Quick tips for taping down cables | Tech, No Babel

Transcript: On today’s technobabble, Quick Tips for Taping Down Cable
This is tech no babble, your weekly source for church video and graphic news, tips and tricks, here is you host Paul Clifford.
Hi and welcome to another episode of technobabble this is the show where every week we talk about using video and graphic design in the church. My name is Paul Alan Clifford I’m your host and look for you to ask your question so please by all means do that below the video. You’re listening to the audio that’s OK just hit me up on my email address, Paul at Trinity Digital Media dot com. That’s a cool way to do it as well.
So I’ve been doing some freelance work recently with the local A.V. firm and hope to pay the bills because believe it or not these podcasts need to make it a little something but not as much as I need and I don’t need a lot so I got to do something to pay the bills so as I’m doing that I just thought that revisit some lessons that I’ve learned from taping down cables.
Now this is especially oppression to me because today I was at one of these hotels and I saw this. This is a photo that I took of a cable taped job. Now I don’t think the AV guy that I was filling in for did that. I think that someone else thought that they’ve helped out, so they kind of grabbed a roll of duct and just went about taping down some cables.
So that’s the first tip that I’d want to give you is in general you want to tape in ninety degree lines whenever possible straight line and then if you have to make a turn you make it ninety degrees you don’t want to make it like a forty five degree or anything like that if you can at all void it. So that’s thing number one thing number two is the tape that you use itself.
Now if you’re doing a really temporary job and by that I mean you know just a few hours maybe you can get away with duct tape. This is silver duct tape but they make it in so many colors maybe you actually want to use something that matches the carpet at your church or whatever, but duct tape is not the best tape to use.
Now you might be tempted to use something like, this this is blue painter’s tape. It isn’t as strong as duct tape so you won’t have as much issue with residue or anything like that. But it isn’t very strong, so it’s very likely that someone will pick that right up it’s basically it’s the same strength as masking tape. So I did advise you against using that. There is special tape that has it he says on each side and they in on need he says to strip down the middle haven’t actually use that myself but I just wanted to mention that because sometimes for pay an install that’s going to be a pretty long term one maybe that’s going to be something that you might want to consider because that’ll keep your cables from getting gummy because there is not adhesive on the cables. But what I typically use is what I’m holding in my hand which is gaffer tape.
Now I joke every time I use gap tape that someday someone is going to pay your other way to market this to regular people and that person is going to be a millionaire because gaffer tape is the bomb. Gaffer tape is. I just love tape. It’s got all the positives and duct tape without the negatives associated with it so it sticks well enough but not too well so it will hold your cable down but it won’t like it here to things permanently.
Generally speaking, also it rips very easily just like duct tape so it’s better than packing tape of that way but it’s if you’re watching the video you’ll see that. If you compare the shiny factor of the duct tape with the more matte look of gaffe tape definitely a positive that it’s good to have tape that is more matte it doesn’t draw attention to it with this shininess. So I mean yes. So that’s another advantage to using gap tape so using the right tape is another great example.
I wanted to talk about removing the duct tape or the gaffer tape whatever you’re using because a lot of people get this wrong and if you get this wrong here’s what you get. You see this and this is where the tape is wrapped around itself around the cable that makes it very difficult to get off. And we’ll talk about how they can go about getting it off here in just a second. But, that is a result of pulling up the tape and the cable at the same time. That’s a big no no. You don’t want to do that because when you do that it’s likely to wrap around itself. So the better solution is to take the tape up and then remove the cable.
How do you do that? Well then for been doing this since two thousand professionally and before that some in volunteer capacities, I’ve learned a little trick and that is I reach down and I grab the edge of the tape and I put my foot right behind where I’m grabbing and I lift the tape while holding the cable down with my foot and then I just continue to walk along the cable holding it down. I don’t have to you know walk it like crazy but just holding down the cable with my foot while lifting the tape and then balling the tape of as I go. Not trying to reuse it because really that’s just not going to work. But just balling it up to throw it away, that’s the best way to do this. So that would be what I would recommend.
Now if someone pulls up your taping cable and it wraps around. Here’s the procedure that I would use first, anywhere that it’s not wrapped around it and just rip that off pull it off you’re fine. But if you do have a problem like you’re going to want to do is take a knife or a pair of scissors and trim the folded over edge as close to the cable as you can. So ideally it will look like the tape is wrapped completely around the cable but there’s no access when you do that you’ll have a very small amount that is touching the two edges, as of the tape are touching. And then you can grab the end and pull it from the opposite side and then it should be fairly easy to take off.
What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to yank and pull because before long if you’re not careful you’ll end up with the tape being inside out and kind of bunched up and it just makes it harder. So ball that little tip and rip off the excess and then pull off the tape. And that’s a better way to do it.
Now if you have cables that have had duct tape or even gaffer tape on them for a long time you might need to get rid of the gooey residue that you find there. Here is a product that I recommend to do that. It’s called Goo Gone. G- O- O- G -O –N- E and it has a citrusy smell it’s not great for your skin so you don’t use it a lot. It’s actually better not to have to need it but I always keep a bottle Goo Gone around when I’m doing this kind of thing because sometimes when you’re dealing with cables you’ll run across a piece of tape that’s been there who knows how long. I mean God does that pretty much no person does.
So I always want to leave the cables in as at least as good a condition as I find them. And if there’s some tape I want to remove the tape and apply a little Goo Gone on to make them better than they were when I found them.
I hope that helps you and I hope that the next time you’ve got to take down some cables you’ll keep these lessons in mind. If you like this content don’t hesitate to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter where I’ve got more tips and tricks for you, and just for signing up or give your Free Church tech kit so and on over to Trinity digital media dot com slash gifts. And you can pick up both of those things there. Also while you’re at my site at Trinity Digital Media dot com Leave the comment below the video. That’s a great way to do it.
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Basically I wrote or produced the videos or created the audio with you in mind because you’re a church tech person. Maybe you don’t know everything that you’d like to know. OK that’s probably all of us. Maybe you just want to figure out tips to speed up what you do so you can spend more time in ministry or more time with your family. Maybe you just want to get better at what you’re doing because you know that it matters. Does it matter that the reason I have something there for you and there’s new stuff being added all the time. So check back until next time go out and change eternity. This is Paul Alan Clifford with Trinity Digital Media dot com