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Martin Harrold wrote:Ah - read down a bit further - maybe you can send it on to our East Anglian friend. Now, is he a tractorman or a canary? (let him explain)
LOL!!! Well geographically I should be a Tractorman but defiantly not a Canary! (who are ya? who are ya?)
first impressions of the Framers mate were not too good,
if you're left handed you basically can't use it to its full extent, it is designed with a right handed person in mind.
its all a bit fiddly too, we've decided to patent our own framers mate, its called our fingers.. much easier than inventing a bit of plastic to do the job for you- and quicker
Thanks Grahame for passing on the Framers Mate.
Had it for about a week, but this is the first chance I have had to report back.
So… (I will try to be objective for this bit)
To start with it is in a nice box and the instructions are clear.
The tool is black and easy to handle with a sort of a non-slip finish.
It is suited to right handed users.
To start with I tried it with gummed paper tape (licky sticky as some call it). It worked well sticking the wet tape down firmly but it did not get it into the edges as well as I can with my fingers. It also tore the tape around the glaziers points which was not good.
Then I tried it with self adhesive tape (eco tape). Again it worked well firmly sticking the tape down along the frame and onto the backing board. But it did not get the tape into the edges as well as I can using my fingers.
Over all it did the job with self adhesive tape but you need to be careful with gummed paper tape.
It was considerably slower than using my fingers.
Now this is my subjective opinion…
It was painfully slow to use.
Being black I would lose it on my bench and have to hunt round for it (it was right in front of me all along!).
It is too long. It needs about 5cm chopped off the end.
It worked well for some taping tasks. But it was next to useless with gummed paper tape.
The bottom line… would I buy one? No.
(But maybe if it was £5 or less, then it might be handy to have in the workshop for occasional use.)
Martin, I will get it back in the post to you after the bank holiday.
