Cool Mortar Jig

[dmun]

As I may have shared before, I am not a good bricklayer. This tool from the UK is a great thing from the look of it, I may have to get one.

http://bricky.com/html/offer.htm

It is a pair of jigs that lay down a perfect bed of mortar between courses of brick, and between individual bricks. The joints come out uniform and level, and there is no waste or dripping of mortar. The mortar joint is already finished when you lay in the brick, there is no scraping of the joint after the fact.

For those with broadband, there is a video. The spokesman has a really neat accent. Scottish?

http://www.drywall-emporium.com/Bricky_video.wmv

I have no connection to this product, it just seems like a must for masonry. James, you may want to add it to your FB store.

[DrakeRemoray]

Pretty Cool,

I liked the video because it shows what consistency the mortar should be...

Drake

[christo]

I saw this tool a few years ago but could not find a local supplier.

I made my own out of plywood and some fiberglass when I was building several brick piers to hold up a deck. My homemade version worked pretty well. I covered it in fiberglass as the sawn wood edges stuck to the mortar a little too well.

When I saw the tool on the web, it put a bed of mortar down 3/8 inch or so in from the edge of the brick and I think was advertized as no need (or little need) to tool the joints. I worried that the joints not being tooled would evenually cause leakage. At the website today there is some provision for tooling - if you plan to use a 1/8 inch grapevine jointer you might have problems.

I went back and make the mortar bed nearly as wide as the brick so that I had some level of squeeze out to tool.

Where it helped me most was handling mortar, reducing the amount I had to scrape up off the ground and the amount I had to scrub off the face of the bricks - very little to clean up. I was mixing mortar by hand, so I was glad for the increased number of bricks per batch.

Arch construction may reveal some limitations.....

For inexperienced guys like me - it works. For 60 dollars I should buy the real deal and get my wife to help!!!!

Christo

[CanuckJim]

Dmun,

Yep, pretty cool tool indeed. One proviso, though. You do want to tool or finish point your joints no matter how the bricks are laid. This is less for appearance (except for facade bricks) and more for seal and strength.

Jim