---

Like Father, Like Son The other day i was working in my shop and my five year old son came in climbed on to my bench grabed the duct tape wile running off said, "I need some tape." About 30 minutes later I went to check on him he had all his broken candy canes duct taped back together and hanging back on the tree sure did make this dad proud --- Mike T.

These boots were made from Duct Tape... For a final exam I made this pair of duct tape boots. I attached a pair of long underwear to socks to create the base, and used the sole from an old pair of sandals to create a rather comfortable pair of boots! Regular string laced them up. I wore them around campus and they kept me warm enough for winter time, and I didn't feel sweaty because the sides acted as ventilation and the knit "lining" wicked away moisture. I got an A! --- Andrea S. Wheaton, IL

DUCT successfully replaces PCV My first car was an old run-down 84 mercury cougar. There was some sort of malfunction in the vacuum lines that would cause it to constantly stall out and die at red lights and even in motion. After consulting many mechanic friends, all who were clueless, I finally caved in, popped the hood and repaired every broken vacuum line and sealed off the PCV valve with duct tape. The car never ran better. --- Gary S.

Homework Enforcer Hi my name is Steve and I tend to put things off (like home work). So one time I had a lot of home work to do and I did not want to do it. My teacher made me do it by Duct Taping me to the chair and then to the table and a pencil to my hand until I was done. The worst part of it was talking all the duct tape off of me. --- Steve

Crime Preventative Idea? You should lobby for "tear strips" in duct tape so that duct tape cannot so easily be used to commit crimes. ---- James Good idea, James. However, I would lobby for gun, knife and baseball bat control first. - the Duct Tape Guy

Duct Tape Window Gasket I drive a 1993 Ford Tempo. The car had been repossessed from the previous owner. While getting into the car, the repo-man used, I assume, a coat hanger to get in. While doing so, the water seal on the driver's side door was damaged. To repair it I simply used duct tape. --- Jeff B.

Hawaiian Uses I am a tile setter - Raw ground open finger tips can be wrapped in Duck tape to prevent stinging from water and porter cement - repairs the rubber gloves too. Lastly: Auto body and paint - large holes and Bondo are a problem that crumpled newspaper and Duck tape can fix by filling the hole. I have even taped right over a hole and smeared the Bondo right over. Car seat repair also. --- Janna, Maui, Hawaii

Emergency Bike Repair At mile 40 of a 100 mile fund raising ride my handle bar broke. Three miles later I went in a hardware store, got a roll of duct tape and made the repair. Finished the ride like the handle bar was good as new (almost). I've sworn by the stuff for years and this time it really came through for me. --- George

Bootleggin' When I want to tuck my jeans into my boots, it's always easier and neater when I duct tape the excess material snugly around the lower legs. Then, I can just slide my boots on over my jeans with no muss, no fuss! --- Bubba Bob, Dallas, Texas Shouldn't we call you "Hairless Ankle Bubba Bob"?

Longer to Unrepair than to Repair On a fishing trip to Canada, we broke a spring on a boat trailer. In the middle of the night, we stopped and duct taped an old antique rolling pin to the frame. We went approx. 500 miles from Northcentral Iowa to International Falls, Minnesota, without a problem. We had the spring replaced after the mechanic spent ? hour cutting off the duct tape wrap. --- Doyle W.

Paperbox repair Robert F. used duct tape to repair his paperbox after it had met its demise with a snow plow.

Transmission Fix One day I was on the garden state parkway here in New Jersey (average speed 90) and I have to stop at a toll both because the guy in front of me was taking forever!! So I put my car in park and sit there waiting and finally the guy gets his change and pulls away, well when I go to put my car in drive what do i know the car gets stuck in neutral as I was shifting. So luckily it was downhill slightly so i paid the toll and drifted across 3 lanes to the shoulder of the road where I could check out what was wrong. The linkage pin holding all the bars together to connect the shifter to the transmission snapped. Well I didn't have a bolt that would fit the linkage so I made one out of duct tape and then duct taped the ends to the bars the bolt was supposed to connect. Behold the car shifted fine and stayed like that for almost a month before I got around to actually fixing it right all the while driving the car all around town the entire time. No toolbox is complete without three rolls of duct tape and a set of snap on tools. My camaro never leaves home without them. --- Richard V.

Air Conditioning Regulation We have a heating/cooling system in our office that is impossible to regulate, with separate units on each side of the building. MY office, however, is on the side of the building with our secretarial staff, who happen to be older, hot natured women! I have one vent in my office which is almost directly above my desk. At first, I just wore my winter clothes all year, but one day they were changing the filters in the vents, and I had an idea! I took the cardboard box that the filter came in (which was the exact size of the vent) and duct taped it over the the AC vent, thereby keeping out the cold air! In the winter, I take it down to let the heat in! Of course, they use the AC so much, that I have to keep adding tape to hold the cardboard to the ceiling, and by the time winter gets here, it really looks like hell, but at least I’m warm! --- Tara

Another Duct Tape Tale (tail) I had to use it to bandage my dog's tail while it healed. she kept licking it and making it worse...so the doc said to tape it up. The only tape I ever have in the house is duct tape...It worked. A week later, it was back to normal. --- Tony Want other ways to mend YOUR busted parts? Check out our HMO on a Roll page(s)

Celebrities, Paparatzi and Duct Tape Staging a celebrity red-carpet event could not occur without duct tape. Matte 'gaffer' tape is absolutely vital to Hollywood film and TV production and the music industry but once the movie is in the can and when the celebrities come to the premiere or an awards ceremony, duct tape has another role (unintentional pun). It is used to hold down the edges the red carpet (coloured red of course) so that the celebrities don't take a tumble in front of the world's media and their adoring public.

It is the protocol amongst the press photographers and TV news crews in the UK (anywhere else?) covering these events that once the crowd barriers are up, your camera position has to be marked with an indelible pen on a strip of duct tape. Visit any venue like the Leicester Square cinemas or the hotels on Park Lane and look on the pavement outside. You can see strips of duct tape stuck down, surviving for over a year in the English climate.

Next time you see a pack of photographers at a celebrity or news event, say Cannes, check out those really long camera lenses made by Canon. They come from the factory with white barrels but no self-respecting photo-journalist would be seen carrying one like that. They cover their $6000 lumps of glass in black duct tape to make them less conspicuous and protect the resale value from the rough and tumble of news reporting.

Also look at any 'media scrum' footage on tv and notice how much black duct tape is wrapped around photographers flash guns and video equipment for the same reasons. --- name withheld, U.K.

Duct Tape Helps you Hit the Slopes (left) Jana N. of Minnesota fashioned a makeshift ski bag from two pillow cases and some red duct tape on a recent ski trip to Colorado. "The nice thing about it, was that ski theives virtually ignored it because it was so ugly (even though the skis inside the bag were really nice). I didn't have to spend big bucks for a ski bag, and it had a built-in shoulder strap."

Duct Tape Fixes Everything, Even Marketing. John Jantsch, veteran Marketing Consultant, has created a new product he calls Duct Tape Marketing. John defines Duct Tape Marketing as, "A simple, elegant, and affordable small business marketing system that, like Duct Tape, works every time." The name came to him while on vacation with his wife. Seems that one of his teenage daughters, left behind under close supervision, decided to drive the family Land Cruiser into a Porta-Potty. In an effort to hide the damage caused by the incident, his daughter firmly reattached several plastic bumper parts using only duct tape. The fix was effective but the ploy failed when she left the roll of duct tape sitting on the hood of the car. It seemed to Jantsch that if a teenager could even relate to the effectiveness of duct tape then any one could.

Frozen Asset The other day in an experiment we threw a piece of duct tape in to a pail of liquid nitrogen to see what would happen if the strip was frozen. We tried to see if we could break it we couldn't. Ten munitues later the strip was thawed and it was still sticky like it was before thought it was pretty cool. --- ozzy g.

Helps "Falling Arches" I just got back from a trip to Switzerland where in Lausanne I visited a very old cathedral. Inside that cathedral I came upon columns supporting arches along a wall. Time had worn away the shaft which was badly cracked at a few places. When I got closer, lo and behold to my utter amazement, I noticed that duct tape had been wound around those damaged columns. Duct Tape holding up a 13th century cathedral: this had to be the ultimate. --- Dollard LeBlanc

Fan Adapters (photo on right) I'm a bit of a computer geek, and I was experimenting with fan adapters that let you use bigger cooling fans in places designed for smaller fans, especially heatsinks... There are such adapters available on the market, but they are really quite expensive for what they are, and were not exactly adapted to what i wanted (blowing air though the fins of a heatsink instead of blowing it from above)... so what is the answer? cardboard and duct tape!!! On the picture you can see two adapters, 80mm and 120mm - 60mm with a "blowoff valve" to prevent too much backpressure, helping with efficiency. You can also see how I used duct tape to cover the exposed areas of two wires being spliced together! These pictures were taken a few years back, so the hardware is a bit outdated now... I am in the planning stages for a new duct tape and cardboard adapter that will let me use two 80mm fans side by side. --- Thoma G.

Caulk on a Roll I use duct tape around my screens & storm windows. We live in a mobile home & the windows are the kind that you take out & replace with screens in the summer. It helps keep the insects from squeezing in between the screen & frame. In winter, it helps cut off the cold air coming between the window & the frame. The tape took off some of the varnish when I pulled it off, but I just re-varnished the frame.
And this... "I will add to Caulk on a Roll, we live in hot south florida in a house and I duct tape around the windows (inside) because we have these old awning windows whose hand crank just doesn’t crank them closed anymore so I tape them to keep the air conditioning from escaping." --- Mary Ann

Kayak Skin I have a skin boat kayak. That is a kayak with a very lightweight covering. It can be punctured easily in certain circumstances. I carry duct tape to keep me afloat. --- Catherine M., Westbrook, CT

Shelf Saver The bottom shelf on the door of our older refrigerator had a very large crack on the end nearest the door opening. Could not use that shelf for anything. I thought of patching it with duct tape. It has held up for over a year now. Gives me much more storage, now that I can use that shelf for bottles & jars. Don't stop there! Make a duct tape "sling" for your liter pop bottles. Increase your storage capacity even more!

Wart Remover My dermtologist rcommended using duct tape over warts. My son put on a piece of duct tape over a wart for about 6 weeks. When he finally removed the tape, the wart was gone. We've been touting that cure for at least five years in our act. In fact, there was recently a study done by a doctor in the Pacific Northwest about this. Read about it in Duct Tape Headline News.

Air Mattress Patch As the wife of an air-conditioning tech, duct tape is always available and we always have a roll in the car. On our last camping trip, our brand new air mattress developed a hole in the middle of the night. My husband created a small patch and re-inflated the mattress it held through the whole weekend and never leaked at all. So always keep a roll handy, you never know when you might need it.

Duct Tape Hog Tying We live in south-central Florida. A popular night-time sport of some of the young fellows around here is wild hog hunting. They use dogs to chase down the hog. Then the guys jump on it, hold it down and duct-tape its jaws shut and its legs together. The tape is much faster and holds better than rope. They have brought in a lot of hogs using only flashlights, dogs and duct tape.

Duct Tape in England I bought my first car in 1979 from a friend. Yes, I know you should never buy a car from a friend, especially one that is six years old. It was a Ford Cortina, I don't think that model was ever sold in the States, but it was very popular in the UK. One day I was visiting my parents and got within six miles of their house when the gear stick came away in my hand as I was changing from third to second. I was in the middle of nowhere. I tried "ramming" the thing back into socket but it just would not hold. I noticed a roll of Duct Tape on the back seat and taped the gear stick back into position, thinking that it would at least allow me to change gear and get to my parents. Over the next few months as the car increasingly began to rot and I never knew which part would fall off before I got home, I would always carry a roll of Duct Tape with me. I would often be seen at the side of the road taping a wing mirror back in place or even re-attaching the whole wing after the fixing positions had rotted away. By the time I came to scrap that car it had more Duct Tape than body and I never did get around to having the gear stick fixed, it seemed quite happy to be held on with Duct Tape! --- Frank, North Yorkshire, England

Welder's Tape We live and minister overseas--Our son brought us your calendar with all those neat and far-out ideas for using duct tape when he came from the USA to help his dad in work projects for two weeks. Well, we have one to top the list. . .During the time he was to do some welding and we could not find the welding face protector. So he fashioned one with a 6-liter soda pop carton, some welding glasses, and lots of DUCT TAPE which held everything in place, including a small trianglular cement trowel for a handle. It really worked neat!! He also duct taped his shoes together, which were falling apart. --- Carol K., Israel (See more Duct Tape Sightings by clicking here)

Girl Scout Helper I'm 16 and I was a Counselor in Training at Camp Winacka (A Girl Scout Camp in the Mountains in Southern Cali). Before my stay there, I must confess that I did not recongnize the virtue of ductape- but being the camper I am I brought some with me... It saved the day inumerable times! Need a funky chain belt for that skit? DUCK TAPE IT! (and I did) Craving water and Camp-proof fashion? DUCK TAPE BRACELETS! I've made purses and wallets, and utilized duct tape for everything from a name tag and craft item to A TUBA REPAIR KIT. Yes that's right. Marching tuba's at my school are held to gether by tape... Masking, electrical, scotch- you name it, we've used it. But MINE is held together with Duct tape. And Mine's the only one that hasn't had to be replaced yet. So I say, THANK YOU DUCK TAPE!!! --- Tubi (too-bee, not tub-bee), Southern California

Airline Safety I saw this on Yahoo News today (as you're undoubtedly aware, "Hi Speed Tape" is the name given by many pilots to duct tape), I didn't copy the entire article.

"LIMA, Peru, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Lan Peru, a subsidiary of Chilean-owned Lan Chile (LAN.SN,) deliberately covered up "serious structural flaws" in one of its Boeing 737 airliners, the Transport and Communications Ministry said on Tuesday. The airline's operations have been suspended but this sanction could be lifted if the company pays a fine of around $250,000, it said.
"An official investigation ... found serious structural flaws in one of the planes and verified that the Chilean company had deliberately hidden information from authorities," a ministry statement said.
Lan Peru operated seven flights with the damaged airliner, whose perforated fuselage was covered up with high-speed tape, it added."

Duct Tape Patch I recently quit smoking with the help of a nicotine patch. But at first it wasn't so easy. I'm a carpenter in heavy concrete construction. This requires me to work outside where the temperature is anywhere from 90 to 115 degrees. Well these patches are supposed to stay adhered even while swimming or bathing, but don't seem to stand up to my sweat test. With the help of some duct tape this is no longer a problem. I just cover the patch with duct tape and it stays in place all day, even through thunderstorms. --- Scott H.

Duct Tape Sets Sail I bought a used sail boat and needed some padding for my trailer standards so I used colored red,white, and blue duct tape and some pipe insulation. I also padded the foot on my ladder so I wouldn't scratch the boat (inset). --- Bard Nice job, Bard! Now, let's get to work on that farmer tan you got going there!

Dorm Irrigation System I go to college at USF, Tampa, FL, and I lived in a dorm; the crappiest dorm on campus. One day, my ceiling started leaking in several places, along this straight crack in the ceiling. It was way too much hassle to move everything from under the leaks, and also to change several cups for catching the water, so I whipped up a little irrigation system with plastic cups cut in half and duct taped together, and it worked like a charm! I cut a little hole in one end so all the water fell out into just one cup on the floor, and held it to the ceiling with Duct Tape, too! Awesome stuff, Duct Tape is! --- Steven B., Melbourne, FL

Big Al’s Caution Tape A buddy of mine lives in a trailer and between the kitchen and living room he has a marked area on the floor in camo duct tape. This is where you don't want to step because there is a hole there and this is a good reminder for him after a case of beer. His name is Big AL --- Skip, AZ
If Big Al wanted to call attention to a hole in the floor - why use Camo duct tape? Why not blaze orange duct tape?

Munchie Bowl I duct taped a small bowl to the top of an empty pop can, and then set it in the can holder in my Ford Escort to create a Munchie Holder! Unfortunately, the contour of the dashboard limits the size of the bowl. I suspect that I could stack two or three taped cans and mount a larger bowl for longer road trips. --- Bill B. Either that or make a duct tape headliner for your car (sticky side down) and stick your snacks all over your ceiling. good idea, Bill!

Camper Tape I'm 14 years old. I just have TONS of stories about how I've used duct tape. On a camping trip my shoes were wet, and I made a pair of shoes (actually, I only completed one so far, but i'm working on it). I've fixed glasses, and made like a fence on the top bunk of a bunk bed to make sure i don't fall out. I've done the obvious purses, and wallets and such things. And I never go anywhere with out a roll!! --- Liz (who promises she will be sending more stories soon)

Jumping Jills? As a Lady Wrassler at my high school last year, I met with several new experiences. One day before morning practice, I arrived at school for early morning practice and began dressing out only to discover that I hadn't brought my jog bra. Wrestling without a jog bra can be unhealthy by itself, but there was one extra problem - I would be doing jumping-jacks and other warm-ups with 50 other guys in the room. Not fun. So, remembering that coach usually kept duct tape in the wrestling room, I sent two other Lady Wrasslers in to fetch it. We wrapped it around my normal bra and I was out and jumping around in no time. (And the duct tape version worked better than my real jogging bra!) When one of the guys asked them what it was for, their only reply was, "Sorry, ya don't wanna know." --- Clara

Duct Tape Helps "Handicapped" Golfer I was a 3-hdcp. golfer until arthritis entered the picture. It is pretty severe and my thumbs are partially dislocated at the wrist joint. I suffered a substantial pain in the left thumb on completing the backswing and especially at ball impact or taking a divot. I was going to quit the game but found I could tape my thumb to the palm of my hand leaving just enough room for gripping the club. This has worked for many years. The duct tape is strong, does not stretch and is much cheaper than medical tape which I started with. Can"t play golf without it and managing a 14 hdcp. at age 73. Thanks and best regards. --- John B.

Duct Tape "Pocket Pig" on E-Bay My name is Jason Quiz. A friend had a roll of duct tape sitting around so I started making things with the tape. One thing led to another and I ended up making this pig out of solid duct tape. I call him "Pocket Pig". He sits on my computer and is a hit around the office. Everyone likes him so much i decided to see if there was a market for my duct tape pig around the country. I placed him on E-Bay yesterday and I already have 10 bids on him. Some one actually wants to buy him for $5.50. --- Jason Q. Christiansburg, VA Update: the "Pocket Pig" sold for $6 on E-Bay.

Keepin' Stuff Dry Since 1942 Last winter I had made it to the Wisconsin State Skiing Championship in LaCrosse with my high school team. Well while practicing I fell and tore my ACL and had to have surgery. I couldn't get the incision wet so I duct taped a plastic bag around my knee and created a waterproof seal so I could take a shower with out getting it wet! --- Sarah A., Delafield ,WI

Duct Tape Helps the Mail To Through One day a carrier was delivering an express mail piece to a home. The stairs were part of the old home and had tiny slits between the steps. The express piece fell from the carrier's hand and slipped between the steps and fell under the porch. For this house the underside of the porch was not reachable, the stairs totally closed off access. He tried to figure out what to do and came back to the office. The supervisor pondered the problem and came up with no solution. He asked a custodian, Roger Jurs to see if he could go figure it out. Roger went to the home and looked over the problem. He suddenly thought of duct tape and fastened a piece to the end of a metal coat hanger.
The hanger and the tape slid between the boards on the step and he was able to tap the express mail piece. The duct tape held up GREAT as the piece was able to be lifted, very carefully, up between the steps. On top of everything the piece was guaranteed for 3pm delivery and succeeded!!! GREAT JOB for Roger and duct tape! Without your calendar he may not have thought of duct tape. --- Bonnie G., Postmaster, DeKalb Il 60115-9998

Duct Tape Holds this Guy's Life Together... Literally! Watch this quick video from Alaska's Duct Tape Film Diva, Laura Bliss Spaan. Click here.

It’s Fun to Duct Tape at the YMCA I like to listen to my CD player while running on the treadmills at my local YMCA. So I set the CD player on the treadmill and start running, which makes the treadmill vibrate every time I step, and the CD player falls to the ground every couple minutes. Well, duct tape to the rescue! I just made a little loop of tape, stick side out, to hold my CD player in place and keep it atop the treadmill. Duct tape is great stuff. --- Anthony L., Mooresville, NC

Rebar and Duct Tape Save Plants The watering systems that I built several years ago for our nursery yard (for plants, not kids) have dozens of three-foot tall risers with spray nozzles on top, spaced about four feet apart. The PVC pipes are too flexible to stand up unaided, so I drove a short piece of rebar into the ground alongside each riser and duct-taped the riser to the rebar. My risers have stood straight and tall for years, and when the tape finally succumbs to the hot Texas sun it's easy to add a little more. --- Richard B., Madisonville, Texas Try using the Duck® brand UV coated Duck Tape for better weathering of the sun's rays.

Taking it on the Chin... My son is 17 and plays for Raytown, Missouri Post 596's American Legion baseball team. They were in a tournament this weekend and my son had a bad collision at first base. He sliced his chin open and after the game we took him to the hospital and he got eight stitches. When it happened, Joey refused to leave the game and wanted to finish before going to the hospital. The umpires would not let him play until the bleeding stopped and the wound was covered. The coaches tried covering it with a bandage, but it kept falling off. So some had a roll of duct tape and they put a huge strip across his chin to cover the injury and keep a bandage in place! It worked great, but the nurse had to clean the tape off his chin before they could stitch him
up! --- Joy F.

Branch Control We were camping and there was a tree that had really low branches right by the entrance of our tent, and people kept smacking their heads into the branches. We didn't want to have to cut down the branches, or move the tent, so we pushed the branches up w/ our hands and duct taped them to branches that were higher up. No one smacked their heads after that! --- Jake

18.5 Foot Gator Security The photo on the left was taken June 28, '02 on the Gulf coast at Deer Park Energy Center (on the Houston Ship Channel). This is one of our baby Gators (18.5 feet)...the big'uns go to 35 feet. Note that the mouth is secured with duct tape. --- Thanks to Marc Boyd for the photo nab.

Duct Tape in Mudville Here in Janesville, Wisconsin, we have a mud volleyball tournament in August. We always bring plenty of duct tape so we can duct tape our shoes on. The mud they use for the tournament isn't exactly the cleanest, so we are required to wear shoes. Without the duct tape, we wouldn't be able to keep our shoes on. --- Sarah R.

Leak and Disaster Stopper Our daughter graduated first in her class Friday night, June 21, 2002. One hour before we were to leave for the ceremony I discovered a leak downstairs in our cellar. I told my husband who went to investigate...he discovered a leak in the sewer pipe...We had 16 people coming to stay with us for the weekend plus 100 guests invited to party on Saturday...Of course, the plumber wanted to wait until Monday if possible...So, my husband duct taped the pipe & put a clamp on it. To my amazement, the duct tape held the pipe all weekend without fail. Our plumber forgot to come until this afternoon. i can't say enough good about the product....This could of been a horrible nightmare to live through and we survived...and to think that people think duct tape if just for prom dresses. --- Leueen S

Exfoliate with Duct Tape Use duct tape (sticky side) to remove that nasty layer of dead skin after a sunburn. With global warming what it is, you may consider using duct tape as UV protection. Hey, a foot of prevention is worth a yard of cure! - submitted by Tom S., Dickinson, ND

Sole Salvation Jack either decorated or reinforced his favorite pair of hightops with duct tape. See the accompanying duct tape hair that Jack created on the Duct Tape Fashion Accessories page.

Tick Tack(y) Ticks have been numerous this year. About 6 or 7 weeks ago I noticed a few ticks on my back porch screen and my glass door. Picking them off was a hassle, and often they would crawl away, and I’m not a big fan of spraying insecticides either. I have rolls of Duck Tape in my utility room, back porch and shed. So I take about 6 inches of tape, fold one end an inch to hold and stick the ticks. We use these strips everyday. Ticks can’t escape Duck Tape. It works on clothes and the body as well. My friends and neighbors like the idea too! When my granddaughter sees a tick, she tells me to get the Duck. --- William B., New Douglas, IL