# Drywall mud drying quickly on pan/knife



## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

Not sure of the problem.....is it excessively hot or dry where you are. Seems you prepped everything well....Do you have a good straight metal pan or the metal blade on a plastic pan....

(I often keep a 5 gal water bucket near by and will drop my blade in it every so often...often wipe it off on my pants.....)


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## Yodaman (Mar 9, 2015)

AT 15 mins, I would say you are about at the max working time. Try putting less mud in the pan. Use it up, clean up the pan and start over. Repeat.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Keeping my knife and the working mud clean is one reason I like using a hawk. It has 4 straight edges that I can use to separate contaminated mud (it picked up some debris) and working mud. But I'm constantly re-mixing the working mud on the hawk and selecting a measure for the next application. That fastidious process maintains a clean knife, both sides, and ultimately improves speed and quality. (IMO) Each time I reload the hawk I discard all contaminated mud and start with clean tools.

Bud

15 minutes is a long time. I carry a lot less mud and reload more often.


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## dtbingle (Jul 19, 2017)

Not excessively hot or dry as far as I can tell. One thing I am noticing though is that it's hard to get the knife fully wiped clean on the edge of the pan and that the top edges of the pan are very rough and almost pitted. I wonder if all of these pits/nicks in the top edge of the pan get mud in them, dry out quicker, and then get picked up next time the knife is wiped along it. It's just the standard welded stainless steel pan you can find at HD.

If it isn't the pan (which is a good possibility), and it's just the mud drying, how do you all clean the pan between mud fills? The knife is easy....wipe it off on a yellow sponge, but the only way I can clean the pan good after the 10-15 min with a batch of mud is to drown it with water in my utility sink while using a rag to get the harder bits off. I can't imagine this would be acceptable on a jobsite, so what do you use, and how good is your pan cleaned out between mud refills?


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

> One thing I am noticing though is that it's hard to get the knife fully wiped clean on the edge of the pan and that the top edges of the pan are very rough and almost pitted.



Sounds like it's time to get a new pan.


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## dtbingle (Jul 19, 2017)

mark sr said:


> Sounds like it's time to get a new pan.


Ordered and on the way!

Cheap sanity check to see if it helps at all.

What do you guys use to clean the pans out with? Those corners can be a PITA.

Also, do you edge sand your knives or pan edges to remove nicks, scratches, etc?


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

I don't remember any knicks on the edge of my pan and it's really old. I just clean mine out with water. I don't worry about getting the corners spotless. ... not that I let it build up.


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## dtbingle (Jul 19, 2017)

So bought a new 14" marshalltown stainless mud pan as well as new 4" & 6" USG Matrix Carbon Steel knives. Didn't have much of an effect on working mud time as suggested. Thinning the mud down a bit more did help some, but I think it's mostly just reaching the working time of the mud. AKA like you all recommended, work in smaller batches, get mud on the wall quicker, smooth out, and move to next area. Do a quick clean between mud refills. Going from stainless to carbon steel knives definitely helped the wrist though being a bit more flexible.

However, these corners are still giving me issues. In the pictures, you can see the corner crumbling and creating deep grooves on the ceiling side. My initial thought was that the first coat on the wall side wasn't completely dry and that's where the junk was being picked up from. So instead of waiting 24 hrs to dry, tested out waiting 48 hrs, but same result. This is in a small basically 6'x8' bathroom, that always has the door closed to keep the cats out until the remodel is done. Bathroom also have an uncovered heat vent and is usually very warm in there, although humidity is fairly low here with Michigan winter weather.

*Does drywall mud in small enclosed rooms ever take more than 48 hrs to fully dry in corners? Other suggestions where this stuff is coming from?*

The only way I've been able to properly fill these corners is to feather and flatten the corner out with the 6" knife. Then use the edge of the knife and run along the corner to dig all of the boogers out and let it dry. Then come back and fill this groove left by pulling away from the corner instead of the normal method of running the knife along the corner. Tried with both the green lid all purpose and then switched to blue lid plus 3 after running out. Considering trying out 90 hot mud to fill in these corners instead.


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## Yodaman (Mar 9, 2015)

Are you using a corner trowel? If not spend another $10 and get one. It will allow you to finish both sides of the corner at the same time. And yes corners often do take longer to dry. And trying to work over semi wet (un-dried) mud can cause big problems with lifting clumps. To speed up drying you can use a fan, turn up heat if possible. Put a dehumidifier in the room. If working a small area and need spot drying a heat gun or hair dryer can help. Same goes for sanding, don't mess with it until it's completely dry.


And those corners, after completely dry, need to be cleaned out by scrapping, and sanding (sanding sponges work good) before re-coating with new mud.


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## dtbingle (Jul 19, 2017)

Yodaman said:


> Are you using a corner trowel? If not spend another $10 and get one. It will allow you to finish both sides of the corner at the same time. And yes corners often do take longer to dry. And trying to work over semi wet (un-dried) mud can cause big problems with lifting clumps. To speed up drying you can use a fan, turn up heat if possible. Put a dehumidifier in the room. If working a small area and need spot drying a heat gun or hair dryer can help. Same goes for sanding, don't mess with it until it's completely dry.
> 
> 
> And those corners, after completely dry, need to be cleaned out by scrapping, and sanding (sanding sponges work good) before re-coating with new mud.


No, but do have one. Never was fond of it, but maybe it will work well to finish these grooves I keep making in the corner on both side.

Dragged the dehumidifier in there, will see if it helps. Just surprising that it's still lifting and not fully dry after 48 hrs.


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

A lot of things go into how fast/slow j/c dries. The thicker the mud the longer it will take. Lower temps also slow down the drying time. Air movement can help speed up the drying process.


I'm also not fond of the corner trowel. Your pic looks like you either waited too long to mud the other side or not long enough.


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## finisher65 (Apr 7, 2019)

I wouldn't use plus 3 in corners, it's soft. In fact I don't use it at all


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