Masonry Magazine May 2005 Page. 30
Masonry Tools
TOOL TIME:
SIMPLE
PRODUCTS
WITH
PLENTY
OFFER
FROM HAND TOOLS TO HANDY PRODUCTS, this year's offerings for mason contractors and their crews look quite promising. Although some of the designs seem quite basic to some degree, the fore-thought and research behind them have created tools that will successfully help you to add time and money back into your bottom line, while also cutting down on fatigue and possible injury among your masons, mason tenders and laborers.
Increasing Mortar Boardlife
OUR FIRST HANDY new product is the patent-pending Gatorback Mortarboard, of Lakeville, Minn. While mortarboards have been rather overlooked in the past, this innovative product offers masons and contractors a lot of time-saving features.
The Gatorback is made out of a durable, injection-molded material that is non-absorbent and resistant to temperature variations. The mortarboard won't suck the moisture out of your mortar like a wooden mortarboard or cook the water out like a steel mortarboard in hotter temperatures. With an added concave working surface, the Gatorback reduces retempering and is touted to increase mortar boardlife by as much as 20 to 25 minutes.
"If you're retempering mortar, you run the risk of changing the color, as well as the strength and consistency of the mortar. Basically, each time you add more water, you're diluting the power of the cement and pigment in the mix," says Brian Carney, of Gatorback Mortarboards. "The key for masons to achieve higher rates of production is to make sure that they have an optimal mortar mix with excellent boardlife."
The board also features a clever handle that allows several boards to be carried at once.
"It allows people to carry the board in a little more ergonomically correct fashion, as opposed to in front of their body," says Carney. "Now tenders can carry multiple boards at their side at one time - up to four boards in each hand."
By Jennie Farnsworth