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Finally gave in and tried the automatic taper after swearing by hand tools for 8 years
Honestly, I used to think automatic tapers were just for lazy guys who couldn't handle a banjo. Then I picked up a used one for $75 off a guy in Austin, mostly to shut up my foreman who kept pushing it. First job with it was a 2,000 square foot basement, and I knocked out the taping in half the time I normally would. Still prefer hand finishing for the corners and small patches though. Anyone else find a specific job where the auto taper just doesn't cut it?
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kai8393mo ago
Still had to hand finish every corner" - that used to be my exact argument against buying one. I was the guy who thought real drywallers only used knives and pans. But man, after trying it on a 1500 square foot basement job, I changed my tune fast. Those flats you used to spend forever on? Done in half the time. Yeah, the corners still need a hand knife, but for me the trade off was worth it. You just gotta accept the tool has limits and move on.
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bell.jessica3mo ago
Used my auto taper on 1200 feet of board and still had to hand finish every corner anyway.
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thomasb413mo ago
That "still had to hand finish every corner" part is the real kicker. I've found you can minimize that if you change the angle of your auto taper head just a hair when you're running inside corners, but it's never a perfect fix. Even with the best tool setup, you're still gonna spend an hour or two with a hand knife scraping and smoothing the overlap where the tape didn't seat right. The auto taper saves time on the flats for sure, but those corners just don't cooperate.
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