Wait, you saw that too? I had the exact same thing happen on a job down in Tennessee a few years back. The crew there would butter the vertical face of every brick like it was a sandwich before laying it, and I'm so used to just slapping mud on the bed joint and doing a quick head joint dab. But I gotta say, after watching them do it their way for a day, the wall came out real clean with almost no squeeze out to clean up, and the joints were packed tight. I never tested it for strength, but it sure felt solid as a rock.

Nah, I gotta push back on that. Dave actually did him a favor by showing him how fast that market can flip. If he learned that lesson with a small position instead of a big one, he saved himself from a much worse hit later on. Everyone wants to talk about fair warning but sometimes the only way it sticks is when you feel the sting yourself. @the_spencer you gotta admit that sometimes people only listen when they get burned a little. A hard lesson now beats a catastrophic one down the road every time.

Huh, that buddy of yours in Corpus probably had the right idea. Had an old foreman back when I was a helper who swore by a beat up 2-pounder he'd wrapped half the handle on with electrical tape. Said anything bigger just made you work twice as hard for the same money.

Ugh, I feel you, I spent three hours once trying to get a stubborn weed whacker to start before I gave up.

Yeah I saw a youtube video about that spreader trick a few months back, it was from some old timer who used to do custom paint jobs on hot rods. He said the trick is to keep the spreader at a 45 degree angle so the tape doesn't bunch up. Tried it on my own car last weekend and honestly it was way faster, like 10 minutes total for all four windows instead of fighting with it. The line came out cleaner too, no jagged edges from pulling the tape weird.