Yucky Gooey electrical tape that sucks - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Fried Chicken
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pm
content: Has the formulation for electrical tape changed since I was a child, or is new electrical tape just shitty? Does it have a shelf life?I just peeled off some electrical tape from a nick in my keyboard's wire that's not only turned into a yucky gooey mess, but also left yucky gooey mess residue on everything it touched. It also lost its adhesion. Am I buying the wrong electrical tape? Has the formulation changed since the 90s? Is this normal and I just haven't noticed thus far?

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 01:53:32 pm
content: Quoteits normal for elcheapo tape

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 01:59:48 pm
content: X2. Try a different brand. The 3M brand is probably the Gold Standard for electrical tape. I avoid using electrical tape as much as possible but perhaps others on here can recommend some good brands that they've used.

author: Fried Chicken
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 02:22:33 pm
content: Even 3M hasn't worked for me

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 03:02:33 pm
content: I’ll quote myself fromanother thread, but you may wish to read that entire topic. The part most relevant to your issue in bold.Quote from: golden_labels on April 23, 2025, 06:06:25 am3M or not, modern formulations or ones from your childhood, in some places it simply doesn’t belong.

author: calzap
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 03:53:17 pm
content: I’ve found Scotch Super 88 to be the best regular electrical tape. But with time, it can leave a residue when removed. You might consider trying a self-fusing silicone tape, like Scotch 70.Best and safest way to remove tape adhesive residue is that designed for removing surgical tape from skin. This can be bought at pharmacies or online in the form of soaked pads or liquid. It is obviously skin-safe and is relatively non-flammable. I use the pads for small jobs. A picture is below. There are many OK brands.Mike

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 04:02:49 pm
content: I've had the same problem with 3M Scotch 88 Super electrical tape. Scotch 35 comes in colors, including black. I have not tried the black, but the yellow and red do not seem as bad and conform well. Tesa makes several. Its cable tape is good. I have not tried its black tape. It appears to have a fabric backing and may not be as bad, but the fabric does not stretch or conform well.Ironically, 3M was founded to solve the problem of masking paint, as for cars*, and its masking tapes (both paper and fine line with a polymeric backing) are pretty good about not leaving residues. But, neither are very conformable or for electronics.*Think of having to use old fashioned mucilage paste and paper for masking.

author: mtwieg
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 05:27:11 pm
content: Can confirm that vinyl electrical tape doesn't play well with some materials. In particular, in grad school (~15 years ago) we used a lot of RG-58 coax, and if you bundled it with electrical tape and came back in a few weeks or months, you'd find exactly what the OP describes. As if the adhesive chemically reacted with the cable jacket instead of just adhering.We always used genuine 3M tape. Not sure what the exact part number was though. Probably super 88 or super 33+.

author: Vovk_Z
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 08:24:37 pm
content: Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmThat is just a shitty tape. I use the mentioned 3M and it is fine, like it should be.

author: CaptDon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2025, 11:49:26 pm
content: I have resorted to MEK and carburetor/brake parts cleaner to get that gunk off. I get a lot of old 20ft XLR cables in for repair and many must have laid around for years bound with black tape insuring that every foot there will be a gooey mess. Most alcohols make the job worse!!

author: Fried Chicken
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 12:39:20 am
content: Quote from: CaptDon on August 15, 2025, 11:49:26 pmWD40

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 12:42:02 am
content: wd40 might be worth a try,it certainly shifts gaffer goo

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 12:45:35 am
content: Goo Gone or similar goo-remover. (Dunno what y'all have over there in the UK or Aus.)Works well on sticker residue. Pretty sure it would cut electrical-tape goo.

author: Fried Chicken
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 05:10:43 am
content: Quote from: golden_labels on August 15, 2025, 03:02:33 pmWhat do you recommend for wires?

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 09:29:37 am
content: Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 16, 2025, 05:10:43 amShrink tubes.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 10:21:05 am
content: Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmI don’t think so. But there isn’t one formulation anyway.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmNo,shittyelectrical tape is shitty.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmThe cheap stuff, definitely. The good stuff lasts more or less forever.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmPar for the course for the cheap stuff.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmRight or wrong depends on requirements and expectations. If you only need it to last a few years, and don’t care if it leaves residue because the thing it’s going on will go in the trash anyway, then cheap is fine. If you want it to last for years with a tight hold and no residue when removed, you must buy the good stuff, and as others have said, only use it for its intended purposes.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmNope. There have been good and bad tapes for a loooooong time. Consumers in particular don’t realize this and just want the cheapest, so that’s what stores stock. Professionals know to use the good stuff.Quote from: Fried Chicken on August 15, 2025, 01:39:22 pmYou’ve just never used the good stuff, or have seen it misused.The issue of chemical compatibility with cables, for example, is an interesting one. Many PVC wires, especially older ones, suffer from plasticizer migration. There are many different plasticizers used, and they migrate or fail in different ways. Some migrate out of the PVC as a sticky oil, making it obvious that the plasticizer is failing. Other plasticizers migrate and evaporate (outgas), and I could imagine those being absorbed into the electrical tape adhesive. In those cases you wouldn’t realize the plasticizer is failing until the insulation got noticeably stiff.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 10:39:38 am
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 15, 2025, 04:02:49 pmNo it wasn’t!3M was started in 1902 as theMinnesotaMining andManufacturing company, to mine rock, which they then used to manufacture sandpaper.It was23 years laterthat they invented masking tape after noticing auto body painters (who used their sanding products) struggling to mask paint lines.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 10:56:23 am
content: Church of Nitto reporting. I've never had its adhesive separate. The worst I've had is some mild stickiness left on a surface after being applied for years.You're in America so I don't know who best to buy it form there. For Australians reading here: productionshop.com.au seems to be the cheapest non-bulk supplier for nitto and they told me they can ship if you ask them politely via email.https://www.productionshop.com.au/tapes/~-163?cn=141&rf=cn

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 11:00:35 am
content: The difference between $2 shop insulation tape and $20 3M tape is like night and day.Not only does it work better it actually feels better.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 11:02:39 am
content: Quote from: Psi on August 16, 2025, 11:00:35 amQuoted for emphasis!!

author: BILLPOD
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 01:24:17 pm
content: And then there is Shrink Wrap Tape, like this:https://www.amazon.com/Kable-Kontrol-Heat-Shrink-Adhesive/dp/B08CY6SV5R/ref=asc_df_B08CY6SV5R?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80608063550942&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=105222&hvtargid=pla-4584207595724585&th=1

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 07:09:57 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on August 16, 2025, 10:39:38 amYes, and I know all this because I once visited the little 3M museum in Two Harbors, Minnesota (north of Duluth on Lake Superior) where they got their start. Interesting little place.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 07:24:55 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on August 16, 2025, 10:39:38 amSo, I didn't use AI and you did. How about citing your source? 3M's big boost was with its masking tape according to local lore in Minnesota.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 07:33:46 pm
content: QuoteI learnt 3m's meant minnesota mining manufacturers from me dad probably 50 year ago,he also told me wot MK stood for

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 08:36:43 pm
content: Of course that's what 3M stands for. Those letters mean nothing relevant to what 3M produces today or in the 1980's when I worked with it. What really gave 3M its boost early on was a PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive). Despite tooki's AI search, had he searched further, he would have found:Are pressure sensitive adhesives considered the Cadillac of adhesives?Grok4:QuoteToday, 3M makes more things than one can reasonably count (the last time I checked years ago , it was more the 70,000). But,its real strength early on was PSA's, and that is still where it stands out among its competitors.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 08:56:15 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 08:36:43 pmYes, but the fact remains that they got their start with abrasives, not with adhesives. That's because of the "mining" part of their name. Their sandpaper was originally made from stuff dug out of the ground, before silicon carbide, etc.The sticky stuff came later.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 10:32:18 pm
content: @Analog Kid3M started with abrasives. That's not debatable. What part of PSA's can't you understand? That's where it made its mark. They are a very specific part of adhesives that 3M has great expertise in. Of course, today, it makes a lot more.Any intelligent discussion with you is futile. Consider, for example, that endless thread on emitter degeneration from several weeks ago It was answered in the first few posts, but you trolled to a much larger number.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 11:23:04 pm
content: Quote from: Psi on August 16, 2025, 11:00:35 amFor that price it must feel better! How do you think $100 audio jacks get their haptic superiority when inserted?What we pay for is not quality. It is consistency.3M is not superior, because they have some magical, inaccessible to others formula. Neither does a good adhesive cost that much to produce. I’m inclined to assume there is somebody reading this thread, who came across a great $2 tape. No, 3M is superior, because you buy a particular tape and it’s going to be the same 10 years ago, now, and 10 years from now, in USA, in Poland, in China, even in Arctic if there were any stores there. And this is what we pay $20 for: being spared experimentation and surprises.Whereas a random, no-brand $2 tape is an unknown. It’s whichever cheapest option the store or the importer managed to fetch this week. Chosen by people, who probably never had an electric tape in their hands, and they’ll never use one in their entire life. Quite possible they don’t even know what it is. The kind of a person, who sells neon-bulb voltage indicators as pipe clamps, blissfully unaware something is off until some customer complains.(video:1)Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 07:24:55 pmSo, now “you used AI” becomes the standard ad hominem?Or can you in any way tell, what makes you think tooki “used AI.”(1)The source is not hard to find:3M themselves explain company’s history.Let me hint you: everybody makes mistakes, can remember something wrong, and say that in public. In particular while bringing up anecdotes. We are only humans. Trying to cover that up and taking an aggressive stance against others, while everybody around sees who is in the right, is however a completely different story.(1)I’ll skip asking, how would that matter, if they did.(video:1)Bigclive “Mispackaged testers with very odd neon bulb”:

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2025, 11:40:59 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 10:32:18 pmWhat part of "I was wrong but I won't fucking admit it" do you not understand?Inthis post, you wroteQuotewhich is just plain wrong."Made its mark on" and "was founded to solve the problem of ..." aren't the same thing.Now, I really don't care about proving this picayune point. But you insist on doubling down on your error, so ...

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 12:32:14 am
content: For anyone starting out in electronics I recommend you lean towards buying cheap heatshrink over cheap insulation tape.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 12:58:26 am
content: Quote from: Psi on August 17, 2025, 12:32:14 amYou'll need both in your supplies.You can't use heatshrink, f'rinstance, to repair a power cord without cutting it and reconnecting it.I keep electrician's tape (not too cheap) to repair extension cords and power-tool cords that have been nicked, with the understanding that it's a temporary fix at best.I actually prefer old-fashioned "friction" (fabric) tape to vinyl, assuming the adhesive is any good. Not as prone to the gooey-mess problems.Heatshrink is definitely far better for such repairs, if you can slip it over the wire or cord.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 01:26:31 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 07:24:55 pmExcuse me?!?How fuckingdareyou accuse me of using AI? Just because I know how to research things and summarize them?!?I categorically do not use AI; I have enormous contempt for modern AI, and I make a point of telling others here to not waste our time with “ChatGPT said…” bullshit posts. On a daily basis, I swear under my breath that you can’t turn off the AI crap on Google and co. (I already use a script to use the “web” tab by default.)My source was the 3M website:https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/about-3m/history/timeline/Nobody will argue that sticky tape was 3M’s breakout product. But that’s not what you said: you said they were FOUNDED to make tape, and that is plain and simply incorrect.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 01:31:43 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 08:36:43 pmAgain,, I didn’t use AI, I referred to 3M’s fucking website, like any adult with a fucking brain would have done.You claimed 3M was FOUNDED to solve the problem of masking tape.That is wrong, period. Full stop.That 3M subsequently evolved into the market-leading company in PSA’s is undisputed. But that came later.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 01:33:41 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on August 16, 2025, 10:32:18 pmYou are the one digging in your heels rather than accepting that YOU made an erroneous statement. Sounds to me like you’re the one making “intelligent discussion” difficult.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 01:37:05 pm
content: Quote from: golden_labels on August 16, 2025, 11:23:04 pmThank you for the kind words.

author: calzap
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 05:43:47 pm
content: Just a reminder to all that this forum has an “ignore member” feature. You can put any member on your ignore-member list and not see their posts. If you find another member persistently aggravating, put them on your ignore list.I’m pretty tolerant and have no members on my ignore list on this forum. On a non-electronics forum to which I have belonged for decades, I have 3 members on my ignore list. It has been a great relief not to hear from them.Mike

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 17, 2025, 05:54:29 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on August 17, 2025, 12:58:26 amYou sometimes can, if 4:1 or even 6:1 heatshrink can fit over the plug! (Though if you don’t already have it, that heatshrink may cost more than a new cord…)What I use instead of electrical tape, for that kind of repair where heatshrink can’t be used, is the self-fusing silicone tape. If applied properly (=lots of tension=stretched to its limits while wrapping) it really does fuse into a solid mass that can’t be unwrapped. It’s brilliant.