Fugenboy

Another gadget I have seen recently advertised and not mentioned, is a plastic mould type thing for applying/shaping mortar whilst brick/blocklaying. Even Duncan Stewart or RTE fame, for those who know of him, has put his name to it, so there must be *something* in it. No idea what it's called though, sorry. Not sure where I have seen the TV adverts either, it might possibly not be shown in the UK. Sorry that's all a bit vague, does anyone have a clue about the thing I'm on about? :-)

-- Holly, in France Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.

I just bought the one from Screwfix (doesn't look as good, but I needed something to take me over the free packing and handling threshold and I remembered this thread).

I'll be replacing the sealant around our bath at the weekend (long overdue as usual!) so I'll post back on Monday with an opinion.

I think you mean Bricky. I've seen it demonstrated. OTOH, the guy doing it was clearly a professional bricklayer because he could work as quickly without it.

Must be good then. Do they have a jumbo sized version for laying Blarney stones I wonder? :-)

they are

-- Cordless Crazy

Make one before you buy anything. All you need are two meter long lenghts of wood the required thickness and a wooden strap holding them together, so they sit on the wall.

The message from "Holly, in France" contains these words:

With very few gotchas it really does what it claims.

The message from Richard Conway contains these words:

It may just be being messy, but I find even with a bead-shaping tool I get quite a bit of mastic squidged out of the sides in a thin film over the tiles.

Experience has taught me to mask the area off at the angle of the expected bead, and to use Sellotape or packing tape instead of masking tape because it's much thinner and doesn't leave a dirt-collecting step when removed.

That's why you need a Fugenboy/Fugee, then. (It's NOT just a bead-shaping tool).

David

Thanks Andy, Eric and Guy. Had a look at the sites, yes, that's the thing. I was vaguely wondering about it as a present for the man who has everything, but we need to see it first I think. Claims that it can improve speed by up to 300% for professionals seem downright impossible to me given that your average blocklayer might lay 100 blocks a day. I could see it being of use to less experienced people though.

I'm not sure that Blarney stones come in standard sizes, do they?

-- Holly, in France Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.

The message from "Holly, in France" contains these words:

I'm crap at bricklaying and with that I could manage 100 blocks a day without breaking a sweat.

It would seem that the plastic most posters have tried, is the flexible variety. I imagine the plastic used in the tool shown is some phenolic propylene type of stuff. And that if they were any larger, flexible.

I used to use a tool for shaping plasticene; forming radius beads for moulds. The tool was just a metal ball on a stick. A different sized ball on the other end made for a choice as well as finising the handle. The things are about 6 inches long.

I often wondered why they weren't more widely available for such uses as described on this thread and for glazing, -the most obvious building application. But painters and glaziers have been closely aligned trades for ever, so why not adapt a paint scraper for cutting a putty bead.

These things are merely chisels. They must not flex the way that adhesive spreaders may. Someone try a piece of cut out formica for us will you? The trick is to keep the size down to the size of a guitar plectrum to minimise flex.

And a very thin film must form on the interface unless a microscopically thin layer of the surface is removed. I imagine the best reults for an amateur would be in getting the strip of bead laid as quickly and as evenly as possibel then using the scraper straight away.

I'd have the tool in my mouth and throw the gun down as soon as I finished with the thing. And if I was unfamiliar with the mastic gun applicator I'd use up most of a tube playing with it on a few bits of scrap.

I think most problems with mastic come from using rubbish applicators. You get a cheap gun and nasty finish. Not that those expensive Stanley guns were any good. I lent my brand new one to a workmate and it came back bent. It just wouldn't hold the tube in straight.

Buy well made tools and look for competently styled tubes too. Some of them can be a waate of time and money too.

With the plasticene the temperature was critical; with putty the texture is. Pour out the whole container and cut a slice the way you slice a cake. Then mix that thoroughly after puttng the rest back.

If a skin has formed, that must be removed and the oil replaced. Mix the surface up to make handling easier if you follow the above advice.

So, someone with a gadget have a go with the glazing ide will you? The renage needs to be clean and the pins below the top of the rebate. The putty bead needs to be below the top of the rebate too, which can be tricky on some frames. (The only reason I can imagine for using such a tool.)

I suppose it's too late now that most people are using double glazing but the number of windows that had narrow rebates was amazing. I believe the imperial measurement was 3/8". Bad enough on Georgian frames but with the huge sheets that came out when float was invented...

Nuts.

I don't presume to know much about bricklaying, but I would suspect that a pro might be able to work quicker without the tool as the placing of the horizontal tool along every course and then placing the vertical tool between each brick would probably take some time. Does look good for someone wanting to DIY a garden wall or something though.

The message from Richard Conway contains these words:

Hmm. Having watched the brickies building the White Elephant Centre up the road from me I reckon what'd save the time is that once you get the hang of it you can slap down a long line of mortar which is already the right thickness and width. I found it easier to butter the ends of the block with it tipped on end, then slap it into place.

With a few minutes practice the amount of nudging to get the spirit level happy is next to none.