed to do the job."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tower make them - "Pin Plugs", white plastic, require 5mm hole smallest
SDS drill size available! :-)

Electrical wholesalers rarely stock them for some reason - I bought my last
box from a B&Q Warehouse, shelved by the cable clips.

In message ,
"Adrian Berry" wrote:




I noticed the NTL bloke using some kind of plastic plug that you
hammered the cable clip into. Looked like he was drilling a 3mm or so
hole. Haven't seem them around but no doubt electricians would be
familiar with them.

Saw them years ago, I believe they were labelled 'pin plugs'. White,
about 1" long by 1/8" diameter. At a pinch you could probably get the
same effect by drilling and then plugging with thin dowel, preferably
hardwood.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
*no* account be allowed to do the job."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tower make them - "Pin Plugs", white plastic, require 5mm hole smallest
SDS drill size available! :-)

Electrical wholesalers rarely stock them for some reason - I bought my last
box from a B&Q Warehouse, shelved by the cable clips.

Wonderful things, I use them all the time. At a pinch though a standard
rawlplug hammered into a slightly undersized hole seems to work most of
the time.

For example, I use #8 screws into red rawlplugs almost exclusively. In a
"hard" wall (stone for e.g.) I'd normally use a 6mm drill to make the
hole for the plug. In a softer wall (plaster over block perhaps) I might
use 5.5mm. If I've run out of pin plugs and need to use cable clips then
I would downsize these to 5.5mm and 5mm, and use the good ol' insert
town of choice screwdriver to encourage them in, shaving off the top if
I've misjudged and it won't go in all the way.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... (Ice rocks hit the hull) Captain, we are being hailed.

In article . com,
Fash wrote:
Most of the walls in my house are rubble stone and lime mortar.
Unsurprisingly the lime mortar is too soft to hold a caple clip.
Unfortunately the stone is far too hard, the nail doesn't even scratch
the surface before bending over.

The only solution I can see at the moment is to put all the wire in
conduit which is screwed to the wall (they are drillable) and then
plaster over the conduit.

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?

You can get tiny plastic wall plugs designed to accept the nails from
cable clips for this very situation. Try a decent electrical wholesaler.

--
*Procrastinate now

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Adrian Berry wrote:



I noticed the NTL bloke using some kind of plastic plug that you
hammered the cable clip into. Looked like he was drilling a 3mm or so
hole. Haven't seem them around but no doubt electricians would be
familiar with them.

Saw them years ago, I believe they were labelled 'pin plugs'. White,
about 1" long by 1/8" diameter. At a pinch you could probably get the
same effect by drilling and then plugging with thin dowel, preferably
hardwood.

--
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
*no* account be allowed to do the job."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tower make them - "Pin Plugs", white plastic, require 5mm hole smallest
SDS drill size available! :-)

I have both 4.5mm and 5mm SDS drills, bought from Screwfix a while
ago. They still list 5mm but I can't see the 4.5mm one any more.

--
Chris Green

Adrian Berry wrote:

Tower make them - "Pin Plugs", white plastic, require 5mm hole smallest
SDS drill size available! :-)

Yup, very good they are too.

Last time I needed to clip a wire to a gravel board outside, I could not
find my box of them. So I made some wooden plugs using a plug cutter
into the endgrain of a bit of scrap hardwood. Seemed to do the trick
almost as well.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
Adrian Berry wrote:
Electrical wholesalers rarely stock them for some reason - I bought my
last box from a B&Q Warehouse, shelved by the cable clips.

TLC don't list them, but I've seen them on the shelf in their Merton
branch. Dunno about now.

Last lot I got came from Wholesale Fittings.

--
*If your feet smell and your nose runs, you're built upside down.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 15 Jul 2005 05:19:22 -0700, "Fash"
wrote:

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?

Much quicker,
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...52899&id=35582 (or
different sizes), expensive but very quick, simple and reliable.
Drill the hole and push the fixing in (after putting it around the
cable!).

--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/

In message ,
Peter Parry wrote:

On 15 Jul 2005 05:19:22 -0700, "Fash"
wrote:

Anybody got any other cheaper/easier/quicker ideas?

Much quicker,
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...52899&id=35582 (or
different sizes), expensive but very quick, simple and reliable.
Drill the hole and push the fixing in (after putting it around the
cable!).


For normal domestic cables, I suspect something which is basically round
and with a minimum usable diameter of 8mm may be slightly restrictive.
Also at the lower end of its range, it's going to need a very deep
hole. The pin plugs only need 15mm or so. Great idea for larger bundles,
though I do wonder about its strength when holding an inch-diameter
bundle of cables (as is suggested it is suitable for). Length of chunky
SWA anyone?

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Become a programmer and never see the world!!

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:06:44 +0100, Martin Angove
wrote:


For normal domestic cables, I suspect something which is basically round
and with a minimum usable diameter of 8mm may be slightly restrictive.

There are three ranges covering 3-13, 8-28 and 20-40.

Also at the lower end of its range, it's going to need a very deep
hole.

About 20mm. I've used the smallest ones extensively for cat5,
telephone and aerial cables and they are neat, simple, quick and
reliable. I've clipped some 1.5mm T&E with them as well and the
results were certainly better than I normally get with cable clips
and in a small fraction of the time.

Great idea for larger bundles,
though I do wonder about its strength when holding an inch-diameter
bundle of cables (as is suggested it is suitable for). Length of chunky
SWA anyone?

With the smaller ones in brick you can pull very hard on them and
nothing moves, I've not tried the larger ones but I've used a similar
wall plug but with a cable ties slot moulded on the end to hold 4"
bundles of cat5 on a warehouse wall and it's been there several
years.


--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/