Ok. I have a coupon for Office Depot and I will go in search of the Holy Grail of Tape Dispensers. (Trouble is, I love office/school supplies, so I can never get out of That Kind of Store for under $150 even if I don’t find the thing I went in for… :rolleyes: )
Aaaggh! The picture alone scared the crap out of me! I may never sleep again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do attempt to use the Satanic dispenser the way its creator intended (i.e., NOT like a desktop dispenser). I am a person who reads and *follows *directions. On everything.
I think you are right about cheap tape. I’m going to mend my ways (or at least Scotch tape them together) and look for a good dispenser and good tape.
“Take that, Lucifer!” *<Shakes fist at the Forces of Darkness> *
The tape makes a big difference. Spring for the upgrade and thickness and get the 3 inch stuff. We ship a lot of stuff at work and the 3 inch gun from Uline is a must-have. They throw in a gun (expand the ‘free offer’ in the list of specs) when you buy a case of some tapes.
Also, tools wear out and break and get lost, and its actually faster for us to NOT use a tape gun. That brown packing tape doesn’t stick if it gets to hot or to cold. When the temp drops to much below sixty degrees F it tends to snap when being applied and of course falling back onto the roll where the end of the tape instantly becomes dark matter, you know its there, but it is indetectable. We use the thin brown packing tape because it’s cheap, and it’s barely good enough to do the job most of the time.
I’ve had one of the “big honking industrial tape dispensers” for more years than I can remember, and have never had a problem with it. I’m sure it didn’t pay much for it either, because that’s not something I would do(but I may have inherited it from an out-of-business workplace). I also use the cheap thin tape, and think it works better that the “good” thicker stuff because it stretches more and creates a tighter seal. Never had a problem with it breaking or tearing prematurely.
But when I had to start doing a lot of taping I found these small tape dispensers and they work so well that I can tape with the best of them. Highly recommended. Very easy to use!
This design is similar to the Tape Dispenser from Hell, but it must have some improved design features if you like it. I needed an excuse to head to Dollar General anyway!
My experience is the same, although tape is much more likely to stick to itself if you don’t fold it over, if you use it infrequently. You could also put a tab of paper on the end of the tape to keep from “losing” the end.
I always use quality tape, because cheap tape splits, sticks to itself (and you can’t find the ends), doesn’t stick well, etc. It’s not a bargain if you can’t use it.
I also improved on the design by gluing a short section of chopstick across it where the two little nubs are. The nubs sometimes let the tape slip out and that caused a lot of problems. With the wood chopstick going accross that area now it id a dream to use.
I’d post a pic but I am too new to have pic posting privileges…
I’m not a “hatey” kind of guy, but those people that grab the tape dispenser out of my hands and(without even look down) take a long swipe and seal the package perfectly then hand the dispenser back and say “See? it’s that easy!”?
FYI, it’s not you: no one at SDMB has posting privileges. If you want to post a picture, put it up somewhere else on the Web (a lot of people use Flickr, Imgur, or Google Photos) and include a link in your post.
The only issue is the tape is a little narrower than standard rolls and comes in much smaller rolls. But for our move and general mailing, that’s not a problem.
It really works well, keeps the end of the tape off the roll so no searching for it next time, and is easy to use.
