Self-Mudding Drywall Tape Dispenser

My son hired a man to hang and finish drywall in the house he is building. The guy has been hanging and finishing for decades, and works alone. He has a good reputation.

When he got to the point of taping and coating all the seams I stopped in at the end of the day to check out his progress. That’s when I saw this…

Although I had never seen such a setup, I grasped the concept immediately. Paper perf tape feeds into a tight slot on one side and out a slightly larger opening on the opposite side. Drywall joint compound is put into the pail. The tape is pulled. It comes out with an even coat of “mud,” ready to apply to drywall seams.

It’s a great idea, and as my aging mind contemplated the sight, it occurred to me that I actually had seen the idea before… in the Tips & Techniques column of an old issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine.

So I hauled out my lifetime collection of saved Tips & Techniques pages (hundreds of them) and started looking. I ended up finding the idea TWO times…

And then, wondering of maybe the idea was on YouTube I started searching there. Lo and behold, I found videos showing a $250 “semi-automatic” mud bucket accessory tool known as a Super Taper. 

If that Super Taper was available when I was working as a remodeling contractor (nearly 30 years ago!) I would have bought one in a heartbeat. Here’s a 53-second video showing the Super Taper in use…

I tried to find out when that $250 Super Taper device was first introduced, but was unsuccessful. I suspect it was sometime after those Fine Homebuilding tips were published. I further suspect that those tips were the  inspiration for creating the tool.

Yes, there are automatic taping “bazookas” (37-second video) that many pros use for finishing drywall. But from what I’ve read, they’re a pain to clean, prone to various operating problems, and they’re heavy to use for long periods. They’re also expensive.

With a simple bucket taper, once you have your joint compound mixed to optimal consistency, you simply pull a continuous long length of mud-coated tape into an empty bucket and start putting it in place, as the video above shows. It’s a whole lot less fuss.

The mud bucket concept is even available in a smaller, cheaper tool called the Tape Buddy ($39.98) which might be just the right tool for someone who isn’t at the pro level but wants to use a professional approach.