T-Tape Backing Strips
This page shows how to make the "Backing Strips" upon which you make your T-Tapes. I made these backing strips from a slick-backed tape applied to a heavy-weight printer paper backing. These strips are reusable, so you only need to make a single set of them. Make a set of as many as you want -- a dozen of them would allow you to make 12 T-Tapes ahead of time for later use.
There is nothing magic about the materials used to make these strips. What you want is a fairly substantial material (that will endure many uses) with one slick surface -- a surface from which the Micropore paper tape (the best tape for making T-Tapes) can easily be removed. I used a heavy, slick-surfaced tape used by draftsman to tape drawings down to their drafting table, but you can use any slick-surfaced tape. Variety stores will normally have a good selection of suitable tapes -- use any cloth, plastic, or plasticised-paper tape which will release the Micropore tape. Or you may be able to find a suitable heavy-weight plasticised paper which could be used directly without a tape-overlay (a heavy-duty label-backing paper, or a plasticised butcher or freezer paper for example). The goal is to just come up with some durable strips with one slick side which can be used over and over to make T-Tapes.
The strips in the following photos are 1" wide, which will yield two 1/2" wide adhesive flaps on the T-Tape. This gives good results for me, but if you want a little more adhesive area use a slightly wider backing strip. For example, a 1-1/4" wide backing strip would yield two 5/8" T-Tape adhesive flaps.
The 6 photos which follow show constructing the backing strips. You just stick pieces of tape side-by-side on a 8-1/2" x 11' of heavy typing paper, and then cut and fold the strips. You can get about 10 strips out of a sheet of printer paper, although I only used three in this sample.
Getting started...
Mark and cut 1" longer than mid-shaft circumference...
Cut the strips apart, and fold lengthwise (tape side out). That's all there is to it.
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