Old dog new trick

[pucho812]

This was a good one. I was gathering a bunch of cables and snakes as they will be shipped out for the upcoming AES show. In typical fashion some of the less seasoned people had wrapped the cables and use tape to hold the bundle together. Replacing the wrap with Velcro ties we noticed sticky/gooey residue from the tape. First we tried to clean it off with some wet wipes and all it did was make it more messy without actually taking anything off.
Here is the new trick, One of the older techs, older than me, suggested we try WD-40. So I spray some WD-40 on a paper towel then proceed the Rub The area that had the tape residue on the snake. Sure enough, with minimal effort it was as if the tape was never on there at all. Something to keep in your bag of tricks

 

[rob_gould]

Works as a solvent but stinks though right?

 

[PermO]

Works as a solvent but stinks though right?

No, not really, it's just fish oil, no solvents in WD-40.

Oily and sticky don't match, that's the trick.

I occasionaly have to cut a lot of velcro cablewraps for install jobs, and cutting just a couple of pieces make your scissors stick together like someone put glue on them... just a dab of WD-40 on your scissors will prevent this.

If you like "stink" get some Ballistol oil.

 

[rob_gould]

https://www.wd40.com/myths-legends-fun-facts/

 

[shabtek]

if you must use tape, put the adhesive side out and make an additional wrap sticky to sticky

 

[sahib]

I use cigarette lighter fluid.

 

[Tubetec]

A Q tip and tea tree oil is my usual method of attacking dried label, tape residues or stuborn finger marks .
I had heard that wd-40 was fish based as well ,but it still has to have a solvent of some kind in it to make it liquid.

That was a fun link Rob , so the fish oil thing is a myth after all , funny one about the police removing a naked burgular from ducting using WD .