All my floats and trowels are coated with cement and rust, but now i want to do some smooth top coats of plaster.
After scraping off the cement with a chisel and wirebrush what should I do?
After using them I used to rinse them then leave them to dry. Is there a better way of doing it?
Should I segregate top coat plaster tools away from any cementy work?
[g]
As you said, rinse & dry when you stop. At the end of each day, scrape them on brick or concrete if theres anything still on them, that cleans them up while its all still soft, and rub the rest off with a scraper under running water.
NT
I've always done that, but then dried them quickly with paper towel, hairdryer etc. just so they don't get rusty.
cheers
Jules
For finish work I bought myself a marshaltown permashape stainless trowel. Very nice to use, and no rust - just rinse clean when done ;-)
Plastering trowel needs smooth polished edges, and simply using it maintains these. The face doesn't much matter. (Over the years, the face of my plastering trowel and hawk have built up a very thin layer of plaster which doesn't come off, but that doesn't matter.)
If one of the edges gets slightly damaged, traditionally it is polished back up on a brick face. Plasterers used to break in new trowels by using them for rendering to start with (would lend them to the renderer for a week). Nowadays, you can buy trowels which don't need so much breaking in.
I always clean off my tools before it sets (at least, those tools that matter). When plastering, you have to clean off all your tools between each new batch of plaster anyway.
Either dry by hand, or leave to dry such that the critical edges don't sit in a pool of water. Store them indoors in the dry, not out in a shed.
Boeshield T9 is a better alternative to WD40 I.M.H.O.
On ebay 120721841438 is stainless at about =A38.69 delivered.
For plaster I would stick to stainless tools, inner & outer & float trowels. It does not cost much more for stainless.
The cheap trowels are ok, they do distort into a bowl, will ripple if provoked and do not like any miss-handling. They are ok for DIY use - ie, do not expect to be using them commercially day in & day out.
Go and stand in the naughty corner. 100 lines "I must clean my kit after use".
Brick cleaner, rinse off, WD40.
I used to know a few *professional* bricklayers and plasterers. They would turn over in their graves if they read your question.
On Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:50:58 PM UTC, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrot e:
From what i know on Facebook ,you can purchase leather trowel wallets , to help protect the trowel edges ,From what i understand at trowelwallets.com is you can add little oil to their case also to stop the trowel corroding,p retty cool i think as my mate has same issues .hope it helps !!
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