Tim Watts wrote in news:i473k6$m9n$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
No problem. Having not tried a fugenboy, or similar, I won't dispute their worthiness. However, I don't think it would have worked well for the job I was doing, and I'll explain why; I was making a silicone seal around a bath, and the bath mixer taps are very close to the tiled wall. I was only just able to get a wet finger into that tight space. I'm not sure how small the fugenboy/fugi things are, but I suspect it wouldn't have gone in there while still maintaining a consistent angle with the wall.
Also, I can see that those devices might work well when you are working a joint between two flat surfaces at right angles to each other, but in the case of my job, the lip of the bath is not flat at all, so I can't imagine how one of those things would make a nice joint. A wet finger, however, worked very well.
It hardly matters how the different types work as they're all designed to perform a very simple task, i.e. produce a neat finish on a bead of sealant or grout. I think most people would consider all products which did that as 'similar'. It's a simple one-finger job not a candidate for a Turner prize.
Of course you can. People either buy on impulse or plan ahead. You found one without any difficulty and so did I so why should it be so impossibly difficult for everybody else?
You just happened to make a late Saturday evening visit to Lidl on the off chance that they might have some grinder disks and you then noticed that they have for the very first time a set of grouting tools which they failed to mention in their publicity material. What an amazingly lucky coincidence for you! For future reference here's what to look for:
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I got the price wrong in my original post - it's £2.99 not £3.99 so a pound cheaper. You can have three sets for the price of one Fugenboy and have change left over.
There's no 'IF' about it. I know it works because I've used mine and I know it's better value than Fugenboy at nearly four times the price.
It certainly doesn't matter how they work as long as they produce the desired result - a virtually invisible bead of sealant. You may not be able to get a result with other types but others do so and praise them highly.
Forward planning - it's what DIYers do.
Your posts suggest so. You obviously didn't have one at Midday but report at 9:06 p.m. having just acquired one, quite readily it seems.
Your post timed at 9:06 p.m. Saturday:
"I've just bought a Lidl one but not tried it. "IF" it works as well as a proper Fugenboy I'd buy the cheaper. Assuming I'd hit the once a year they arrpear in Lidl."
But you still found one to buy on your chance visit to buy grinding disks. That looks like availability.
And that will be a completely unbiased opinion based on your earlier definitive assertion?
Lidl probably won't have them back in stock for a year. Thats some forward planning when you can pick up a Fugenboy 365.
"Just" means "now, very soon, or very recently" By "just" I meant 'very recently'. Since Lidl close at 21:00 I guess you might assume I had bought one in the last 7 minutes - if you were thick.
Which bit of 'limited' didn't you grasp?
It will be a completely unbiased opinion based on the fact that I've re sealed more baths, showers & sinks than you've had had hot dinners.
I tried it yesterday as it happens. It works very well and was indeed a bargain - once a year when Lidl have them.
Anyone reading this post may have learnt that (a) there are two types of sealant smoother, (b) that one works & the other doesn't, (c) that the one that works is either the Fugenboy or a cheaper copy and (d) that the cheaper copy is available infrequently.
You continue with your silly habit of deliberately misleading statements
- insisting that Lidl only have items in stock on a once a year basis. That is rarely the case, if ever. The significant point I made was that the Lidl version (£2.99p) is very much cheaper than the Fugenboy and that people will buy it when they see it, knowing that it is far better value than the overpriced Fugenboy which you can buy any time at a cost of £15.21p (including packing and handling charges). DIY people take note of different products and they plan their jobs ahead. They don't need to shop 365 days a year because they recognise good value and plan ahead.
Yet another example of your muddled assertions. You had no Lidl sealant tool at midday but acquired one later the same day on a chance visit to check the availability of grinding disks. Your explanation is feeble; the obvious truth is that you bought it because I had pointed out that a much cheaper tool is available to do the same job and you thought you could pooh-pooh it.
Clever! One from your "Little Boys' book of nasty things to say." But it's really very over-used - you should try to learn new things occasionally.
Yet another of your utterly silly pronouncements. You may seal baths, sinks and showers - a simple task learned and performed in seconds. I designed and installed my bathrooms and built the shower cabinets from scratch to my own design; that requires a bit more skill than squirting a bit of sealant on to a surface and wiping it smooth. And you don't know how many hot dinners I've had.
At last, a touch of honesty from you!
I told YOU that it works very well because I took the trouble to use it before passing judgement. And a tool is forever, not just for Christmas.
Anybody reading this thread will have learned that statements from you like this should be treated with a large pinch of salt:
"Nothing works like a Fugenboy. Nothing."
You were forced to retract that silly comment because it's so obviously untrue.
They will also have learned that silly, dismissive statements from people like you about tools which they haven't used can be grossly misleading and sometimes dangerous. I made a point in my original post that the Fugenboy has strong competition from other similar tools at a much better price. You chose to cloud the issue for no good reason.
I have today used for the first time the sealant smoother bought from lidl some time back. I haven't used a fugenboy, so can't compare, but I won't be rushing out to replace my cheaper version. I found it excellent.
I don't wish to start a flame war, and I'm sorry to disappoint you - but human nature is a funny thing. Back in the 90's, a team of 6 UPVc fitters and 10 carpenters were given these things on the advice of a Safety Officer, who had read of the serious effects silicone mastic has on the body organs when ingested by licking the fingers to tool the stuff.
This information was formally relayed to the aforesaid workforce through 2 hour meeting (lots of questions and answers) and in writing - and to a man, within a week, all returned to the "wet finger and rub it on the trousers" method - and 16 Fugenboy's were disposed of in a number of skips along with
16 answers of "they were f*****g useless" when asked why they had got rid of them.
As I said, human nature is a funny thing, especially as several of the above had previously asked for COSSH details of silicone mastic [1] - along with written risk assessments for its use.
BTW, those very same men were still refusing to use the Fugenboy when I retired some years ago.
[1] Along with the COSSH details of the Jif that they were using at the time to clean the UPVc funnily enough!!
I would not say that applying mastic round a window against an abrasive building finish like brick or render is at all comparable to sealing round a bath etc. The application tools I use excel at corner joints between relatively smooth materials, and produce results I could not get even close to with a wet finger[1], however I can't see them being anything like as useful for frame sealing.
[1] And yes I have even tried masking both edges, ans using a rubber finger with release agent. Results were ok, but the bead shape was not as good as a tooled finish, and it took ages!
Try it with "herringbone" finish bricks (eg LBC Rustics) - that's fun. Not...
For my first attempt, I just did the best I could with the gun - ripply finish but generally even, so I left it at that. They're round the side and hardly anyone notices.
On the 3rd window (round the back in full sight) I did the same, but ran over it with a Fugenboy. I did not attempt to run the tool to the brick, rather I held off by a mm or so and just formed a smooth junction to the smooth frame. That worked - looks pretty good. It's always going to be wibbly on wibbly bricks...
I don't know why you want to turn this into a fight, but just for the record I sent Lidl an e mail asking about stocks of this item. They have just replied.
They replied confirming my "deliberately misleading ststement". The Parkside sealant kit part number 52246 id NOT a regular stock item. It was on promotion in January and July and will not be back in the store for 3 - 6 months.
But someone reading this thread & wanting one is going to be unlucky.
Wrong again. I keep my reciepts for tax purposes. Its dated 24/7/10 at
13:06 hrs. I bought one to try & chucked in the van.
You should try not to turn a discussion into a fight - especially when you are wrong.
So how many baths/showers/sinks have you re sealed this year than?
I changed it to read "Nothing works like a Fugenboy type tool" because there are at least 3 other typs of sealant tools on the market. They don't work like a Fuegen type tool, in fact they don't work at all.
'Fugen' BTW is German for 'Joint' and could be used as a generic name - unless you are a pedant determined to argue.
Utter rubbish. I've just resealed around one of our baths today and the application straight form the gun was near perfect. If you routinely need a Fugenboy then you are doing something wrong.
Cut the end of the cartridge nozzle to the correct size and apply carefully and you don't even need a wet finger. The end of the nozzle shapes the bead, but I draw the bead towards me rather than pushing it away as ISTR the instructions on the cartridge say.
I did it like this only today. I don't need to practice more times than anyone has had hot dinners.
Fight? You have a short memory. It was you who offered abuse.
You wasted your time by emailing Lidl. Nobody suggested that the item in question is a stock item, but Lidl's reply negates your claim that it is a 'once a year' item. Their reply confirms that it is on offer on at least two occasions (possibly three) and those occasions are not likely to be single day appearances. The position has not changed despite your wasted efforts; people read Lidl's flyers and plan ahead, and if they're desperate for something at short notice they have the choice of buying something at a significantly lower price than the Fugenboy from several retailers or even using the tried and trusted finger method.
By your kind of perverse logic nobody would ever buy any of Lidl's 'offers' in case they couldn't buy them again the following week.
You bought one to try despite the fact that you already had the best tool in the world (in your opinion) for the job and didn't try it for over three weeks.
Maybe you're not doing quite as many sealing jobs as you need to keep your skills honed.
I repeat - you chose to offer abuse and nothing is more wrong than your silly statement:
"Nothing works like a Fugenboy. Nothing."
You will have noticed that I reinstated this statement (above) which you surreptitiously removed in the expectation that its removal would not be noticed:
"Nothing works like a Fugenboy. Nothing."
It is not very honest to cut significant text without clearly showing that it has been removed.
I don't need to practise daily to retain a simple skill learned many years ago. You are a person of few skills and limited ability doing a low- grade job, which probably explains why you don't understand how competent DIY people work.
A vain attempt to confuse the issue; the fact remains that the Lidl tool (and a few from other retail sources) is nearly identical in design and function with the Fugenboy tool. There are also other designs from other makers which you assert don't work at all. People buy them and use them, thus contradicting your sweeping statement that they don't work, but then a bad workman usually blames his tools.
Fudge! You very specifically extolled the virtues of the 'Fugenboy' and now suggest that you really meant all similar tools, none of which you had tried.
Fight? You have a short memory. It was you who offered abuse.
You wasted your time by emailing Lidl. Nobody suggested that the item in question is a stock item, but Lidl's reply negates your claim that it is a 'once a year' item. Their reply confirms that it is on offer on at least two occasions (possibly three) and those occasions are not likely to be single day appearances. The position has not changed despite your wasted efforts; people read Lidl's flyers and plan ahead, and if they're desperate for something at short notice they have the choice of buying something at a significantly lower price than the Fugenboy from several retailers or even using the tried and trusted finger method.
By your kind of perverse logic nobody would ever buy any of Lidl's 'offers' in case they couldn't buy them again the following week.
You bought one to try despite the fact that you already had the best tool in the world (in your opinion) for the job and didn't try it for over three weeks.
Maybe you're not doing quite as many sealing jobs as you need to keep your skills honed.
I repeat - you chose to offer abuse and nothing is more wrong than your silly statement:
"Nothing works like a Fugenboy. Nothing."
You will have noticed that I reinstated this statement (above) which you surreptitiously removed in the expectation that its removal would not be noticed:
"Nothing works like a Fugenboy. Nothing."
It is not very honest to cut significant text without clearly showing that it has been removed.
I don't need to practise daily to retain a simple skill learned many years ago. You are a person of few skills and limited ability doing a low- grade job, which probably explains why you don't understand how competent DIY people work.
A vain attempt to confuse the issue; the fact remains that the Lidl tool (and a few from other retail sources) is nearly identical in design and function with the Fugenboy tool. There are also other designs from other makers which you assert don't work at all. People buy them and use them, thus contradicting your sweeping statement that they don't work, but then a bad workman usually blames his tools.
Fudge! You very specifically extolled the virtues of the 'Fugenboy' and now suggest that you really meant all similar tools, none of which you had tried.
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