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Remember when we used to mix mud by hand in a five gallon bucket?
I was cleaning out the garage yesterday and found my old mixing paddle, the one with the bent shaft from a long day in a Denver condo. It got me thinking. For years, that was the only way. You'd stand there, drill screaming, trying to get the lumps out, and your arm would be numb after three buckets. Then, maybe eight years back, I saw a guy using one of those mortar mixers, the kind with the spinning cage. I thought it was overkill. But he let me try it on a big ceiling job, and I mixed a whole bag in about 90 seconds, smooth as butter. I bought one the next week. It's not just faster, it's better. No more guessing if it's right, and my shoulder doesn't hate me at the end of the day. Does anyone still hand mix for smaller patches, or is that a dead art now?
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william_jackson6514d ago
My first mixer was a bent paint stirrer stuck in a half inch drill. I burned out two of those drills on a basement floor pour, and my elbow felt like it was full of gravel for a week. I held out for way too long, thinking real pros didn't need gadgets. Then I saw a guy like Paige mentioned finish his mud in half the time and actually have energy left to use it. I caved and got a proper paddle, and it was like discovering the wheel. For anything bigger than a five minute patch, I won't go back. The consistency is just perfect every single time.
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nancyramirez11d ago
But that old way builds character and you really learn the feel of the mud.
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