2" Green 3M Masking Tape 401+

[Kemble]

Our installers really like using this stuff but it's $18/roll.

What alternatives/options do you guys use for your wrap installers that works just as good but much cheaper? Or am I just being too cheap with not wanting to spend $18/roll of tape?

 

[DL Signs]

I use the blue painters tape, but if that's what your installers prefer, unless they're using it for everything else like I do, why cheap out.

 

[JBurton]

Ok, I'm first in line to argue for using what your guys prefer. $18 a roll is high, but if they are using 1/2 a roll on a wrap, and saving 15 minutes (or literally not p*ssing and moaning for 15 minutes about the cheap roll of tape the boss is making me use), then it's paid for itself. I picked up a case of 3m 8979n (literally nuclear grade duct tape) for $100 off amazon warehouse. 48 1" rolls took forever to go through, but I got hooked on it. It stays stuck forever, 6 months clean removal, and it adheres well enough to hang up vinyl panels, without tearing premask if you have to remove it. Often times my premask will take paint off the wall, but not this tape. At any rate the next box I came across was $200, and I didn't think twice about it. The funniest thing was me shipping prints to an installer a few hours away. He does 1 vehicle a week, and since I wrapped the prints up in this tape, he reuses the tape to hang the vinyl and stick it. He nearly sh*t his pants when I shipped him a roll after he mentioned he used the scraps.

 

[DL Signs]

Ok, I'm first in line to argue for using what your guys prefer. $18 a roll is high, but if they are using 1/2 a roll on a wrap, and saving 15 minutes (or literally not p*ssing and moaning for 15 minutes about the cheap roll of tape the boss is making me use), then it's paid for itself. I picked up a case of 3m 8979n (literally nuclear grade duct tape) for $100 off amazon warehouse. 48 1" rolls took forever to go through, but I got hooked on it. It stays stuck forever, 6 months clean removal, and it adheres well enough to hang up vinyl panels, without tearing premask if you have to remove it. Often times my premask will take paint off the wall, but not this tape. At any rate the next box I came across was $200, and I didn't think twice about it. The funniest thing was me shipping prints to an installer a few hours away. He does 1 vehicle a week, and since I wrapped the prints up in this tape, he reuses the tape to hang the vinyl and stick it. He nearly sh*t his pants when I shipped him a roll after he mentioned he used the scraps.

Last thing I ever would have thought of using is anything labeled "duct tape"... Looked up the specs, and it looks like some pretty sweet stuff. Learned something new today

 

[JBurton]

Last thing I ever would have thought of using is anything labeled "duct tape"... Looked up the specs, and it looks like some pretty sweet stuff. Learned something new today

I came across it while I had a job to install 4' letters on propane tanks off the highway in fields in the midst of summer. Beat the crap out of picking bits of masking tape off, let alone chasing a panel through a field full of cowpies!

 

[signheremd]

We used to use a masking tape that worked really well. Then we got the bright idea to save a few bucks and get a different kind - the new tape would let go before we finished laying things. No one had kept track of what we used to use, so went experimenting with several kinds to find similar product. Moral of the story is cheaper is not always as good or better. The Chinese have a saying, "You can pay once, or you can pay twice."

 

[Broome Signs]

bin the tape, use magnets instead

 

[DL Signs]

bin the tape, use magnets instead

With all the aluminum, plastic, fiberglass, and other composite materials used on newer vehicles, magnets are slowly becoming obsolete