Mud pans allow drywall finishers to carry small portions of joint compound.
Drywall professionals refer to the process of mudding and taping drywall as "finishing." These last steps of the drywall installation process are the most crucial; no matter how level and straight an installer hangs a sheet of drywall, a sloppy finishing job can make the surface appear uneven, wavy and ugly. Professionals use hand and power tools to prepare and apply mud and tape to the joints between adjacent sheets of drywall.
Mud Mixer
To prepare dry-mix mud for application, drywall professionals use a mud mixer, which acts like a hand-held, electric kitchen mixer. Mud mixers are generally not standalone tools, but attachments to a standard power drill. Like a kitchen mixer, the stand mixer's beating head consists of a series of curved rods or a propellerlike paddle. The beating head connects to a thin, rodlike shank that mounts directly into a power drill's chuck.
To use the mud mixer, drywall installers simply combine water and the gypsum powder in a large bucket, activate the drill and beat the ingredients together like a cake mix.
Mud Pan
The mud pan is a hand-held mud container. Rather than lugging the bucket of mixed mud to a particular work area, drywall finishers scoop a small portion of premixed mud into the mud pan and carry it to a workspace. Mud pans are essentially deep, rectangular containers. The inwardly sloping sides of a mud pan provide the drywall finisher with a surface for scraping excess mud off a taping knife.
Taping Knives
Taping knives are the traditional finishing tools of drywall professionals. Drywall taping knives are basically shaped putty knives. Most taping knives have large, rectangular blades attached to straight handles. Taping knives' edges range from a few inches to more than a foot wide. A drywall finisher begins taping a joint with a small knife and gradually progresses to a wider knife. The progression from small to large creates a smooth, imperceptible coating of mud over a joint.
Automatic Taping Tools
Like taping knives, automatic taping tools spread joint compound across the tape that covers the joint between adjacent sheets of drywall. However, automatic taping tools require considerably less skill and effort to operate than taping knives. Automatic taping tools consist of a container that holds premixed joint compound and a mechanical assembly that distributes either joint tape or mud, or a combination of both.
Although the operation of automatic taping tools varies according to manufacturer, most tools simply require the drywall finisher to press the tool's base against the wall and the run the tool along a drywall joint.
Sanding Tools
Before painting, drywall professionals smooth the dried mud with abrasive sandpaper to further flatten and finish the wall's appearance. Sanding tools range from standard sheets of sandpaper to power sanders. To handle ceilings and the uppermost portions of walls, drywall finishers use a specially designed, pole-attached sanding tool, called a "pole sander."
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