Recommendations on a good quality Caulk / Silicone Gun?

[albaPhenom]

Time has come to fit another mile of skirtings/door trims and felt I should buy a decent silicone gun for the adhesive and caulking.

I don't need any fancy expensive battery powered one but something a little step up from the cheapies you pick up for under a tenner that don't have any action to stop the flow after use.

Something around the £20-30 range that would last me for a few years and is easy on the hands.

Apologies as I know there has been some recommended in other threads, I had a search and couldn't find it though.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Go for a heavy duty gun. My personal favourite is the Tajima Convoy 26

because they are durable and comfortable, although there have been one or two adhesive cartridges they won't accommodate (always the glue tubes with spiral wound cardboard tubes for some reason - on the rare occasions I get those I just shorten them 10 to 20mm with a Stanley knife). Better guns have rotating bodies and some way to clear a blocked tube (often where the cointents have set). This is the inbuilt "poker" on my Tajima gun:

As you can see, my gun is well used. It cost about £22 new a few years back, but it is a high ratio gun. If you prefer a lower ratio gun (in other words a gun with less pressure behind the nozzle, so OK for caulk) you can pick-up a Convoy 12 for under £22, delivered, on eBay at present. The Convoy 26 is a better gun if you use a lot of dense materials, such a GripFil, heavy-duty mastics, etc

There are other heavy-duty guns that are worth getting. I've had both Cox and Ox h/d guns in the past as well, but I'm sure someone will recommend something else. Just avoid the cheap, lightweight skeleton guns. Never had a go one of those, yet

 

[foxhole]

Time has come to fit another mile of skirtings/door trims and felt I should buy a decent silicone gun for the adhesive and caulking.

I don't need any fancy expensive battery powered one but something a little step up from the cheapies you pick up for under a tenner that don't have any action to stop the flow after use.

Something around the £20-30 range that would last me for a few years and is easy on the hands.

Apologies as I know there has been some recommended in other threads, I had a search and couldn't find it though.

They all have a trigger to stem flow after use .?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

...that don't have any action to stop the flow after use.

I'm not sure that will work the way you think it should. The materials in the tube are generally compressible, so if you pull the trigger, you will compress the contents of the tube (and drive it out through the nozzle). In reality you need want the plunger to go forwardswhen you pull the handle, but not come backwards when you take the pressure off, that way you can maintain fairly constant pressure (and therefore a consistent flow/bead size). That means at the end of your bead on the workpiece you really need a gun where if you depress the release lever (at the back), the pressure will be relieved and flow will stop. All the heavyweight guns I've used have this, but all of them require action on the part of the user to make it work - AFAIK the only guns which don't are the cordless models, which use a screw thread to drive the flow and auto reverse on a timed cycle (?) to prevent drips

 

[johnny2007]

Cox

 

[albaPhenom]

Go for a heavy duty gun. My personal favourite is the Tajima Convoy 26

View attachment 273364
because they are durable and comfortable, although there have been one or two adhesive cartridges they won't accommodate (always the glue tubes with spiral wound cardboard tubes for some reason - on the rare occasions I get those I just shorten them 10 to 20mm with a Stanley knife). Better guns have rotating bodies and some way to clear a blocked tube (often where the cointents have set). This is the inbuilt "poker" on my Tajima gun:

View attachment 273365

As you can see, my gun is well used. It cost about £22 new a few years back, but it is a high ratio gun. If you prefer a lower ratio gun (in other words a gun with less pressure behind the nozzle, so OK for caulk) you can pick-up a Convoy 12 for under £22, delivered, on eBay at present. The Convoy 26 is a better gun if you use a lot of dense materials, such a GripFil, heavy-duty mastics, etc

There are other heavy-duty guns that are worth getting. I've had both Cox and Ox h/d guns in the past as well, but I'm sure someone will recommend something else. Just avoid the cheap, lightweight skeleton guns. Never had a go one of those, yet

Great post, thanks J&K… this was the gun I was looking at on Amazon and had stuck in the shopping basket in the meantime so since it’s had a recommendation by your good self, I’ll push the button on that one.

Got you on the stop flow thing, so long as it’s a bit better than the cheapy B&Q things then I’m happy. I’m hopeless with these things (made a thread on it once) so anything that helps is welcomed.

Cheers,
Alba

 

[catlad]

I bought a tijima a while back based on recomendations and found it only took the baby cartridges so I instantly gave it away, and bought a cox which was also recommended to me on here and is great.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The "baby" cartridges? Most of the cartridges of silicone, sealants, Lead Mate, Glass Mate, etc we see coming in these days (often in boxes of 20 or 50) are standard size 310ml cartridges. Some deco csulks do indeed come in 380ml cartridges, but I can't recall ever seeing anything other than deco caulk in that size. I agreectgat thec389ml need a larger gun, but the larger gun can be a PIA to get into tight spaces, Also the larger 380ml cartridges seem somewhat less commonly sold. For the volume jobs we tend to use "sausage guns" (foil pack guns) which are 400ml capacity with an aluminium tube body, but with a limited product range available, and only by the box from our suppliers

Did you know that you can often swap the tube/body between different guns to create a hybrid gun?

 

[opps]

I have a number of different Cox guns (different flow rates).

My most used guns are the Cox Easiflow. They have a plastic insert that relieves the pressure when you stop pulling the trigger. I use them primarily for caulk and silicone.

PC Cox Easiflow Sealant Gun

The PC Cox Easiflow Sealant Gun is a simple, easy to use tool. In this ‘skeleton’ gun you can fit up to 400ml cartridges of sealant or adhesive. It's ideal for using in bathrooms, kitchens, windows or paving seals.The simple construction of this tool makes it an appropriate choice for all levels...

www.toolstation.com

For thicker materials, I use the Cox Powerflow guns. I managed to snap a Easiflow gun trying to work with a really thick material.

Cox Powerflow Caulking Gun Up to 400ml | Toolstation

• Professional quality with rotating frame • Specifically designed for thicker/dense materials • Use where a stronger force is needed

www.toolstation.com

I don't use the Powerflow for silicone though, it forces it out of the tube too quickly. It has a plastic slider on the trigger that allows you to turn on/off the flow stop feature.

That said, the 380mm tubes of Everbuild 125 that I purchased from the Dulux Decorator Centre kept running out of the gun when I released the pressure. In fact up to 10cm of caulk ran out even after I removed the tube from the gun. Really annoying.