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Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:25 pm
by yourgardenworks.co.uk
Just looking through E-Bay as you do and came accross this little gadget, i'd be interested to know if they perform well enough to spend 20 quid on.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzuyajb5KPA

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:24 pm
by ambient
looks good id probably buy one its only 20 quid its not a lot to lose, let us know if its any good if u buy one that is

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:03 pm
by SFLandscape
sell them in B&Q best place for them , rubbish

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:51 pm
by yourgardenworks.co.uk
SFLandscape wrote:sell them in B&Q best place for them , rubbish
Care to explain or have i just to go on that ?

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:07 pm
by GB_Groundworks
for 20 quid is worth giving it a go, have used the manual pump one like a mastic gun and mix was very important but the aperture looks bigger on that one so less chance of the sand and cement sticking and just pumping water out. anyone used the air powered ones?

gi

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:27 pm
by msh paving
i've got one off the mastic gun type,brilliant tool,
but you need to have a nice clean fine sand i use kiln dry block paving sand,then a good cement content 3-1 helps it flow well and some feb or similar without the plas. your flogging a dead horse
fill the joint right up to over fill, leave it till its going off then run joint iron or what ever you use over joint

dont skimp on cement content or the plas or you wont pump it through,wash the tube between fill ups other wise it clogs up,2 tubes one filling 1 pumping :cool:

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:57 pm
by patr
I bought one of the gun types off Screwfix a while back. It was awful and no matter how I altered the mix all I got out of the nozzle was a watery goo.

It now has pride of place alongside a Powerdevil circular saw and a Porter Cable in-line sander on my shelf of useless artefacts. The shelf itself is made out of a Bricky.

But, as I had a fair few metres of pointing to do and am devoid of the patience of a Saint, I decided to invest in one of the Pointmaster jobbies and it is rather good. You do have to be careful of the mix but what comes out of the end does the job with very little waste and you can alter the nozzle gap to suit the, err, gap.

So is it worth £20? Yes. Its a cracking bit of kit.

Plus if you had to make a 1 tonne Birthday Cake, it is the Mother of All Icing Guns.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:27 pm
by yourgardenworks.co.uk
Cheers for that Lads next pointing job that comes up will be pointmastered...

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 11:30 am
by lutonlagerlout
i reckon your arms would be knackered after a day of that,problem with the high cement content on repointing work is that a lot of jobs dont want it,i might use a 6:1:1 mix for heritage work
worth a try i suppose
LLL

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 3:15 pm
by Tony McC
As mentioned in my Interbuild Review

It's another of those gadgets that will appeal more to DIYers than contractors, but 20 quid is a bit pricey as far as I can see.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 3:54 pm
by patr
Thats a fair point Sir. But as a DIYer who was quoted £150 labour to point a wall and a few flags it was £20 well spent. The mix took a bit of experimenting to get the correct consistency but once done and noted, the job took an hour and a bit (sorry, slipping into plumber estimatespeak) with the trusty memsahib working the mixer.

It probably is a bit fiddly for a contractor and I am dissappointed that they don't do a Honda powered version but I was very impressed at how easy it was to achieve a more than acceptable result.

Also it was very reassuring to see that sufficient muck had been squeezed into the gaps by my good self rather than the cursory surface wipe previously applied by the highly experienced time-served mortar extrusion technician. The same technician who serenaded the lovely pensioner who used to own my house with his version of "That job will last forever Missus!" whilst removing numerous notes from her purse.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 11:36 pm
by andpartington
i love the cut of your jib patr
wonderful turn of phrase squire
andy
:p

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:08 am
by seanandruby
with having to use a fairly "wettish mix," also the "extra cement content", i would of thought the flags etc would be more likely to end up with the "picture frame effect" ???

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:40 pm
by msh paving
you need to fill the joint to the top just over,and walk away from it, let the mix go off so when you run joint iron over it its finished in one move leave the residue that falls away till you done and soft brush it up,
its a learning curve off how to use it for the best,mine is made by durgun and had a copper nozzle which can be adjusted with a hammer to suit joint with or replace with 22mm coper pipe, took me a while to get the hang off it but it knocks spots off chopping in by hand 1 tube full does about 2 600x600 slabs

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:49 pm
by paving2go.com
we use the durgun jointer also, and the exact technique described by msh paving. The only prob is that the trigger on the gun tends to pack up after a while. We now cost a new gun (£25) into all our larger jobs. They save a lot of time, give solid joints that even a jet wash wont blast out and are clean. As msh said the mix is critical or it wont feed through the gun. It needs to be much wetter than you think, and you need to leave it alone until it starts to go off, which in the temp at the moment can be a few hours.