Comments on: Duct Tape Or Gaffer Tape?

By: Rose Brand

Rose Brand — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:20:33 +0000

We have a large supply of gaffer tape and it is ALWAYS in stock. Check us out at http://www.rosebrand.com!

By: RedYeti

RedYeti — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Duct tape as a depilator… sounds painful.

Also sounds like an interesting story too Sid.

And it’s a good point, I’d much prefer to use Gaffer for first aid now that you come to mention it.

By: Sid

Sid — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:17:03 +0000

I wondered why this post just popped up in my RSS again – now I see why.

Gaffer tape is deservedly more expensive – having used Duct tape once for a little bit of minor hillside surgery I can attest that it is BLOODY sticky (although extremely good at removing leg hair, if that’s your intention.) I’ve never gaffertaped myself, but from experience with cables I wouldn’t hesitate to dress in it, if the need arose.

By: RedYeti

RedYeti — Thu, 06 May 2010 23:52:50 +0000

Martin – sorry, that site does stock the real-deal!

I missed it somehow the first nose around…

And as I said – very expensive :)

By: RedYeti

RedYeti — Thu, 06 May 2010 23:42:52 +0000

Hi Martin,

‘fraid not! The clues are that they call it “Gaffer/Duct” and the fact that it’s not eye wateringly expensive!

And yes – confusion abounds on the Internet and in the world at large.

Most people have no idea that there even is a difference. Hence this posting (which even then, I don’t feel I have got my point across somehow… ;)

For anyone that wants to avoid the sticky residue, only genuine Gaffer tape will do.

How do you know it’s genuine? I’d say because you’re buying it from a specialist camera equipment manufacturer, and when you come to hand over your card details you start to wonder if you really want to spend that much money on some tape! :)

By: Martin Rye

Martin Rye — Thu, 06 May 2010 22:11:47 +0000

Seems good stuff. Is it this stuff:

http://www.gaffatape.com/GafferTape/default.aspx

Quick google seems to have duck tape as Gaffer tape. Filed repairs are something that can happen and good point Dave about having a sticky residue remaining if you use Duct Tape.

By: RedYeti

RedYeti — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:21:37 +0000

Hi Rich,

Ah – I know that kind of tape well, it’s just a very low-tack masking tape. Great for painting but not very good for repair!

I think the clue is probably in the price :)

That last part had me laughing out loud – all that science followed by “in order to have the minimum required to drag your sorry arse the whole way” excellent!

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:19:21 +0000

while I am here just thought I’d compound RedYeti’s argument about 1l water being 1kg e.t.c. and say that metric allows for heterogenous units to be possible. you know distance is speed over time, distance is measured in metres and time in seconds this means speed is then ms-1. The -1 should be superscript but you get the idea. Anyway you can then say that the newton, a measure of force can be given by mass x acceleration and as acceleration is metres per second per second this can be written as ms-2 so a newton is now expressed as kgms-2. With this measurement system you can easily move between different unit systems by using their mathematical formula so for example you can work out exactly how much power is needed to move a weight a certain distance, something that is useful when you need to know just how much energy (food) you need to take with you on a hike in order to have the minimum required to drag your sorry arse the whole way.

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:10:48 +0000

first place I looked is screw fix, they have it

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=25164&cm_re=SEARCHPROMO-_-GAFFA%20TAPE-_-25164&ts=34572

is that what your looking for Dave?

By: RedYeti

RedYeti — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:24:57 +0000

Hi Matt,

I’m not mathematically way ahead of metric and I’m glad I don’t need to be. :)

The advantage metric gives you is the interchangeability between different ways of measuring things. A 10cm cube is 1 litre. If that’s pure water, that’s also 1 kilo. And from there you can scale up and down and compare things in multiple ways. That makes metric worthwhile to me.

As for door measurements, I’m sure the size of the door is driven more from the need to fit in to existing frames (imperial in our case!). If it was made to fit into some standard metric measurement it wouldn’t be such a crazy number. It still makes no sense in imperial (6 foot 3 and 35/57th inches?).

In the UK, we have managed to take on millimetres and millilitres with bizarre enthusiasm though. Other countries tend to use decimetres and decilitres. They’re a far more “human scale” measurement.

And Theremarests are simply 6′ – because they’re American and we therefore convert the length.

But luckily for me, the world is slowly going metric!

I did expect some comment on my little jokes (actually, from Americans!) but… wow… ;)