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Posted 20 hours ago

OX Speedskim Universal Pole Attachment

£12.6£25.20Clearance
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ZTS2023
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About this deal

I was really impressed with the Speedskim I can pretty much say that it has now become an essential tool in my plastering kit and I don’t think I will ever not use it. Notwithstanding my success with the tool I know plasterers who have bought Speedskims and gone into rages of frustration because they can’t get the hang of them. In that respect it may be easier to get a non-plasterer up to speed than an old hand but it is the older guys who are suffering with repetitive strain injury from years on the trowel who will benefit the most. It won’t get the plaster on the wall or ceiling and it may not give you the final polish but it could save you 500 sweeps of the trowel in a day and that has got to give your wrist a rest. That figure of 500 is entirely a guess by the way. I have never counted how many movements of the trowel it takes to flatten a wall or ceiling and I probably never will. In the end I suppose it depends how well you put it on. Compatible with all gypsum based plasters (hand and spray applied), traditional sand and cement renders and insulated rendering systems

So the rest of the job I was either re-skimming board work or re-skimming old plaster and it soon became clear that I was using the Speedskim on every single wall and every time I would use it a little smile would creep in as I realised how little effort it took to flatten in. Especially in the heat. I have enough plastering experience and am a very open minded person to know when a product is going to be something that is valuable and also very useful. There have been some very mixed reveiws about it from the beginning as some plasterers just don’t like change and so we tend to ignore their comments as I think they would still be mixing up with a podger if they could. The general consensus is that its been a very handy tool. When I first saw the Speedskim on The Plasterers Forum I knew that it was going to be a great product and from the reveiws from some of the experienced members I also knew that it was going to be popular and seeing that I have very much been behind the success of the plastic trowel in the plastering industry I knew that the Speedskim might just become as popular if not more so The second coat went on and was also flattened off with the Speedskim and once again it was very easy to do but still once again it left 2 lines where the edges of the Speedskim had dug in. I had also put on the window reveals and used the Speedskim to flatten off which made very light work of them.So this ceiling was pushing 40 m2 and although it was over plasterboard the ceiling was up and down like a fiddlers elbow so it was going to be a bit of a challenge and the other challenge was going to be me having enough energy to put the ceiling on and finish it. What I like about these few and far between jobs that I do is that I get to play with some of the tools that I get sent and if you read my mixm8 review previously it can uncover some interesting findings. So this job was going to give me plenty of time to play with some new tools which includes the Speedskim and also something called a Japanese trowel. Since our first look at Speedskim the range is now being distributed by Ox Tools. It is fair to say that the Speedskim is not for everyone as some plasterers simply could not adapt to it but for those plasterers who have embraced it the main benefit is they can complete the laying down of finish plaster without the trowel. If you are suffering from RSI this gives your wrist a welcome break and the Speedskim is faster than even the widest flexi trowel. Using the pole, which is sold separately, you can lay down a ceiling simply by walking up and down the room first one way and then the other to achieve a level of flatness that trowels simply can’t achieve. As many of you will know I am a plasterer by trade, and although I am no longer trading as one I will still go and complete jobs for the old builders I use to carry out work for. One of the main reasons for this is that a couple of the local painters and decorators like to follow me, so even though I am now living on the south coast of England I still get the pleasure of returning to my home town.

You can buy the Speedskim in three different lengths 600, 1200, 1800mm. Most people tend to buy a set but if your main aim is to flatten ceilings I would suggest that the 1800 is a bit too wide to use on the pole. In fact I know some people who use the 600 on the pole, claiming that they get much better pressure and control. So the first task of this job was to skim a small study which had been plasterboarded, The builder gave me this room to break me in gently as the next room had a monster of a ceiling. I put the ceiling on first and once the first coat was on I used the 1200 Speedskim to flatten it off , The Speedskim left 2 fairly big lines though the ceiling where the corners dug in which was OK but meant I had to get my trowel out to flatten them in afterwards. However it did make very light work of flattening in and it also highlighted a couple of hollows in the ceiling, which was good, as overall you should get a better flat ceiling. Using a Speedskim is very much like using a featheredge as you do need to make sure that it is clean and free from and dried lumps of plaster. But the real test was going to be when I put the massive ceiling on the following day I have used these in the past and I think it was also in the mixm8 review where I discussed that I used the Speedskim on the barrel ceiling that I had to re-plaster. So although I have used the Speedskim in the past I had not used it enough to come to a full conclusion. This job was a bit of an odd job as it was meant to be just an extension but as the build continued more and more of the house needed further work doing so, the family decided to move out from what once was a small project extension to allow for a complete refurb. This also meant that the time it was expected to be ready for my plastering services was a little delayed which any other time of the year would not be a problem but due to my holiday commitments it only left me with 10 days to get as much of the plastering done as possible.Once you have made a pass each way on the wall or ceiling it will have taken off the high spots and, to a certain extent, filled in the hollows. It really depends on the angle you hold it at. If you hold it at 90 degrees it will take material off in the same way as a feather-edge but if you hold it at 45 degrees or even flatter it will lay the material down. This is achieved by a row of small ribs on the blade that helps limit the amount of material that moves up towards the handle. The job that I was recently asked to plaster was a house of a good friend of my parents and when I was recommended by a few other people and the builder that I use to do work for they decided that I was worth the extra money to get. Yes it does make me feel great to know that my previous reputation is still intact.. Ok so the first coat took a little over 3 bags to get on and because speed was of the essence I was not going to worry too much about using a trowel to flatten it in but simply get straight to the point and use the 1200 Speedskim. Yes a few people don’t like it but that is common with anything and to be honest you can’t please everybody and over the course of the years the Speedskim has evolved and changed ever so slightly. Like they have now got interchangeable blades and come in various sizes.

Over the coming months I am going to keep a set of Speedskims in the van and as I travel about the country I will let plasterers give them a try to gather some further impressions. Certainly my old mate Dave Pederson and his sons are interested in trying it on some big ceilings that they have coming up soon. They have what you might call a ‘healthy level of scepticism’ about anything that doesn’t hurt. They believe that work = pain and that is why people pay you to do it.

Ox Tools OX Speedskim Ultimate Plastic Flex Finishing Pack OX-P534805

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