Automatic grouting tool - GIF

Automatic grouting tool. Gimmicky? Forearm killer? Waste of time, since he'll need to come back and touch up the grouting lines?

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More: https://www.amazon.com/Quickpoint-Mo.../dp/B000NB95AM

Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...2761#post97076
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...3736#post99893
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...2869#post97376

Might be cumbersome to use but that is the nature of many tools which are made in an effort to speed up an otherwise mundane and laborious task.
Over they years I have had the privilege to know several brick layers, stone masons and faux stone cladding installers.
Brick layers will almost always have an apprentice doing the point troweling and clean up brushing of their mortar joints.
Likewise for stone masons. I've known some contractors who had several ticks of their trade like using a sock like tool much as a confectioner might use to decorate cakes to inject the mortar into the joints to fill them. Another might have something which would resemble a calk gun plus other tools of their trades. Many will try virtually anything they can come up with to make their very tedious jobs easier save them some labor cost in application and clean up.
Faux stone cladding installers do the same thing This goes for guys who install ceramic tile mosaics. Can you imagine the the amount of labor Antoni Gaudi put into creating La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Spain. Or the tiling of the subways and tunnels in New York
Gimmicky and forearm killers maybe. Whose to say unless we've actually had to walk their shoes. Not me, I tried helping a brick layer friend of mine once, make that twice. First and last all in the same day. I was 20 years his junior and thought at the time I was invincible, I only thought that I was used to hard work at a fast pace I wouldn't want to even imagine stone work.

A cake icing bag would work also...

My brother has this exact tool with a Milwaukee drill on it, and he used it for his garage bricking project, specifically on the thin brick area. The hard part is getting the mortar into the joint, and that's what that tool is used for. Otherwise you don't have a good way of pushing abrasive material into a small crack... the other option is the grout bag, but motorized is better. Regardless of how you get the mortar into the joint, you still have to come back and tool the joint. Then later you have to scrub and power wash to get the residue off of the stone or brick.
Here's a link to garage journal where my brother posted about using this on the thin brick. See post #8 & 9.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=334116

About 10 years ago I worked on a job where a mason used a Similar tool that hooked to a cordless drill. I asked him about it. He told me that it was expensive but well worth the money in the time savings but HAD to be meticulously cleaned each and every time. He loaned his first one out and it was ruined from lack of proper cleaning. From my observing him using it, it did seem to work very well.

I have one as well...driven by a Ryobi. Not being a mason, I call it unbeatable. I can get someone to use it while I attend joints on brick work. Seller was a traditional mason, just retiring. I willingly invest on interesting or useful tools for reasons like those, or anticipated future use. Found it as many of my odd treasures on list of that guy Craig.

As 'suther51' notes above [post #5], loaning out is risky.
I have a cornucopia of odd commercial tools. Only my friends know about them. Aware of what monetary value is placed on them to replace [not my acquisition cost] borrowing stipulates that agreement. Not rent, just security.
Persons who mistreat or damage others property, do so unaware of how much work had to be done to pay for said item.

Next day at 0530, this occurred to me.
Certain groups exist that despite need for such items; can't, don't, or won't work to acquire them. In that way, little separates them from burglars or thieves.

"As 'suther51' notes above [post #5], loaning out is risky.
I have a cornucopia of odd commercial tools. Only my friends know about them. Aware of what monetary value is placed on them to replace [not my acquisition cost] borrowing stipulates that agreement. Not rent, just security.
Persons who mistreat or damage others property, do so unaware of how much work had to be done to pay for said item."

Have several of those kind of you borrow them and don't take care of them you replace them equal or greater value tools myself.

Hey Guys, I'm the brother to Kent. I thought I would post a few pictures of the garage dormer that I used the motorized grout tool on.... (For some reason I can't get photos to upload... I'll have to try again later.)

I did buy some new tips for my mortar gun. The brick spacing was fairly narrow and I needed a smaller tip to get the mortar to flow into the joint. My mortar joints were about 1" deep and it was tough to get the mortar to flow all the way to the back.

Wider and shallow mortar joints would work better.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Brad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

I have one as well...driven by a Ryobi. Not being a mason, I call it unbeatable. I can get someone to use it while I attend joints on brick work. Seller was a traditional mason, just retiring. I willingly invest on interesting or useful tools for reasons like those, or anticipated future use. Found it as many of my odd treasures on list of that guy Craig.

As 'suther51' notes above [post #5], loaning out is risky.
I have a cornucopia of odd commercial tools. Only my friends know about them. Aware of what monetary value is placed on them to replace [not my acquisition cost] borrowing stipulates that agreement. Not rent, just security.
Persons who mistreat or damage others property, do so unaware of how much work had to be done to pay for said item.

Next day at 0530, this occurred to me.
Certain groups exist that despite need for such items; can't, don't, or won't work to acquire them. In that way, little separates them from burglars or thieves.

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Toolmaker51 , If you don't mind I am going to make a sign with this out in very large letters and hang in the back of my work area. We all know them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NortonDommi

Toolmaker51 , If you don't mind I am going to make a sign with this out in very large letters and hang in the back of my work area. We all know them.

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I'm honored, second time aware that someone's [here on HMT.net] chosen to preserve one of my phrases. Being you are several 1000 kilometer/ miles away make it real big!

Beats the hell out of a grout bag!