Miterfold Tape
Advice on choosing tape for miter-fold joints. March 26, 2010
Question
I’m looking for the tape they use on miter fold machines. Where do you get it?
Forum Responses
(Architectural Woodworking Forum)
From contributor R:
I don't know what other people are using, but we just use 3M's Scotch 355 box sealing tape. We do a lot of miter folding, and it works well for us. It is available from a variety of distributors.
From contributor W:
All Star Adhesive.
From contributor V:
We did a lot of research on the miterfold tape. The one that worked best for us was 3M 8992 Green Tape, 4" wide, available from RS Hughes.
From contributor D:
3M 355 is the tape of choice, especially when V-grooving solid surface, so for a typical miter fold it would be awesome. Most companies that stock it have it in 2", 3" and 3" system rolls that are 914m long (1000') for automated machines.
From contributor U:
That last post brought to mind a discussion with my timber merchant a few days ago about the continued use of the Imperial system of measurement because, like you over that side of the pond, we still have a situation in the UK where you can find yourself being offered 3.5 metres of 4 by 8. Yup, a metric length of a section measured in inches.
I asked why this was and was told that because much of the timber was imported from the States, whilst the length of baulks could vary enough to be spoken of to the nearest metric size, the cross-sections were to the inch, give or take a fraction.
Some merchants do actually convert to the nearest millimetre and round up if the cross-section is close enough to make it, say (as in the above example), 100 x 200, when they're talking about it, but when they invoice you you'll have been charged by the cubic metre after the Imperial sizes have been converted absolutely to the nearest millimetre, so it'll have been 0.102 x 0.204 x 3.66.
Not a lot per individual transaction, but multiply it by a couple of hundred regular customers over a twelve month and it's not a bad bonus. So when are you going metric guys?
From contributor L:
As soon as the fools in Washington actually decide to do something for the good of the country rather than for votes. Hmm - guess it isn't going to happen! A large portion of the population here is undereducated in regard to the metric system. Congress made a halfhearted attempt back in the 70's but made it optional... Dumb! My mother-in-law and another relative that was a nurse both expressed fear that patients would get the wrong doses if we went metric. They didn't even know that's what the medical field here has always used! What's a real pain is we continue to use both systems. Autos and all the imported production machinery are metric. Imported plywood is metric but often sold and referred to by woodworkers as if it were in inches. Expensive to maintain two systems and prone to errors, as in the loss of a satellite!
From contributor U:
There was a lot of resistance here to the change when first mooted, but mostly from the "Little Englanders" who saw it as a symbolic surrender of our tradition, culture, you name it - that's what we were about to lose. It all came in with a whisper. It is so much easier. I really can't understand why the US is so resistant given that you were before us in having a metric currency! Jeez, having to go back to adding, subtracting and, god help us, dividing fractions in Imperial, is the stuff of nightmares.
