Almost Instant Fame for your Dad*!
Send us your "My Dad uses Duct Tape for..." stories and you just might win your dad a set of autographed duct tape books. Just type up your story about Dad's* use of duct tape and email it to us. It always helps to provide us with a photo - and if you have a photo of dad* with the duct tape use, that would be looked upon with the utmost of positive favorability.

*You can submit stories about your granddad, uncle, or other relatives, too!

Note: All submissions and photos become the property of Octane Creative, and your submission of such indicates your permission to publish the story, your name, and your photo via any media, electronic or print. Only first names and last initials with city and state will be used. ©2005 Octane Creative.

More of our recent submissions will be posted soon. Check back - as far as you know, we're plowing through entries at this very moment. - Jim and Tim
At least it wasn’t the windshield! It had not been long since I had moved out of my parents house and on to my own, when I made the fated visit. I had gone to visit my parents and my father heard me complain that the back glass on my Mustang Convertible ragtop was starting to crack. I certainly did not have the money to invest in a new top; but, I sure never a imagined what was next to come. The next thing I know, my mother and I looked out the kitchen window and saw my father admiring his latest jerry-rigged project. Yes, my father had not just patched the crack with duct tape; but, the entire back window! I could not bear to question his intentions, he looked so proud that it would never again rain in my back glass. Never mind the fact I would never be able to see out of the window again, or hold my head high in front of friends and dates.
Well, it just so happens that it wasn't long before my little convertible was For Sale! Now I politely keep my mouth shut in front of Dad if if I am having any mechanical difficulties. - Karen Creamer

A Stinky Problem We were taking down our old shed in our backyard a few years ago, we just happened to find a dead rotting skunk under there. This was back before I was addicted to duct tape. I tried to pick it up with a shovel but the stench was overwhelming. So my dad thought to make a small blanket type thing out of duct tape with the sticky side out and he tossed it over the skunk in hopes that it would stick to its carcass and then we would have dragged it over a hole and buried it there. Unfortunately it didnt stick. So he tried to make a lasso type thing and I rolled the carcass over the extended strip of duct tape with a stick and grabbed one end and dad took the other. We slowly pulled the skunk into the hole. Once again duct tape saved the day. - DBLCBENNETT

Duct Tape Dad Saved my Eye On my first day of high school, my father was rushing me to get ready because the bus was going to come. My bus would be arriving at 6:45, so I had thirty minutes to get ready or walk to school. I ran around the house, preparing for "my big day"... Doing my make-up as perfect as I could get it, putting on one really cute outfit, collecting my supplies for the first day etc.. Everything was going great - except for my hair which looked like a bird's nest. Thinking quick, I plugged in my hot curler. Ten minutes to go... after a few minutes of styling my hair, the only thing left to do was the bangs. I heard my bus outside. As the engine purred outside, my father roared inside. "Your bus!!!! You are going to miss it! Get going! Your already late! NOW!!!!"
(owwww!) The hot curler was stuck to my eyeball!!!! Somehow it fell directly onto my retina and burned bad! My father heard my yelling at the top of my lungs, and rushed over to my aid. My eye was gushing water, and I could not see out of it.
My father,obviously not of sound mind, grabbed his "handy-dandy duct tape" and some gause we kept under the sink, and went to work. He wrapped duct tape frantically around my head, and drove me to and eye doctor as fast as he could! Upon arriving, it took about ten minutes for the doctor to get inside my room. It took longer to get the duct tape out of my hair, since he had wrapped it over my hair and all. On the last piece of duct tape, the one that was wrapped like a pirate patch around my face, he told me to wait until the doctor came back inside to remove it. At this time he ran out the door. I sat nervously in the examination chair. Five minutes later... the doctor and my father enter the room... they were both smiling and both of them had their hands behind their backs. The doctor went first... "What happened to your eye?'' he asked, as he pulled his hands in front of him revealing some eyedrops and a camera. I knew my dad had something to do with the doctor having the camera. I replied " ask my dad..." to embarrassed to explain what happened. My dad responded "well, this morning she was on her way to school, and she got in a fight..." I glanced over at my dad, then over to the doctor, and nodded my head. The doctor responded " I hope you reported this to the police. I'm sure they will arrest the person who did this to you." I shook my head. The doctor looked over at my dad, and asked him if he knew who had damaged my eye that morning. My father winked at me, looked back at the doctor, and told him " here's the culprate"... and pulled the hot curler from behind his back!
After a few minutes of laughing our heads off, I was patched up. My picture was taken over and over again. My dad had come to my aid when I really needed him, I couldn't have loved him more!!!!
I will never forget how much he loves and how much he means to me! I am trully blessed to have him in my life! I cherish the man behind the duct tape! I LOVE YA PAPA!!!

By the way, my eye is fine now... my dad's crazy duct tape idea saved my vision. I took three weeks to recover from my injury, and dad was there for me the entire time, smothering me with love...(and covering the house with duct tape) - dispatch 1

Welder Apron My dad was a welder now I am. I noticed him wearing jeans with duct tape all over them and after asking why he showed me. To make a long story short, he had holes in his jeans from wear and tare so he taped over the holes to keep the hot weld splatter from going where it don't belong. Now im doing the same thing at work and it just caught on now everyone at work is doing it. - Richard Giles

Dad's Botched Efforts My dad used duct tape to “TRY” to fix the vacuum cleaner. When the little brushes that spin around to loosen dirt got worn off my dad put hundreds of little triangle strips of duct tape so that the sticky side would hit the dirt, but the pieces of tape got so heavy with dirt that they shot up into the vacuum, and what sticky was left stuck to the inner walls of the tube. Needless to say that we now have a new vacuum. I would have sent a picture, but my dad tried to fix the camera with duct tape too. (You might recommend that a label be put on duct tape use by those less competent are likely to brake things worse than they already are. - Jake D.

Tall Dad Repair Kit My dad, who is six feet six inches tall, had a ceiling fan in the garage. He always had to duck whenever he walked under it. One day, he walked into and broke one of the blades right down the middle lengthwise. Yep, you guessed it! He got out a roll of duct tape, taped the blade back together, and used that fan for another 4 years until the motor gave out! - D.A. -South Florida


Dad's Tailpipe Mend We're from Brantford, Ontario, and every year we drive down to Florida for the Canadian spring break and at that time were drove a Ford Aerostar so it sat kinda short well in the state of Florida they have high curbs for when they get flooding and my dad seemed to forget that and he backed up it crush part of our tail pipe so he turns the van off gets out and crawls under the van and has seen that he broke the clip that holds up the tail pipe and of course in the McLean house hold you never go on vacation without duck tape and my dad duck taped a pair of child safety scissors around something under the van and it held for our whole vacation and it even held the entire drive back to Canada and for two weeks afterward. It took the repair guy like 20 minutes just to get the tape off and he said it was the best idea he ever seen. - Holly McLean

Potato Cannon My Dad uses ducttape to hold his potato cannon to gether. He also to keep his old hat from shredding. - Taylor J., Trimble, MO

Creeper Patch My brother is the "King of Duct Tape", possibly because he is also the "King of Cheap". My favourite true story about his duct tape use/abuse is when he used it to patch up his baby's pajamas. You know the kind with the feet built in, well when the feet wore through he applied duct tape to the bottom of the foot part so they would last one or more kids more and their precious feet would not stick out. The kids survived but undoubtedly will need therapy. Sorry I don't have a pic but use your imagination. Long live Duct Tape! - "T.Gibson"

Dad the Mermaid Melter I have two best friends, who's names I'm not going to share (they'd hate me:-p) We loved to play make believe. In the bathroom with them we were playing princesses, princesses who wanted to be mermaids, so tohave a tail, we duct taped our legs together with the duct tape I got for my birthday. We were all six. What did you expect? We finally got tired with being mermaids, but guess what. The duct tape wasn't coming off. My dad was lodged in the bathroom for quite a while getting it off us. My friends tried to tear it off, but I was a wimp. I couldn't. Dad showed us how to dissolve it with baby oil bit by bit by bit. I was crying the whole time. I find it funny now, though I haven't actually told anyone, though my dad has. Dad says he remembers us whispering worriedly when he came up through a closed door. - Annon.

Dad-in-Law's Slippers My father-in-law had a hole in his toe of his slipper once, so he duct tape it. He was going to go in for surgery and wanted to take his favorite slippers, but didn't want them to look out of place, so he ended up taping the other slipper to match the bad one. His slippers were a conversation piece in the hospital! He passed away in February and we miss all the duct tape jokes we directed towards him. Thank you. - Pam Brown

Gooey Farmers My father was a duct tape specialist from way back. His most useful project was recovering the seat on a D17 Allis-Chalmers tractor. It didn't have a cab, so after time passed with the tractor being in the sun the duct tape goo eventually oozed out of the edges and you'd come off the field with the back of your legs sticky with duct tape adhesive. - Melinda Good point to remember - if you are going to have duct tape in the head, it will ooze after a while. So cover your duct tape repair job with a sheet of plastic before using it.

Couldn't have made it home without it!
My father in law and I were returning from a late night gator hunt, went over a bump and felt the boat and trailer wildly fishtailing behind us. We stopped as quickly as possible, having been doing 60, and found that the nut had fallen off the ball. The ball was still in the trailer tongue and the nut was long gone. We didn't have a replacement nut and resorted to ol' trusty to get us home (another 20 miles). It held great. - Michael, St. Simons Island, GA

Hem It with Duct Tape My dad was asked to be a pallbearer. With a heavy heart, he agreed. He searched his closet for appropriate attire but lacked the black suit he desired to wear as a sign of respect for his friend. My dad, being the resourceful person that he is, simply went shopping to purchase the fitting attire. Unfortunately, the pants were too long and the immediacy of the event did not permit him to have them altered. No problem thanks to duct tape. My sister, being frustrated over the task of hemming the pants, reached for the nearest roll of duct tape. She proceeded to turn the pants inside out and simply taped up the hem. Not certain this would prove successful, she took the additional step to fuse the duct tape by ironing it with a hot steam iron and the aid of a towel as a pressing cloth.

We are happy to report that the magic of duct tape did the trick. The pants not only remained hemmed throughout the funeral service but remained hemmed through many washings and dryings thereafter. We still chuckle over the fact that it worked so well the tape was not removed. In fact, several years later the tape remained in place. Duct tape to the rescue! - Bernadette Pinto