Being the card carrying DIY’er that I am, I watch a lot of DIY television and read a lot of DIY books and such. That being said, I still regard this forum to be my greatest resource for information, instruction, and inspiration. So, I offer my question of the day:
When it comes to mixing thinset, I see some folks using a paddle mixer chucked in a drill, and other folks just hand mixing it with a margin trowel or similar tool.
Is one method better than the other?
Michael
New knowledge is priceless.
Used knowledge is even more valuable.
Replies
Paddle mixer on a heavy drill in a 5-gal bucket gets my vote. That is, unless you WANT to take about 3 times longer mixing by hand.
Just make sure you get all the way to the bottom edges.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Drill & mixer. Hold bucket with feet.
Joe H
For extra thrills I stand on the 5 gal bucket so my weight prevents the bucket from spinning. Maybe not the safest but effective.
Careful, I once spun myself into an alternate universe doing that.
"Careful, I once spun myself into an alternate universe doing that."
Now that is good advice!
I am also mindful of how close my shirt or pants front are to the rotating chuck...
Yeah, I do that and all the guys start laughing at me. Haven't spun off yet though.
Drill and mixer all the way. Start thin and add the thinset to get it to the right consistency. If you get too thick, the drill will whip the buck around and if theres a handle, it'll meet your shins.
Good tip. I wish we had a rate the comment doda on the side.
I'd give that a 10, add dry to wet.
I have a small plastic mixing box, about 2'X3', made for just this purpose. Cost less than $10. And I have a small garden hoe, about the same price. It takes about five minutes of easy mixing, standing up, to get the mud just right, then shovel it into a 5gal pail.
As an occasional tile guy, that's my preferred method.
Edited 8/7/2007 4:17 pm ET by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Ditto Joe H's technique.
Drill, mixer, 5 gal bucket held with feet.
I always seem to be working in the immediate vicinity of finished space, so I put the bucket (and feet) inside of a smallish plastic mortar pan - gives you a place to put the gloppy mixer, catches any drips and keeps the homeowner happy!
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Depends. Most of the tile work I've been doing is more intricate than laying entire floors or walls of the same large tile. I prefere mixing up small quantites in my case and in doing so I prefere to just use a piece of 1x 2 or similar.
Large areas i use a paddle
"the most amazing buddhist prayer song I have ever heard during my trip through the hidden mystique countries like Nepal and India. I've heard it playing everywhere in Kathmandu - buses, ashrams, hotels,streets, etc... "author unknown
how it sounds^-->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2shskL0AYuE
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Andy, I have an old mixer thingee for small batches. Used to live in the kitchen until I disappeared it.
Works good for a quart size batch.
Don't know what you call it, it's one of those things you licked when you were a kid -- 2 of them go in the mixer.
Joe H
Yeh...that sounds good/perfect. Small batches and sometimes I use my paint mixer. thing is I don't like cleaning the paddle for just small mixes..just lazy I guess. I have a bucket filled with 2'-3'-4' drops(scraps) from different projects I keep. I use them for mixing paint, drywall mud, thinset, bondo, all kinda things. I must have fifty or more drops I keep in a bucket that gets replaced constantly.
I spose' I hate throwing nice thin wood scraps out..lol...but on large mixes I use my paddle for thinset, mud mixer for drywall mud and paint mixer for five gallon buckets of paint mixed with Flotrol.
The wife keeps asking me why I don't throw out some of my 5 gallon paint and drywall buckets. I must have fifty of em'. I told her if she throws one single one out thats grounds for a divorce...lol
"the most amazing buddhist prayer song I have ever heard during my trip through the hidden mystique countries like Nepal and India. I've heard it playing everywhere in Kathmandu - buses, ashrams, hotels,streets, etc... "author unknown
how it sounds^-->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2shskL0AYuE
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Eggbeater. I've also used a potato masher for small batches of DW mud -- should work for thinset.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
For small batches a margin trowel or the ubiquitos 1x2 works well.
We normally are laying 400 feet or more at any one time and we have a special low speed mixing drill just for the thinset.
A couple of things that will kill a tile job are too much water in the thinset, and too fast of a mixing speed. The directions on the bag should state what the maximum speed is for mixing. Too fast and you will entrain air into the mix which is very bad.
sully
never heard of the mixing speed thing but it makes sense. I'll have to look at a bag next time. what happens if it is entrained w/ air? just curiuos"it aint the work I mind,
It's the feeling of falling further behind."Bozini Latini
Its not just air...it is also heat. That stuff will cook if mixed fast!Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fishand he'll sit in a boat all day, drinking beer.
One summer we hired a recent high school grad and had him mixing thinset for a large area. I showed him how to mix it in a bucket with the drill and went inside to lay tile. The thinset came in with the right consistency and I didn't give it a second thought.
Until coffee break. I came out to see our young helper covered with mud and, having discarded his shoes, looking like Huck Finn. We made him clean off the siding but I missed a few spots on my truck (a good thirty feet away) and those stayed with the truck until it retired.
I don't know what he subsequently learned in college but I hope that he carries this real life lesson wherever he goes.
Depends on how badly you want to build up your muscles. Most pros figure they already got as much as they're gonna get.
joe h. is right 5 gal. bucket w/ a paddle mixer and h.d. drill motor works best. add water first for best results. 3-4 inches deep for 1/3 50lb. bag of thinset. let it "slake" or sit for a few min. and remix and adjust your mix according to your desired consistency. i like to taste it to see if its done.
I prefer to snort it.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
food / bread / batter mixer from hobart....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
When mixing thinset I screw a 5 gal bucket to a two ft square piece of 3/4 plywood so I can stand on the plywood while using the paddle mixer in a 1/2 inch drill.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it." - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
When mixing thinset I screw a 5 gal bucket to a two ft square piece of 3/4 plywood so I can stand on the plywood while using the paddle mixer in a 1/2 inch drill.
Which is exactly how the helicopter was invented. The first flight was 100 feet, the length of the extension cord.
so how far could we get using a cordless....Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
So far, 1200' feet seems to be the limit at full speed with NiCad, litheon might be better.
gotta go find a V36....
I wunder ...
if we put several in parrallel....Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Nope.Can't do it.
Don't want to upset the space-time continuum.
yur no fun....Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I just wanted to head you off before you re-created the conditions that led to the big bang.
now who doesn't a really good fireworks display...
this could very well be the mother of all shows...
think of the rush...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
and to think it all started cuz someone wanted to mix a little thinset, oh the horror
but our different power mixing methods are so bland in comparrison...
go for the GOLD!!!!
how's Matt's foot...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Doc gave him a clean bill of health, can do everything but run right now.
excellent...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
You and Heck do it with one foot on the bucket while being funny. I'll stand on the plywood.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,Moves on: nor all your Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it." - Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
From their description I think they do it with one foot in the grave.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
if that's the case...
let's go fer broke and add the other foot...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
it'd be more fun to not use feet....
gives the laborer something to do...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
sure is entertaining when the bucket slips and you're suddenly faced with a mini-tornado of thinset..... 550 rpm and a full bucket will thinset everything within 8 feet and all you have to do is spread it with the trowel.
don't ask me how I know this......
Although it could happen mixing by hand, the risk is higher when using a hd drill and paddle.......Never mix in one of those orange buckets from Home Depot. You will end up with little orange curley ques in your mortat, or worse your grout.
For years I used a margin trowel.
I'd do 4-5 inches in a drywall bucket, mix it well, then another 4-5 inches on top of that, mix it well, then mix it all together.
I ended up with strong forearms and bare bone showing on my knuckles.<g>
A few years ago I had a few thousand feet of slate to set outdoors. I broke down and bought a paddle.
Max recommended spinning speed is about 300 rpm.
I do an entire drywall bucket using the method one of the other gents recommended, I use one foot on the top of the drywall bucket.
I keep another drywall bucket about 1/2-2/3rds full of water. When done mixing, I spin the paddle in the water, a few pulses forward, a few in reverse, and it cleans it right up.
Lordy do I love that paddle.
Mongo