8 fun ways to apply duct tape that will come in handy!

  • Dec 14, 2020

The main purpose of the insulating tape is to restore the insulation of various cable products in the process of performing electrical work. In addition, its long shelf life, lightness, compactness and easy-to-use performance of the adhesive tape significantly expands the scope of use. Some of the possible examples of the use of electrical tape outside its direct purpose are described below.

1. Club wrapping

Most of those young and not so men, whose childhood fell on the times of the Soviet Union, actively drove the puck in winter. They all knew that wrapping the hook of a hockey stick with duct tape, Figure 1, was a good way to prolong the life of the stick, and that the end of the handle was a good way to increase the hold during hot sports bouts. Black cloth tape was best suited for this, the effect of the blue polymer tape was not so great.

Picture 1. Hockey stick hook with duct tape
Picture 1. Hockey stick hook with duct tape

2. Protection and decoration of musical instruments

Exactly for the same reasons of protection against cracking and ease of holding, some manufacturers of drum sticks apply a winding to the grip area, Figure 2. The branded winding, if necessary, is replaced with a homemade one, made from cloth tape.

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Figure 2. Winding the drum stick gripping area

Guitar neck wrapping is much less common. In the case of referring to it, the use of polymer tape as a means of decoration, identification of one's instrument and marking of frets is noticeably more popular.

3. Quickly define surface zones

When filming various videos on your own, it is important to always stay in the frame, Figure 3. To solve this problem, it is enough to determine the boundaries of the shooting area, for which electrical tape is well suited. If necessary, you can mark several areas with tape of different colors.

Figure 3. Preparing to shoot yourself

4. Create harsh color transitions

A typical means of providing a sharp color transition when painting flat surfaces is masking tape, Figure 4. When working with small objects, it is too wide for this, and it is not always at hand. In this guise, scotch tape completely replaces electrical tape.

Figure 4. Providing a sharp color transition when painting

5. Headlight repair

Headlights sometimes crack on the road. Fastening the edges of large fragments of broken glass with electrical tape, Figure 5 helps to get to the destination and or car service in such a temporary hut. Such an impromptu repair does not significantly affect the quality of the generated beam.

Figure 5. Repair of cracks in the protective glass of the headlight

6. Fixing the tampon on the limbs

None of us is immune from minor injuries to which we are exposed to the main limb, Figure 6. Reliably fix the cotton swab after treating the wound in the absence of a medical plaster, again, electrical tape will help.

Figure 6. Tampon fixation with electrical tape

7. Marking of cords, wires and cables

Another "electrical" use of electrical tape is the manufacture of their flags. To do this, a piece of tape of the appropriate length is wrapped around the cable, and the free ends are glued to each other, Figure 7. The necessary information is applied to the resulting flag with a pen or marker.

Figure 7. Scheme of putting a flag-mark on the power cord

8. Fasteners for crafts from plastic bottles

Used plastic bottles, due to their widespread availability, low cost and ease of processing, often get a second life. What only they do not make: various containers, adapters, bird houses and even dumbbells, Figure 8. Almost always, in the manufacture of such crafts, electrical tape is used, which acts as a fixture, amplifier and, often, a decorative element.

Figure 8. Dumbbell from two plastic bottles

Conclusion

Insulating tape is truly a universal consumable that can be used to solve a wide range of different tasks. The given examples only illustrate a little sense of the possibilities of its application. Therefore, two or three rolls of HPP and cloth tape should always be at the hand of a home craftsman.