Thoughts on MultiMaster Driver?

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tnframer408

tnframer408

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Posts
1,506
Loc
Knoxville TN
My point driver gave up the ghost Saturday and I need to replace. What does anyone think of the new Multimaster driver? And do those flexible points really hold well?

thanks for any input. :cool:
 
This is our cue to write in and report what fitting tool we all use!
This has the potential for an Endless Thread!
(do we have a name for that yet, Ron?)

Oh yeah, the question...
Michael, I think we have a Multimaster driver. What color is it?
What we use 99% of the time is a Senco pnuematic (sp) stapler with 1/2" staples. Doesn't beat up the frame as it shoots. And it's fast. If you already have a compressor for your underpinner, they're a cinch to add on.
I'll check and see what guns we have in our stash and what color each is. I'll get back to ya.
-Edie the fg
 
Edie, how 'bout an Energizer Thread?

Michael, I love the Multimaster gun and use it 80-85% of the time. The twin points penetrate well and hold well. Just don't drive one into your hand. My only reservation is the flexibility of the points. After my initial box or two, I've found that the points bend very little without breaking. If I want flexibility, I use the Fletcher FlexiMaster gun and points. I keep two of each close at hand, ('cause I like the green and gold hanging together at my work bench) but, if I had to settle on one, I'd go with the Multimaster. You can also use it for some really cool frame-stacking constructions (with some small sheet metal screws.)

I also keep an Elpa brad nailer around, but rarely use it. It's still here 'cause I have about 1,000 boxes of brads for it.
 
Our primary fitting tool is the Senco stapler, we use 5/8" & 1/2" staples, depending on the job. We also have a Cassise flex point gun that we use a lot. Mostly the Sencos though, they are workhorses and rarely break down, the three I have are over twenty years old & still get used daily.

John
 
The two points have a barbed end like a fish hook and they hold well in all woods. A good view of the point is here:

http://www.fletcher-terry.com/products/framemaster.html

The best feature of the point is that it is wide and has a hole drilled in the end. The hole permits you to use the point like a set back clip and put a screw through it to fasten stacked frames together and to attach the linen liner to the cap.

I have seen shops fire the point vertically into MDF board, bend it slightly and run a wire between two points as a hanging system. (small plaques).

Alan Sturgess
 
(Everybody sing.."This is the thread that never ends. Yes, it goes on and on my friend. Someone, started posting it, not knowing what it was, and they keep right on posting it forever just because, it is the thread that never ends..." Think Sherry Lewis and Lambchops)

Oh yeah, point drivers. We mostly use the Fletcher Framemaster, but I still have the Red Devil PD1, Glazier Point Driver that my husband got me for my birthday in 1976!


Betty
 
Originally posted by B. Newman:
I still have the Red Devil PD1, Glazier Point Driver that my husband got me for my birthday in 1976!
Click to expand...
Betty, what possible use did you have for a point driver when you were six-years-old? (For that matter, why were you married at that tender age?) (And please - no cracks about Tennessee from anybody!)
 
Oh Ron, you sweet, sweet man. I had already been out of school and framing 4 years by that time! :eek:

Betty (I've "weathered well")
 
Watch your back, Betty, Ron doesn't usually butter up people unless he wants something. ;)

(Or he's getting ready to "grille" them!)

FGII
 
Betty, no disrespect intended, but this is one of the main reasons The Grumble works, and is fun, for a lot of people. A thread can go in any direction, and we all can learn from it. Allan's suggestions about the uses for the Multipoint Driver made me look at it & I will probably purchase one for myself.

I understand HH is a very controled, rule governed environment, where absolutly no deviation from the subject is tolerated. I hope that never happens to The Grumble. I would suggest to those who become upset with The Grumbles informal atmosphere that they join PPFA and use HH, I just know they will love it. :D

John
 
John: Which is one main reason I dumped HHers. Plus the fact that what appeared here reappeared there. Plus I hated getting 30-40 e-mails a day on subjects I didn't want to read.
 
Originally posted by JRB:
Betty, no disrespect intended, but this is one of the main reasons The Grumble works, and is fun, for a lot of people.
I understand HH is a very controled, rule governed environment, where absolutly no deviation from the subject is tolerated.
John
Click to expand...
John, that's right to a certain degree. It is loostening up some, but when I want a "bottom line, cut to the chase" answer, I post there. When I want a real discussion, I post here. And you see, I'm mostly here!

Betty
 
Hey, look at all the new graemlins. Okay, back to class now.

The MultiMaster gun is yellow, shoots double-barbed points, and as stated, is useful for a lot of applications. The little hole works well for stacking mouldings, or for installing canvas stretcher bars which stick up just slightly from the frameback. And, of course, there's the plain old fit job.

Ron, I bought my gun almost a year ago?? or so, and absolutely loved the flexibility of the points. You could fit and unfit bunches of time just by bending the points up and pushing them back flat. Then....they started breaking. It began with my second order of points. Come to find out, Fletcher had run a bunch of bad steel. This info came via Fletcher's rep who monitors the Grumble. She very quickly replaced the defective boxes, and I'm bending once again.

Thanx to Fletcher for both the positive response and for the MultiMaster: it's our gun of choice.

This got too long. :cool:
 
Originally posted by MerpsMom:
Come to find out, Fletcher had run a bunch of bad steel.
Click to expand...
I've heard that before. It must have been a really BIG bunch, 'cause I've been ordering Multipoints a box or two at a time for about 18 months from both United and L-J and, except for the first two, all have boken when bent. Oddly, this is still my fitting tool of choice and I have plenty to choose from, including the Cassesse Flexipoint gun (in a box in the basement.) I have yet to encounter a point that broke in normal usage.

Actually I got a couple of new boxes of Multipoints just the other day. I'll try 'em out tomorrow and see how they shape up.
 
I just received my Multimaster and points. Must be a new batch of points - they bend but don't break.
I also use a 3x5 block of wood as a point block... I don't want to experience points in the hand. :eek:
 
I just received my Multimaster and points. Must be a new batch of points - they bend but don't break.
I also use a 3x5 block of wood as a point block... I don't want to experience points in the hand. :eek:
 
I just cracked open my newest box of Multipoints. I drove a few of the old points into a frame, then took out the rest of the stack and loaded up the new ones and drove in a few of those (carefully labeling each.) I tried to break the new ones by bending them several times and they would not break. Then I bent the old ones. They wouldn't break either! :eek: Then I took down my junior varsity back-up Multipoint gun - this one had some points from a still-older box since I don't use this gun often - and the points broke on first bend.

The bottom line is this: I've probably had "good points" (I have several good points, in fact) for a very long time. But I was so used to points breaking that, if I had to refit something, I'd remove the points - which isn't easy - instead of trying to bend them.

If not for The Grumble, I'd probably still being doing this for the next 15 years!

BTW, John Ranes did tell me some time ago that the Multipoints are not intended for the repetative bending that the Fleximaster points are made for. I interpret this to mean that the Multipoints are great if you have to remove the backing once or twice to get that last little dust bunny out of the package, but if you're preparing a frame for frequent art changes, especially by the customer, the Fleximaster, or the Cassesse Flexipoint gun, would probably be preferable.
 
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