Your thoughts on Fleximaster point driver

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andj

CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
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103
Loc
South Georgia
Hi all. I am working on a job that consists of a dozen maple "ready-made-style" frames. The clients needs to be able to open and change out the photos in the frames frequently, so I was thinking I should invest in a Fletcher Fleximaster gun. However, I was wondering how well those points penetrate hardwoods like maple. I use the regular FLetcher Framemaster and sometimes have difficulty driving those points into maple and hardwoods. I was just wondering if anyone has experience or advice to share.
Thanks!
 
The flexible point driver is fine if the picture is going to be changed occasionally.

If it is going to be framed frequently, then it is not a good choice as the points will eventually come out or break. Turn buttons are the better choice for something that has to be changed often.
 
is it pretty good with hardwoods? They seem really flimsy to me so I want to make sure it will drive into hardwoods before I get it.
 
The Fletcher MultiMaster might be a better, more versatile choice.

MultiMaster points have two small prongs with teeth, which penetrate hardwoods quite well and will not come out easily. They also have a hole large enough for a #6 screw, so they can be used for stacking mouldings & liners. Generally, you can bend the MultiMaster points 5 or 6 times before they will break off.

Still working with Fletcher on occasion.
 
If you are going to invest in a new point driver, I recommend the MultiMaster. You get the same flexibility as FlexiPoints with added strength. I use all 3 drivers, and would not reach for the green flexipoint driver for hard woods.

But for your job, turnbuttons would not only be more economical, but would provide a long-lasting and consumer-friendly solution to your customer's need to change the contents.

However, I still recommend acquiring the MultiMaster. It has myriad uses around the shop.
 
If you have an air compressor buy a pneumatic point gun, I have an Omer which fires flexible and semi-rigid points and it has never jammed or mis-fired in 6 or so years with zero maintenance.

The 'problem' with it for your application though, would be that even with flexipoints it's manicure-ruining bending them back because there is far less left protruding, and even then they can only be bent and flattened again so many times before they fail, but far, far more than 6 times!

Failing that, then definitely turnbuttons or springs like this http://www.lionpic.co.uk/hardware-supplies/frame-hardware/spring-z-offset-clips/spring-clips.aspx
 
Thanks for the advice. I never knew much about the multipoint driver...seems like a pretty versatile tool.
 
Larry Peterson said:
The flexible point driver is fine if the picture is going to be changed occasionally.

If it is going to be framed frequently, then it is not a good choice as the points will eventually come out or break. Turn buttons are the better choice for something that has to be changed often.
Click to expand...

I agree with Larry. I just did three large collage's of 3 different family
photos with 14 photos in each. The pictures were the children of the woman who was framing them so they could be hung down a long stair case. She wanted to be able to remove the pictures to change them out as each family changed and the childen grew up. The turn buttons work perfectly for holding the backing boards in place and will be easy for her to change as needed. The only real problem is that you can't put a dust cover on them, but if the pictures are changed often enough it won't matter.

I have all of Fletcher's point drivers and I love the MultiMaster for most things, but there are times when the old one works better.
 
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