Filling in a 20mm hole that's too big for sealant

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Mavarick

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#1970157 6-Mar-2018 20:44

@neb, thnaks very much, and i feel your pain about some of the cowboy work done around the place,

last place had a piece of 4x2 nailed to the end of a beam because it was cut to short but was holding up a rafter, replaced with a proper beam as it was also going to hold up a covered area for outside.

neb

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#1970787 7-Mar-2018 17:55

Apologies if you already know this, but since you'll be finishing off a largeish flat area with a somewhat tacky silicone-based sealant a useful trick to get it smoothed out is to get something like a credit card, dip it in soapy water, and use that as a spatula. A putty knife or something similar that you'd use for polyfilla will make a mess of things.

Another option that I've used is a silicone squeegee used for wiping down glass shower doors. Something I've not even thought about using is the missuses silicone baking spatula. Nope, never even considered that one.

If you do a lot of grouting, the best tool is the German-made Fugi profiling tools, which you can get in hardware shops all over Europe but are more or less unobtainable here, I found a source in Australia but they charge $40-50 for a set. It looks like you can get a Fugi copy here for $4, but I haven't looked at them close up to see how they compare.

neb

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#1970790 7-Mar-2018 18:18

neb: If you do a lot of grouting, the best tool is the German-made Fugi profiling tools, which you can get in hardware shops all over Europe but are more or less unobtainable here,

Hmm, not counting the Chinese exact copies on eBay, that is. Holy crap, that's a Fugi, but for $3 from China.

Mavarick

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#1970796 7-Mar-2018 19:10

Cheaper than a carton of chips in most places

SepticSceptic

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#1976651 14-Mar-2018 17:50

neb: It looks like you can get a Fugi copy here for $4, but I haven't looked at them close up to see how they compare.

I used these cheapies for when I was making epoxy + filler fillets. Worked a damn treat ! Consistently better than a finger, and a lot less mess.

Though I did have to biff them after a while, because even epoxy will stick to silicone eventually because of the grooves and nicks that invariably occur.

neb

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#1976653 14-Mar-2018 17:54

SepticSceptic:
neb: It looks like you can get a Fugi copy here for $4, but I haven't looked at them close up to see how they compare.

I used these cheapies for when I was making epoxy + filler fillets. Worked a damn treat ! Consistently better than a finger, and a lot less mess.

I tried the cheapies that Bunnings have and was rather disappointed, it's some sort of hard-ish plastic rather than soft silicone and didn't do a good job at all, I ended up using the traditional fallback of finger + soapy water. I'll wait and see how the Chinese copies work out when they arrive.

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