That time a cheap corner bead tool actually worked better than my USG one

I was at Drywall Supply in Portland last month and the guy behind the counter kept pushing this no-name plastic corner bead roller for $8. I told him no way my $45 USG one stripped out on me last year. He let me test it on a scrap piece and I swear it rolled the bead on smoother and didn't skip. Has anyone else found a random tool that beat out the big brand stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

lilymurphy14d ago

The cheap plastic ones are honestly the hidden gem nobody talks about lol. That USG stuff is overpriced and breaks way too fast for what it costs. Sometimes the no-name tools just work better because they keep it simple without adding extra junk that fails. I grabbed one from a random hardware store last year and it's still going strong.

evan_anderson13d ago

Three of my cheap plastic drywall knives snapped within a month of buying them, the handles just cracked where you grip them. I'm not even torquing them hard or anything, just normal scraping and spreading. My USG stainless steel one has been going for almost 5 years now with zero issues, so maybe I just got lucky but that's a pretty big gap in performance. There's a reason contractors and pros spend the extra money on that stuff, they can't afford to have handles break in the middle of a job. I guess for occasional home use the cheap ones work but if you're doing more than one room pay the extra 15 bucks.