1wallboardsman

Watch your brands, TapeTech is always overpriced, and NorthStar dealers are required to tell you that NorthStar (way overpriced), is the best, which makes it meaningless when they do, because those guys know diddly about taping tools.

In the meantime NS actually suffers from poor workability issues while being priced according to pretty only.

jdl

KingOfDrywall

Alot of drywallers in my area don't own machine tools so we bagan to rent them out. Over the years I had purchased tools very consistently. Since I was friendly with most of my competitors in the area, it wouldn't be uncommon for them to ask me to rent them out from time to time. I decided to make it legitimate and get the paperwork and the insurances needed. Everything from scaffolding to paint sprayers,taping tubes,mud boxes etc. Every time a new guy would start working for me I'd buy a new set of tools......than they'd quit and I'd have an extra set sitting around. Occasionally I'd try to sell them but I'd always eat a small loss. Eventually i said to myself....I should just rent these damn things out. So here I am....lol

TooledUp

I just bought a full set of blueline automatic tools (well apart from a corner box and gooseneck) from leadingedge drywall in Canada. They were an ex-demo set just like new. Got the lot for $1650 which was a great deal.

I'm just returning to automatic tools after a 12 year break. I used to rent a set up to 12 years ago but the cost started outweighing the benefits. I can hand tape pretty fast but it knocks the shoot out of you so anything to make life a bit easier - Tools over here in the UK cost more than double the cost in the USA/Canada so even with shipping (about $400), I'm still in pocket.

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1wallboardsman

Did you get the taper too?

TooledUp

Yup. The B2 model. I gotta get me a gooseneck now altho, apparently you can fill the taper direct from the pump with the blueline but I reckon it'll be awkward. I got me an 8" corner box w/handle off eBay.

In the deal I got:

1x B2 taper
1x quick release mud pump (can take fast setting compounds)
1x box filler
1x 2.5" corner flusher
1x 3" corner flusher
1x flusher handle
1x corner roller w/handle
1x 10" flatbox
1x 12" flatbox
1x 36" box handle
3X handle extentions (various sizes)

All like new plus he threw in an older 3" nail spotter w/handle

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savant

Sometimes I don't bother with a gooseneck, I perch the taper on a bucket, and hold it against the filler adaptor fitting w/one hand, pump w/ the other. Works good w/ mud tubes, too.

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1wallboardsman

Well, I guess that guy didn't care for Blueline's designs, at least you didn't overpay for the set and the B2's filler nozzle is the right size. Good luck pushing the boxes though.

jdl

TooledUp

Hmmm... He'd better - He's Canada's official distributer for Blueline lol.

What tools do you use/prefer?

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1wallboardsman

I stick with the original designs, which leaves out Blueline, and Tapeworm. NorthStar screwed up the flatboxes like Premier/Blueline did, although they are close to right.

I did use a set of Blueline's predecessor, Premier, for 9 years, and it was hard to believe that the original Ames boys designed those things everytime I ran the flatboxes.

I threw rent away with Ames for 20 years, now I prefer to sell them rather then run them. I've probably sent 100 sets of Goldblatt/FinishPro with my own additions to Canada and UK in the past two years. Goldblatt is the first to price the tools properly.

jdl

TooledUp

Ahh i know who you are now lol (BKL). I almost bought a set from you before I got these. The only thing that put me off was somebody mentioned that Goldblatt sets are Chinese made and at the lower end off the market. Didn't have anyone independant to ask so passed on it. I watched a few snips of your vids, particularly the taper and was impressed but someone had planted that bit of doubt...

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Tim0282

I used a set of Finish Pro. They don't hold a candle to Tape Tech. You do sometimes get what you pay for. Huge difference between the red and the gold. fit and finish on them lacks a bit. Too many plastic parts and lots of gaps and you'll break a cable in the bazooka about every twenty feet. Bind up something awful. Boxes were OK at best. I used them for two weeks on about forty thousand feet.

1wallboardsman

Three years ago, when I started dealing with tools, I started with Drywall Master. They are the second copy of Ames by the same people that first copied Ames in 1985 with TapeMaster.

They gave me so much bad-mouthing on FinishPro that I decided that I had to check out a set. The thing was that if they were so bad, why would TapeTech/Ames, Drywall Master, NorthStar, etc. be so concerned that they are out there.

As soon as I pulled them out of the box, I saw that they were exactly the same thing that I got across the Ames counter for 20 years. This is why the other manufacturers are so concerned. Automatic taping tools have always been very profitable and high markup items. When anyone threatens to cut that high profit margin by selling tools reasonably, the alarm bells go off and the bad mouthing starts. Because they are not tradesmen, that is the best that these executives can do, they don't know one end of a taping tool from the other.

BTW, does anyone know where Ames and the other brands it owns - TapeTech/TapeMaster/TapePro/Apla -Tech are manufactured??

I'll say this, wherever Ames/TapeTech is manufactured, they do more of it then anyone else, and they should be doing it for less then anyone else. But, they charge you the most for the product, and that is not because the product is any better, it is just because they have more executives and middle men to pay. All of those people are doing nothing to add to your productivity and income.

The grocery clerk behind the counter charges you an extra thousand to hand you a set of tools and take your money, and if he sells NorthStar, he is required to tell you this meaningless phrase about NorthStar - "Simply the best", and you know, that he has no idea what he's talking about.

And, all of that is fine with the manufacturers, because they aren't concerned for one iota about your money, except that you use more of it to overpay them.

I've always been on the finishers side, because I am one, the manufacturers/dealers don't like it, but I still qualify them by asking the same question that I started asking in 1980 when a Grabber clerk told me that Tapeworm was the best - How many miles of tape have you put on?

"I don't tape", said he.

jdl

1wallboardsman

Hey Tim,

It is very difficult to get what you pay for in taping tools, because the manufacturers have no clue of what you need for maximum workability.

Goldblatt, Drywall Master, and others have gone to a cup style plunger for the taper because it is less expensive to manufacture. Great, except that it may swell with some oils.

Their boxes are a bigger mistake then what Premier made, and their price is the only thing good anybody can say about them. The idiot engineer at Goldblatt reduced them to mud-application tools on the excuse that 4 people have knocked their boxes over and broken their brass. But the real reason for the design change is so that they are no longer compatible with TapeTech and GoldBlatt can make more money on the now proprietary maintenence parts.

Now they have re-designed their angle heads by copying NorthStar with a different lock, fine if you like NorthStar heads, I don't and prefer the original Ames/TapeTech design that Goldblatt used to have and that I now substitute.

The Nailspotter is the original automatic taping tool, but 1933 was so long ago that these dumb executives don't understand why it had a short handle on it in the first place and/or why Ames went to fiberglass in 1985 (an idea stolen from me, BTW), so they go back to aluminum and make it as long as your roller handle.

Ames gets the wrap-around brake for the box handle by buying Premier, but do they want to give it to you via TapeTech? So far, no.

They've all got bad attitudes, but, so far, Goldblatt is the only one trying to put a good tool in your hands for a reasonable price.

Now, the thing to do would be to see if they also want to be the first manufacturer to respond to the finishers by telling them the same thing that I told them in Feb. 2007, they need to go back to original design flat-boxes, and put the roller-plunger back in the taper.

If you tell them that you like the fact that they are selling you a corner roller for the same price as a TapeTech wheel kit, and the same pump for $260 without gigging you an extra $50 for a box filler, they might get back on track.

Hey, are you around Lexington? Maybe I could stop in sometime and talk tools? Got a bucket for me?

jdl

Tim0282

What do you mean when you say with your own additions? Sounds interesting and appealing.
Tim

1wallboardsman

I've been offering alternate flat boxes that are TapeTech clones since FinishPro re-designed theirs, and now I'm having them powder coated to match in color. They come with extra blades, double-sided shoes, and real quiet urethane wheels. They have a spring washer on the wheel bar to keep it from knocking around, and they are designed so that if you want to employ the old-dog trick of using the box as a scraper on ceilings, you can by removing the "easy-clean" tabs and using thumb screws through the side plates to hold the pressure plate.

Then I make extending handles for the angle tools, including the Abox, that go from 3' - 6' so they are the other foot long that Nstar doesn't know that you need. My angle ball adapter for the angle head not only has the crook down (3.5"), in the right place for more manueverability, it is also adjustable so that you can adjust it for your height and/or the height of the work.

Premier is the first one I know of to screw this up, and for years I thought it was something with their angle head that reduced reach and manueverability, but it turned out to be that they put the crook up only an inch from the ball, NStar, Rankee and others copied it without knowing that it makes a difference.

My extending handles go with the set for the same price as the standard fiberglass poles. Goldblatt has also gone back to aluminum, not a good idea.

Goldblatt has changed the nailspotter too, they made a different link piece that screws on and off of the handle, good idea, then they muck that up by pinning it on a standard 4' aluminum handle so that you must buy their handle (which is too long) with their nailspotter. You can't even get the link piece separate. An old trick widely employed by manufacturers to nickel and dime you for things that you would rather replace anyway.

I have a machine shop duplicate the link piece so that I can sell the nailspotter with a short 2' - 4' ex. handle that also screws on and screws off. So that you can put the longer one from your roller on it for high ceilings. For even higher ceilings, just screw it onto a 6' - 12' ex. handle. At 2' the standard handle is very workable on walls and the handle is never in your way even in closets.

If a man wanted to, he could run this nailspotter one handed without the handle on it too. Can come in handy for coating No-Coat with nailspotters.

Goldblatt also has recently changed their angle heads by copying NStar completely with a different lock, for those that prefer the original small and light Ames design, I offer that style with a 5 year warranty.

After all of that, I call it the "Best" set because it is high on workability, and durability, but low on cost and maintenence.

jdl

Tim0282

After all that, do you sell them? Kind of a dumb question, I guess. It sounds like you have done a lot of thinking about the tools. Good to have some one like you in the world. My mind doesn't work like that. Sometimes you get too busy to notice that the tools aren't working properly. And once you write about a certain thing like on the angle head, It is, Yea I do notice that, now that you mention it. You sound interesting. Thanks for the explanation.

cooper

lkjk

tapersteve

1wallboardsman--Did you ever work in GA?

tapersteve

I always buy online I have had TapeTech for years, I bought a set of NorthStar a year ago and love them, most parts are machined not cast, and they don't corrode at all. Running NorthStar is like driving a BMW. I say treat yourself to them, after all you are using them everyday to make your money.

1wallboardsman

I was the greatest of all wallboardsman in all of GA from 1992 - 2005. So, how do I know you?

jdl