I thought my experience today with an anti-friction tape may be of some interest to other model engineers. During the wee hours recently I thought that there must be a product out there that you could buy and fix to various tools that would help ease their use. In particular I was thinking about my new saw table, Proxxon bandsaw, tool grinder and sanding tables.
When looking through Axminster tools website for something else I came across just the thing....... a tape called "Slick Tape" and since it was so 'reasonable' a price I ordered 2 boxes of the tape for a total cost of £8, For this I get around 6' of 3" wide tape. Other types are available and just click here if you want to see what they are.
I use Axminster quite a bit (UK based) and there service has always been very high with speedy delivery, indeed some times the goods have arrived the very next day! Back to the tape though.......I was surprised when opening the box that the tape was quite thick (I know it says 1mm in the description but didn't absorb this measurement at the time) and wondered if indeed it would stick! Just in case i thought I would get the electric heat gun out to warm it up. However when unrolling it to cut off the length I wanted I thought better of it in case it affected the pre glued tape. In the end sticking wasn't a problem and the heat gun put away again. I used a standard Stanley knife (on a cutting mat) to cut the tape and as long as you take three or four cuts instead of trying it in one go, you'll be fine.
Just to make sure it stuck I thought I would clean up the aluminium tops by using some light sanding, followed by blowing the dust off, finally cleaning up with thinners. So with a good prepared surface I peeled back around 2" - 3" of backing tape and lining it up carefully, peeled the backing off whilst pressing the tape down. Once it was in place I placed a piece of chipboard over the tape then using a couple of clamps, clamped the wood, tape, aluminium sandwich together.
Releasing the showed the tape had stuck very well and I need not of fretted over the glueing down. Whether it stays there or no I will get back to you on it, but I think it is down for good. When trying out some items it certainly works. The angled table I have in front of a grindstone for sharpening my lathe tools, had a small section glued onto it and it was very pleasing to move the tool steel across the face of the wheel.
Next I tried the sanding tool and no problems occurred, so it looks as if it 'does what it says on the tin' and I will add more tape to the Proxxon bandsaw and the home built saw table. The only change I would have made is to have ordered just one box instead of the second since it does go a long long way.
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- The main ingredients…
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- One length cut into two halves using a ‘Stanley’ knife.
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- Clamping the tape to the top
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- The strips in place
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- The ‘other’ table top with its tape in place
