Speedskim question...

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Jackospread

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Just got my speedskim. Thurs. and the side of the rrule you press against wall is grooved with rigid lines. Just thought it would be smooth is all. Can anyone clarify? Cheers.
 
Used it today. Great for flattening 1st n 2nd coat of skim on decent walls. Definitely usefull. Prefer the feel of flattening with this over my Refina spat. Needs a pole though n should have come with a guard like the palazzi trowels.
 
OP mine is the same, I think they are supposed to be like that.

I've been using mine for a couple of months now and I'm earning more as a result (although as a downside I get home earlier so the old lady has longer to moan at me).

I don't understand the bad comments about the tool perhaps some people just can't get on with it or use it properly.
 
I've found them similar the speed skim wants to tear it to **** but if I had to buy another I'd get the speed skim there a lot cheaper
 
To be fair gents I only signed up to the forum to get some advice on the Speedskim earlier in the year and I was almost put off by the bad comments but I parted with 35 quid and its made my life easier.

@nickelarse - what didn't you like about the tool?

@stolen - I wish I was selling them ;-)
 
I used mine for the second time today workin off a tower on a 22m2 ceiling 3.2m high. I prefer the spat on a pole for ceilings. But I used it to flatten my first coat second coat goes on a dream then. But as for the flattening of the second coat it left lines and didn't always feel like it was Sabin me any time at all. Only good on big walls I think.

@ gavala... What's your method with it
 
Guys i use a Refina spat at the mo, but i find it makes the surface greasy like a stainless steel trowel does. I use Steel trowels and therefore am struggling at when the right time is to use it( the Spat that is), great for polishing tho, might take a look at this speedskim especially as it is cheaper.
 
Guys i use a Refina spat at the mo, but i find it makes the surface greasy like a stainless steel trowel does. I use Steel trowels and therefore am struggling at when the right time is to use it

I found this too....but was determined to carry on 'spatting'
Then I discovered they are ideally used on one coat plasters, and my finish using multi with the spat was crap.
One coat plasters are scoured with a sponge....so I tried this on multi (two coat) when I should have given it a first wet trowel, and lo and behold....a perfect grease free finish.

15 years spreading and I'm now using what I thought was an amateur method with feckin ace results.
 
OP mine is the same, I think they are supposed to be like that.

I've been using mine for a couple of months now and I'm earning more as a result (although as a downside I get home earlier so the old lady has longer to moan at me).

I don't understand the bad comments about the tool perhaps some people just can't get on with it or use it properly.

so you dont go straight to the club/pub before you go home?
 
imo i think that you are putting the first coat on to thick and to rough if you need to flattern it out. a thin and neat first coat so that it pulls the thicker secound coat in quicker, lay in neat and let it pick up, and trowel up.
 
imo i think that you are putting the first coat on to thick and to rough if you need to flattern it out. a thin and neat first coat so that it pulls the thicker secound coat in quicker, lay in neat and let it pick up, and trowel up.

"First coat flat, second coat flatter"................That's how we were taught :RpS_thumbup:
 
so that it pulls the thicker secound coat in quicker

I was taught (as was everyone I know) to mix up half the amount you used on the first coat for laying down. First coat to fill voids etc. and second coat to...well..lay it down.

Not saying anyone is wrong here....I guess whatever works....works.
 
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A good trick someone on here told me about is to mix up 2.5 bags lay on 25-30 m but remix what's left over when you've finished first coating slightly wetter and use that
Same gear so it goes off quick but nicer to lay on and wetter
 
Especially good on reskims when that first coat tucks in.
I'd be scared to do 30m of it though!
 
I have been known to put it on thicker than most people even with both coats, still going on the theory 2nd laying coat use half as much as 1st coat. I also when putting always stick to a uniform method and not putting on all directions like diagonally, as I have seen some people, i keep to a uniform method and always try to keep it flat throughout not just slashing it on. i concentrate more on the second and I find that my second coat is really easy to flatten in as it takes very little work to do. But as said previous maybe I am putting on too thick but I have never been snagged.
on ceilings when putting on I choose a 1 direction way to put on and flatten down and lay in that same way, but then flatten and trowel up the other way criss crossing the ceiling, when doing this on my stilts the 2nd flatten down and trowelling up I walk over the whole ceiling not pulling it like the conventional method. This way I find the combination of laying reasonably flat and flattening and trowelling up is much quicker therefore I have more time on my hands to the point that I can get a bigger hit on. I never have a labourer and I can do up to 60m on ceiling or walls or both.

Putting on such large hits tho does mean that when people say maybe wait a lil longer before using the spat makes me nervous as waiting longer obviously means i have a bigger hit to get over if everything goes wrong.
A general hit takes me between 3 to 3and a half hour,the time broken up is in the first 45 minutes I have first coat on and sometimes flattened down, by the next 45 mins I have knocked up and layed in second coat, then 30 mins to flatten down again, then an hour to give 2 -3 trowels, and then 15 mins dry trowelling . On average entire hit 3 hours 15 mins, this is of course on boardwork other backgrounds times maybe different but I still try to stick to the same routine as close as i can. If I am doing a house or a room I do try to get walls on with the ceilings, coz I use stilts i get the ceiling on then the top of the walls usually 2-3 bands down( band being a trowel length) across the top of the wall, then jump off my stilts and get the bottoms on using one stroke from bottom to my last band from at the top of the wall. Coz I have the walls with the ceiling on I can run the internal across the ceiling.

All my Hits I try to minimise mixing down to twice once for first coat and second for laying in, this means that I have to roughly know how much i need in the first place and get enough for first coat on in the first mix. For big hits I use a tub that can get 3-4 bags in for 1st coat( yes just for 1st coat) I shovel it on the board or if I am struggling for space and in the right mood I scoop out of bucket. All this and still I am always on my own mixing up and laying on.
 
Rpc if you mix up 3-4 bags at a time and you take, and I quote "first 45 minutes I have first coat on" how fecking stiff must the gear be you're trying to get on neat and tidy? Personally I think you're better off mixing up two, three or even four individual buckets to put on with, always using nice fresh muck.
 
just mix one bag, sponge it and in an hour and a half youll be ready for the next bag THEN after another hour and half 2 tops youll be on ya way home to the club:RpS_thumbup:
 
2 bags mixed up at the same time one coat is my favourite hand method. Do this 3 times a day and you should be hitting some good meterage
 
when you are starting with a flat suface ie plasterboard, why put the first coat on thick ? if it goes on thick you will end up with tiger stripes. as i have said i put the first coat on thin the second on thicker but i do not flattern in, i scrape off access plaster. we also labour on ourselves and put ceiling and walls on at the same time so as we twitch ceiling lines.
 
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