Gaffers Tape

hoot said:
Is gaffer's tape the same as electrician's tape?
Click to expand...

Electrician's tape is "plastic" of some kind, it stretches, and is generally not as good as gaffer's tape.

Gaffer's tape is not easy to come by in these parts, as I recently discovered.
I needed to repair several large format (4x5) film holders, which have a "hinge" on the bottom, consisting of (adhesive or just glued on) black cloth. Several of older holders I got leaked light through this material, and I got recommendations to just use gaffer's tape.

Now, from what I understand, gaffer's tape is kind of (rubberized?, impregnated?) adhesive cloth tape that usually comes in wide rolls (about 5cm or so?).

I managed to find a substitute in a local BauMaXX store (Austrian/German variant of Home Depot) - it is a Tesa brand, and is 38mm wide. Comes in 2.5 meter roll length, and costs about 5-6 EUR per roll. It was a perfect substitute for the original cloth hinges on my film holders 🙂 I just taped it over the old tape....

If you need more info, it's Tesa Gewebeband, prod. code 56343 (it says on the packaging "Extra stark, Wetterfest")....

Denis
 
Thanks!

Denis -- Right now I'm using some sort of electrician's tape (Isolierband) to cover up the frameline window of my M3. Is this a bad idea?
 
I've used electricians tape to cover the logos on my cameras and had no problem removing it. Got my Oly ECR covered in it! Never tried Gaffer tape but would expect that being a cloth type tape would also give a little extra grip to some of the more shiny/slippery camera bodies. BTW just type in gaffer tape on Ebay and see the number of items that come up. Looking at those it seems no-one can decide which is the true gaffer tape as they all seem to differ.

Paul
 
Both electrical and gaffers use a rubber adhesive. Electrical, costing under 2 bits right out of the orient, tends to be cheap adhesive. Make it stick, make lots of it, make it cheap. Gaffers, on the other hand, is litterally 10 times the price. Plus, the applications are different. Electrical gets put on, and stays on. Gaffers frequently has to be removed (and, removed residue free.)

FYI, gaffers if more of a cloth surface. Duct is the polyethylene surface. Shiny. The gaffers is matt because it can't reflect light, ie, used in the theaters.

B&H pays under $10 a roll for gaffers. I'm not sure of their margins, but a regular, I-don't-buy-a-lot house pays just shy of $15, so the stuff should cost under $20US anywhere here in the states.

Again, gaffers is the way to go, short of grinding the logos off.
 
hoot said:
Thanks!

Denis -- Right now I'm using some sort of electrician's tape (Isolierband) to cover up the frameline window of my M3. Is this a bad idea?
Click to expand...

Electrician's tape could leave some residue/gunk which might be have to be cleaned afterwards.

Covering the frameline window? You mean the window which lights up the framelines? Why would you cover it? Then you wouldn't see the framelines and the RF patch! How do you focus then?

Anyway, a quick illustration - the photo below shows the ordinary (smaller) roll of "Isolierband" (electrician's PVC tape), and a (larger) roll of the Tessa tape I mentioned above. Hopefully, you'll be able to see the texture of the Tessa (gaffers) tape...

Denis
 
It really cracks me up when I see something like this, someone buying one of the most expensive cameras out there and then sticks some tape on it for various reasons (to protect it, to hide red dot, to fix something)
sorry, but why would you want to protect it with gaffers tape??a safebox is much more effective.

Maybe i think so because i've never owned a Leica...
 
I imagine I'll get over the sticker shock at some point...


Pherdinand said:
It really cracks me up when I see something like this, someone buying one of the most expensive cameras out there and then sticks some tape on it for various reasons (to protect it, to hide red dot, to fix something)
sorry, but why would you want to protect it with gaffers tape??a safebox is much more effective.

Maybe i think so because i've never owned a Leica...
Click to expand...
 
Go here and enter gaffers tape in the find box. It'll tell you more than you want to know about the tape. I ordered 7612A92 which is made by polyken.

They're not a retailer so you would have to order through your job or open a business account. But it's a good source of information.
 
Great info Nick,

Thanks - I just ordered a few rolls from them.


Nick R. said:
Go here and enter gaffers tape in the find box. It'll tell you more than you want to know about the tape. I ordered 7612A92 which is made by polyken.

They're not a retailer so you would have to order through your job or open a business account. But it's a good source of information.
Click to expand...
 
ducttape said:
And should someone be interested... I'm not a retailer either but I have 500 rolls of Polyken 510 in Olive Drab I can't get rid of.

Didn't Leica make a Safari Green once?
Click to expand...

Try a hunter's forum. They use tape to mask shiny metal parts on guns when hunting, esp. turkey.
 
Electrician's tape is "plastic" of some kind, it stretches, and is generally not as good as gaffer's tape.
Click to expand...

I agree. However, I have black electrician's tape covering the metal thingies of my Leica CL's $1 strap, to keep the holy body from becoming un-pristine. 😀
 
Last edited:
Denis - yes, good photo!

Pherdinand - I want to use a 40mm Rokkor on my M3, taking the entire viewfinder as a 40mm FOV. The 50mm lines, which are always on, are distracting, so I want a quick method of turning them on and off without damaging the camera's finish. By the way, my user M3 was a lot cheaper than a user Canon P or Bessa R3a, which were the cameras I'd originally considered. Being the most common M, it's the one that goes overlooked by collectors, who are to blame for raising the prices beyond reason. Flawless except for a few chips in the Vulcanite and "light meter" marks on the top plate, it cost less than many a black Minolta 7sII body + CLA. Certainly less than your average plastic digital point and shoot off the assembly line. And it won't lose value quite as fast, either. 😀
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rogier
Film holder Epson V850
Replies
4
Views
471
Rogier
Rogier
S
Remote Trigger/Adapters for Contax G1
Replies
6
Views
643
jaredangle
jaredangle
H
first steps with the KEKS M Meter
Replies
11
Views
763
hilltime
hilltime
B
17"x22" Ink Jet Prints vs. Original Max Resolution Digital Files
Replies
6
Views
410
boojum
boojum
S
Fuji GL690 rangefinder repair and 150mm frameline delete
Replies
2
Views
983
shawn
S
Back
Top Bottom