Sand and Oil mastic gun

[skier-hughes]

A good while ago someone posted a link to such an item.

Now I could do with one I can't find anything relating to it using in the search feature, maybe it was on the old site??

Can anyone help me find one?

has anyone used one? Is it any good?

Should I just continue with my home made Oak spatula and resign myself to a good week of applying mastic round the windows, a it took me a whole day to do two sides of one window!!!!

Back to google

Graham

 

[Nemesis]

Not a clue - but try Womersleys who I think sell ready made mastic of that type?

 

[skier-hughes]

See what a break in looking does, found this, anyone used one?

http://www.drywall-emporium.com/Durgun45_webpage.htm

 

[Nemesis]

I was just about to suggest a mortar gun.

We tried one but found that the mortar mix was too rough - and it kept clogging, and wore away the nozzle.

We have seen finer mortar used with one more successfully. Very useful for ashlar repairs for example. Ours is pretty 'rustic' and needs large size aggregate.

Have also seen workmen using one to repoint paving stones (in cement).

On Grand Designs a couple of weeks' ago a couple repairing a house in France did miles of lime mortar with one.

 

[Nemesis]

Just a thought - if the stuff is runny - try a cake icing kit!

 

[inwood]

I used two of these when repointing the house the summer before last. The reason I used two was because they kept jamming. I had to keep opening the turqoiuse housing (from the photo you've linked to) to adjust the inside. I gave up in the end.

However my brother recently bought me one of these for my birthday (oh the joys being an adult - sensible presents):
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/45910...Mortar-Gun?cm_re=SEARCHPROMO-_-DURGUN-_-45910

It's much more sturdy and adjustable and so far better than the other one. It does come with a thin plastic nozzle and you can buy replacement barrels/nozzles for it.

The only thing it wouldn't work with was hydraulic and sharp sand - it just compressed the water out of the mix and you ended up with a solid lump of virtually dry mix in the barrell. It worked great with lime putty and sharp though.

I guess the thin plastic barrel would be good for oil and sand mix as you can cut the nozzle to the size you need it.

 

[skier-hughes]

Just a thought - if the stuff is runny - try a cake icing kit!

I tried a heavy duty syringe, but it just extracted the oil leaving me a drier mix of sand inside.

 

[skier-hughes]

I used two of these when repointing the house the summer before last. The reason I used two was because they kept jamming. I had to keep opening the turqoiuse housing (from the photo you've linked to) to adjust the inside. I gave up in the end.

However my brother recently bought me one of these for my birthday (oh the joys being an adult - sensible presents):
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/45910...Mortar-Gun?cm_re=SEARCHPROMO-_-DURGUN-_-45910

It's much more sturdy and adjustable and so far better than the other one. It does come with a thin plastic nozzle and you can buy replacement barrels/nozzles for it.

The only thing it wouldn't work with was hydraulic and sharp sand - it just compressed the water out of the mix and you ended up with a solid lump of virtually dry mix in the barrell. It worked great with lime putty and sharp though.

I guess the thin plastic barrel would be good for oil and sand mix as you can cut the nozzle to the size you need it.

Ok, confused me.

My link was to the durgun 45, which you had two of and didn't like.
Your link is to the durgun 45 which is better built and you do like?

I'll pop into screwfix later and have a look at one.

 

[Ian Bond]

£2+ ex VAT per litre of mastic seems very expensive to me. I bought mine from Womersley last time, and hope I can assemble the various ingredients to make my own more economically in future.

Boiled linseed oil, (rosin?), fine sand.

I just use a small trowel to apply the mastic, in fact the same one I use for pointing.

I can usually do a whole window in less than an hour, so I'm not sure why it's taking so long? In fact I've just done one for a new oak frame, whilst squashed into a tiny light well with iron security bars over the opening. Very uncomfortable working conditions so I was keen to get it done as quick as possible.

The big voids are first filled with a lime mortar. When that's set I brush linseed oil around the frame edge/wall to prime the area, and help the mastic to stick better.

Takes a bit of practice to mix the ideal consistency - neither too dry or too sloppy - but just right so it doesn't keep falling off.

Then trowel the mastic on and smooth it to a reasonable shape.

 

[biffvernon]

The replaceable nozzle is made from copper and is therefore easy to change the size of opening with pliers to suit the job in hand.

I like the idea of a tool that is designed to be bent to taste. I usually do that to tools that were not so intended.

 

[skier-hughes]

I can usually do a whole window in less than an hour, so I'm not sure why it's taking so long?

Do you fill from front to back with mastic, or just seal round the edge?

I thought it'd be best to comletely fill the void with mastic to ensure all draughts and leaks stopped?

I do it like this;
Fill large gaps with lime mortar
Fit window, using Oak wedges
Use lime mortar if neccessary to fill any large voids
Put some mastic round the outside.
Check inside for any gaps using sunlight
Fill rest of void - about 95mm - with mastic from inside.

To do this means spending plenty of time feeding mastic into, sometimes, very small gaps.
Our windows are not going into nice squared off edges.

Am I being to picky?

Graha

 

[Ian Bond]

Most of my windows are set back behind dressed masonry, in deep window reveals. The external gaps around the frame are not too large, so I don't need to use vast quantities of mortar. The mastic fillet then easily covers any remaining gaps.

However, the cellar window I've just done is set into a rougher, out-of-square opening, and the frame's not set back behind masonry.

I've used oak wedges to secure the frame, then haired lime mortar to seal the large gaps around the frame, from both the inside and outside.

I pin bits of stone into the mortar to help fill larger voids, then apply more mortar to cover the stone. You do something similar when pointing large joints - pinning or galleting. Except I've had to use rather bigger bits of stone.

Once the mortar's gone off, I trowel on a sufficiently wide fillet of mastic to seal the exterior joint between the frame and wall. Brushing oil around the frame/wall joint first helps it stick.

I've never tried to fill the entire depth of the void around the frame with mastic though.

On the inside, the cellar window reveal with be lime plastered to complete the job. I've fitted splayed timber reveals to my sash windows in the rest of the house, but plaster would do the same job of sealing the frame from the inside.

 

[Ian Bond]

Uneven masonry reveal, gaps filled with mortar, joint sealed with mastic fillet.

Internal reveal - gaps filled with mortar and small pieces of stone, lime plastered to finish:

Quite rough and rustic, but just in a cellar of a low status building. You could do a much neater job for something more 'on show'.

A off-cut of lead flashing has been fitted under the sill, folder up around the lower parts of the frame, just to give a bit of protection from the damp masonry.

When the linseed paint dries I can fix the repaired softwood casement sashes.

 

[skier-hughes]

I've never tried to fill the entire depth of the void around the frame with mastic though.

This will be why we have a time difference

So the question is SHOULD I fill all the gap or just seal the inside outside edges?

 

[Ian Bond]

I wouldn't bother trying to fill the entire depth of the joint with mastic, unless you're getting water driven in around the frame, perhaps in extreme weather or on exposed elevations.

There's a good case to be made for improving upon, or correcting an earlier design if you've discovered a problem.

I've just copied the methods that I found had been used on my original windows, as described above. Where the windows had been letting rain it, it was just due to defective mastic, and simply redoing it properly solved the problem.

 

[skier-hughes]

We do hav some rain leakage, but think it is due to poor pointing.

I'll try my new gun and see how easy it is, but only when the weather cools down a bit. Off out to do some more gardening in a bit.

 

[biffvernon]

Those iron bars should stop the window falling out too far.

 

[skier-hughes]

Passed by screwfix, so picked one up.
Can't think of anything I've bought that has given me so much hope and let me down so much.

Ok, the product is fine for what it's supposed to do, but it ain't any good whatsoever for pushing out a finish spouting of sand/oil mastic.

It did a nice job of sperating out the sand and oil.

When the nozzle was big enough for it to remain a mastic mix it was far to big to do the job I wanted it to do.

Anyone doing some pointing and want a cheap gun

Went back to my home-made Oak spatula and didn't bother to fill from front to back, but just pushed it in as far as I could without making the job difficult.

Graham

 

[Ian Bond]

Sometimes the old way is the best way.

 

[Craig]

Seems like this wont work either but there are these guys:

http://www.easipoint.co.uk/walling_lime_putty.html

Even when you buy "ready mixed" mastic/sand, it comes as a bucket of sand and a bottle of oil...

We used it only to seal around the outside, not to fill the gaps between wall and sash box.