I dropped $450 on a fancy automatic taper and honestly, I'm sending it back.

Everyone on the crew said it would cut my taping time in half. Used it on a big commercial job last week, a 12,000 square foot office space. The thing jammed on every inside corner, wasted more time clearing it than I saved on the long runs. My old hand tools and a steady pace still beat it for a clean finish, at least for the type of work I do. Anyone have a go-to manual corner tool they swear by instead?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.ruby7d ago

Hold on, sending it back after one bad day on a huge job seems crazy. Those automatic tools have a break-in period, like a new pair of boots. Maybe @ivan_mason is onto something about the learning curve. You can't expect to master a complex tool on the hardest possible corner right away. My crew had the same issues at first, but we stuck with it and now it flies on big open walls. The problem might not be the tool, it could be the technique on those inside corners.

sageadams4h ago

So it's that big of a deal?

ivan_mason7d ago

That's a real bummer about the automatic taper. Sometimes the learning curve on those fancy tools can be steep though. Maybe give it another shot on a smaller project before you send it back for good.