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Archive for the ‘duct tape’ Category

Copper Prices

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

I came across an interesting article in last week’s Wall Street Journal regarding the continuing strength of commodity prices based on demand in China.

This article speculated that a lot of the Chinese buying was a stockpiling of material for which China’s manufacturers had no real demand. If that’s true, then the Chinese buying binge may be over.

This may well explain the recent downturn in copper prices after a steady rise over the last six months. This rise made little sense in light of the overall worldwide decline in manufacturing. If this downturn is real, it could be a harbinger for lots of commodity price reductions.

Why do we care? The cost of extension cords (copper and rubber), mic stands (steel and aluminum), tape (cotton, oil and chemicals) and batteries (tin plate and many minerals) are all tied to world commodity prices.

Lets hope that if this recent reversal in commodity prices is real, that we will see it passed through to the products we sell.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Click here to sign up for our newsletter. Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

Posted in batteries, duct tape, extension cords, good business ideas, microphones & mic stands | No Comments »

Blowin’ In The Wind

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

It’s outdoor show season, and that means that drought stricken areas all over the country are planning elaborate and expensive outdoor events so they can make it rain.

It’s all but guaranteed that 30 minutes before the event is over, but well after dark, the bottom will drop out of the sky, promising a load out in the rain and a truck full of wet gear.

While the standard hardware store blue tarp is the industry standard for quick cover ups in the rain, they can really cause you some problems when the rain is accompanied by a stiff breeze.

A simple modification in a cheap tarp can make it many times more useful when the raindrops start falling.

Turn the tarp into a plastic bag.

Just take your tarps, fold them in half, and stitch up the edges. If you’re not handy with a sewing machine, gaffers tape or even a stapler will work almost as well.

Larger tarps can be turned into bags that will cover up your entire PA stacks, and you can make smaller bags for covering up things like monitors.

Since the tarps can be easily cut and normally do not unravel, you can take one large tarp and turn it into a lot of custom covers for things like your consoles and amp racks. No hemming necessary.

Since the tarps have grommets, you will have some tie down points, but you probably won’t even need them. Since wind can’t get inside the bag, the harder the wind blows, the firmer the bag stays in place.

Make sure you label each bag with a large label (try using a Sharpie marker directly on the bag) in letters large enough to be seen in the dark.

At the first mention of rough weather, place each bag close to the location where it will be needed and instruct stagehands or volunteers how they are used.

This might well be the best piece of sound equipment you ever buy.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too! Click here to sign up for our newsletter. Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

Posted in Pro Sound, audio visual, duct tape, gaffers tape, tape, tie-line | No Comments »

Don’t Like Going To The Dentist? Just Chew On Duct Tape!

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

A recent article in Science News reveals an amazing tape fact. The simple act of unwinding a roll of tape generates X-Rays. Not just a few random rays-enough to actually expose a piece of dental x-ray film!

Scientists at UCLA were able to build a simple tape unrolling machine that generated enough X-ray bursts to actually image one of the technicians’ finger bones on an dental photographic plate.

This phenomenon is not completely understood nor is apparent that there is any commercial application for such technology. A charge is generated when the tape is peeled off the roll. Sudden jerking of the tape seems to cause electrons in the tape to give off energy in the form of protons. A slight glow is even generated.

Next time your flashlight batteries go dead, maybe you just need to unwind (really quickly) a roll of duct tape.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Enterainment 1 extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables. You can occasionally also count on us for some fairly useless, if interesting, information!

Posted in duct tape, gaffers tape, tape | No Comments »

Finally, A Little Good News

Friday, June 6th, 2008

It is something of a stretch for me to go from selling audio visual supplies to watching the commodity markets. Unfortunately, volatility in the base components of everything we sell means that this vital information just can’t be ignored.

Between the price of the petroleum derivatives in tape adhesives and the cost of trucking these very heavy products, the cost of oil impacts the cost of every kind of tape we sell. There has been some short term moderation in the price of a barrel of oil, so we are hoping that our suppliers can hold the line a little longer. It is hard to connect the price of filling up your car with what you pay for a roll of gaffers tape, but the connection is real.

After peaking at $4.00 a pound in April, the price of copper is down about 10%, closing at just over $3.60 earlier in the week. As our cable business expands, the cost of the most important, and heaviest component, in an extension cord or speaker cable has forced suppliers to raise prices several times this year. Maybe those increases are over for a little while. Hopefully, this decrease in will help battery makers hold the line as well

Unfortunately, it seems like what one market gives back, another takes away. Dow Chemical’s announcement that it will raise chemical prices by up to 20%, effective this month, is going to impact much of we sell. Tape adhesive resins, battery components and cable jackets all have chemical components, and even if Dow isn’t the supplier, most other major suppliers are sure to follow.

We are grateful to our loyal customers and will do all we can to work with major suppliers to address pricing pressure.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords , OnStage Stand mic stands and quality speaker cables.

Posted in batteries, duct tape, extension cords, gaffers tape, good business ideas, tape | No Comments »

Give ‘Em An Inch, They’ll Take A Mil!

Monday, December 31st, 2007

No, that’s not a misprint. I really did mean “mil“.

I recently came across an online ad for duct tape that listed this information under “roll length”.

60 Yds.-180 Ft.-55 Meters

Yes, a standard roll of duct tape or gaffers tape is 60 yards, or 180 feet, but that is not the same as 55 meters. 55 meters is longer than 60yds. Just a little longer, but nonetheless, it helps me make a point.

Tape manufacturers seem to constantly mix standard and metric measurements at will, usually to serve their own purposes.

The width of a roll of gaffers tape was two inches for decades. Simple, easy to remember, and true. About ten years ago, all the major manufacturers of this and other cloth tapes changed to a metric standard for width, and reduced the width of a roll of tape to 48 millimeters. The change was hardly noticable on a single roll of tape but when you spread that size reduction over literally millions of rolls made by a major manufacturer in a single year, the difference was huge. It adds up to almost a full roll of actual tape in a case of 24 rolls.

By using the metric standard for width they reduced the roll size by 4%, but by not adopting the metric measure of 55 meters for length, they didn’t have to increase the roll length.

To confuse things further, the thickness of tape is measured in “mils” with “mil” meaning a thousandth of an inch. Here the mix standard (inches) and metric (thousandths).

If you’ve got any good ideas on how to standardize this system, let me know.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’re your first choice for “Satisfaction Guaranteed” tape products.

Posted in Other News, duct tape, gaffers tape, tape | No Comments »

Can Some Well Placed Gaffers Tape Help You Get What’s Coming To You?

Friday, December 21st, 2007

I don’t watch much television, and if I do, its usually “late night”. I’m always surprised to see how prominently musical equipment manufacturers logos are displayed when you see bands on programs like Late Night With David Letterman or The Tonight Show. While its true that some of these players have endorsement deals with the equipment makers, others don’t. More importantly, in most cases companies like Yamaha and Tama aren’t paying the networks directly for this tremendous exposure. Meanwhile companies like Ford and GM are paying millions for advertising on the same shows that might be nearly as effective.

Its a lot easier to get video exposure for your band than it was a few years ago. You Tube, cable and satellite TV, and other online channels mean that performers using musical equipment have tons of opportunities to be seen. If you are interested in the possibility of getting some sort of endorsement deal, try using a little well placed gaffers tape to cover up the logos of any equipment that might appear in your video.

You can be sure that if someone from Marshall or Fender sees you using their equipment with the logo obscured they will realize that they are missing an opportunity to put their name in front of lots of eyeballs. With a popular YouTube video getting millions of views, this type of exposure can rival that of a 3 minute performance by a popular artist on a network program.

Equipment manufacturers pay lots of money to popular performers to use and be seen with their gear. There’s no reason that you should miss out.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’ve got gaffers tape in 13 colors!

Posted in Pro Sound, Pro lighting, duct tape, gaffers tape, tape | No Comments »

Aren’t We All Selling Something?

Monday, October 15th, 2007

I try spend part of every day visiting forums where there are discussions among hands-on users of the products we sell. You can get a lot of good information about how people use what we sell to solve problems and its possible to develop good theories about how trends will develop over the coming months and years.

Unfortunately, those who moderate these forums (a thankless task, I know) have become so concerned about members using their forums to sell products that they are denying their membership the chance to take advantage of some of the most expert opinions available in the marketplace.

We have a very large product user base of stagehands and theatre techs, and almost every problem they face is going to cost them something to solve. Why deny these hard working technicians access to information from those who know these problem solving products the best.

I tried for a while to post solutions and start legitimate discussion on some of these forums, but I was constantly being threatened with banishment because the moderators did not want any links in their forums to any commercial sites.

Here’s a couple of quick examples.:

A number of theatre techs were discussing how to best remove adhesive residue from cables. I’ve done a lot of this and we sell a product that does the job really well. A link to this product on one of our web sites might have saved somebody a lot of time. Not Allowed!

I came across a post from a church sound technician who was concerned about poor battery life in her wireless microphones. It turns out that the church was using old-style carbon batteries in an attempt to save money. A simple link to buybattery.com where we sell the most highly regarded wireless mic battery around at very competitive prices might have been of real use to this person. Not allowed!

I understand the need to control spam and prevent postings from people who are selling something completely irrelevant to the discussion, but as long as these forum moderators attempt to block information from those who have the most to offer, they are not serving their members the best they could.

Posted in Pro Sound, Pro lighting, batteries, duct tape, gaffers tape | No Comments »

I Can’t Believe There Isn’t A Better Way

Monday, October 1st, 2007

One of my favorite household products is WD-40. I probably use it everyday and you might find a dozen or more cans around my house and shop at any given time. There’s not much it won’t do. It’s sort of like duct tape, just in a spray version.

I bought a new can yesterday and was amazed to see that they still attach the nozzle to the side of the can with a piece of cellophane tape. The same as they have done for 40 or more years. Its not a good solution.

Believe me, I’m all for anything that uses tape, and the makers of WD-40 must use miles of the stuff, one inch at a time, to attach these removable nozzles. The nozzle (just a plastic straw, really) is necessary to get the lubricant/solvent/penetrant into hard-to-reach places but there’s no place to put it when you want to put the cap back on the can. So, you lose the nozzle long before you use up what is in the can.

Rumor has it that the WD-40 company is preparing to release a new type of can with a feature called “Smart Straw“. I hope it works as well as WD-40 does.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. We’re here with great supplies for work and home.

Posted in Other News, duct tape, tape | No Comments »

Growth of Adhesive Tape Industry

Friday, September 28th, 2007

My Google news alerts this morning pointed to a report about the anticipated growth of the pressure sensitive tape industry over the next several years. The report projects strong growth through 2010. Shurtape (the maker of 665 gaffers tape) sure thinks so.

Shurtape now has a new 130,000 square foot distribution facility in Hickory, NC . That’s room for a whole lot of tape. This new center has 45 foot ceilings, 33 loading docks, and there is room to grow. The Shurtape facility is the anchor tenant of the Catawba Industrial Business Park a 45 acre development in Catawba County.

Shurtape’s acquisition of the Arts & Entertainment division of Permacel, along with their strategic alliance with Pro Tapes and Specialties assures that they will be at the center of these rosy growth projections.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Count on us to meet your pressure sensitive tape needs.

Posted in duct tape, gaffers tape, tape | No Comments »

Is Our Quest Finally Over?

Monday, September 10th, 2007

We’ve been struggling with a solution for temporary gym floor marking for about a year now, and it looks like we may have finally solved a vexing problem.

I had a chance to attend the home opener for UNC’s Womens Volleyball Team (congratulations on your win over Villanova) as part of the Carolna Classic at Carmichael Auditorium.

We have been working closely with Joe Sagula, UNC’s coach this fall, and he has graciously helped us to test Permacel 724 Paper Tape for temporary gym floor marking. He’s been a great help.

The floor at Carmichael is an historic one. This is where Michael Jordan led a UNC team in their home games as they marched toward the 1982 NCAA mens basketball championship. Floor damage would be out of the question.

I watched several matches on Friday and the Permacel 724 seemed to hold up very well. The temporary lines were amazingly straight and the end lines (the ones that really take a beating) held up to heavy foot traffic. This gym floor also serves as the home for UNC’s womens basketball team, so it sees a lot of temporary floor markings.

Thanks in part to the thorough testing at UNC, we have tentatively arranged for the US Volleyball Assoc. to endorse this product and we have seen sales to lots of other NCAA volleyball programs.

It was frustrating for us when the makers of SafeOff were unwilling to stand behind their product, but we did not hesitate to drop them.

We are grateful to Shurtape, the makers of 724, for stepping up to the line.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Look to us first to meet your floor marking needs.

Posted in duct tape, tape | No Comments »

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