Things I Like

There’s an old saying: If it doesn’t move and it should, hit it with WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn’t, get the duct tape.

Leaving aside the fact that WD-40 isn’t really a lubricant (I like Boeshield T-9, food-grade silicone spray and Phil Wood Tenacious Oil for those), the duct tape part of the equation is pretty good. Seems like every household has some duct tape around, and everyone uses it for something.

Problem is that most of the duct tape around these days sucks. The fabric is coarse woven and lumpy, so it doesn’t conform well to uneven surfaces, the adhesive leaves residue and pulls off paint, and the damned stuff doesn’t work well in the cold or the heat.

Not so with gaffer’s tape. It’s commonly used in the theatre and other performing arts arenas, and is kind of an open secret.

Several different companies make gaffer’s tape, but the canonical manufacturer is Permacel

It’s expensive (around $13 per roll) but worth it.

There’s nothing like the right tool for the job. I’ve carried a pocketknife of one kind or another (Spyderco Delica FRN for a number of years, more recently a Benchmade Mini-Griptilian) for probably 15 years, and they always come in handy. But some things require scissors. And those things usually aren’t appropriate for your nice fabric shears.

That’s where EMT shears come in.

These things are great. They’re cheap ($5 to $10), stainless steel and they cut incredibly well. They’re designed for use by EMTs for safely cutting seat belts, clothing, bandages and such, but work well for many other things. The edges are typically serrated, and the nose is blunt, making them safe to use near skin.

I’ve used them to cut sheet aluminum, wire, cable ties, gaffer’s tape and even small sticks. They go through everything with ease. They’re supposed to be able to cut through a penny, but I’ll admit I’ve not tried it. Yet.

With such aggressive cutting performance and such a low price, it’s easy to keep a couple sets around the house or the car. And hey, if you lose or destroy them, it’s not like they were particularly expensive.

Flathead screws are a pain because it’s easy for the screwdriver tip to slip out of the slot. They’re really unsuited for power driving.

Phillips head screws are a pain because the screwdriver tip will cam out under high torque use. I’ve read that phillips screws were actually designed for automated assembly applications, because the design made it easy for an automatic screwdriver to find purchase, screw and then release. That is to say, cam in/cam out is a designed-in feature.

Robertson, or square drive screws, on the other hand, are designed to keep a tight hold on the screwdriver tip under both low and high torque applications. They’re used most commonly in Canada, where the Robertson drive screw was actually invented. They’re not as common in the US.

As the name implies, the screw has a square hole in it, into which a square bit is inserted. The bit is slightly tapered, so as you insert the bit, it holds securely to the screw, so you can actually put a screw onto the screwdriver and then drive it overhead, one handed, and the screw won’t fall off the screwdriver. Nice.

Cam-out is extremely unlikely. You can get some serious torque on these screws without the danger of the tool slipping.

You can find a wide variety of square drive screws and the screwdrivers to drive them at McFeely’s. You can also find a pretty decent explanation of the benefits of square drive screws here.

We all have to tie things down now and then. To the roof of a car, to the back of a bike rack, to a trailer.

Rope works fine, but I really like using nylon webbing with those ladder lock buckles.

You can get the webbing in various widths, though 1″ is the most popular. You can get it in just about any length you want. And the familiar ladder lock buckles (just like on your backpack) make securing your stuff dead simple. Just thread the loose end through the buckle and pull tight.

Simple, cheap and effective. And you don’t have to figure out if that knot you just tied is any good.

Muletape is a flat, woven polyester tape that is commonly used in outside plant (buried cable, etc) work as a pull string to help install cable in duct. It’s light, super strong, has a low rate of stretch, is highly resistant to moisture and rot (even if left in muddy water in a duct bank for 5 years), and comes in a wide variety of widths (1/8″ to 3/4″) and a wide variety of corresponding load capacities, from 200 pounds to 6000 pounds. You could tow a car with this stuff. Seriously.

You can get a woven aramid version of Muletape for even more abrasion resistance, as well as locatable tape, that has conductive wires woven into it for easy clip on with a cable locator. That’s handy if you don’t have tracer wire installed in your duct.

Since it’s flat and kind of slippery, it tends to be less prone to friction cutting the innerduct it is being pulled through.

Most of the above is only relevant to outside plant folks and they probably know all that already. For the rest of us, the main thing to know is that Muletape is seriously weather resistant and seriously strong. Since it is a bit slippery, you have to pay a bit more attention when you are tying knots, so that they don’t come undone, but once you master that, you’re set. Neptco even has a special knot they’ve developed just for Muletape.

I’ve used this stuff for all kinds of things, almost none of which had to do with pulling cable. I take it on float trips to tie rafts together, I’ve used it to temporarily fix a fence that was falling down, I’ve used a length of it as a belt once or twice, and I’ve even used it as a tow rope to drag someone in a shopping cart behind my bike. Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time. No, nobody was seriously hurt. Yes, beer was involved. Yes, it was a lot of fun.

Sure, rope would work in most cases, but Muletape’s light, handy and exceptionally strong and resistant to abrasion. For most things I *know* it won’t stretch, break or otherwise fail. Only problem is that it’s exceptionally expensive, too, if you buy it new. However, a lot of innerduct comes prethreaded with Muletape, and once it has been used to pull the cable through, many outside plant folks just throw it away because often, it doesn’t get reused. They may be more than happy to give you a few thousand feet if you ask nicely. It might be muddy and dirty, but it cleans up pretty well. Stick it in a mesh bag and run it through the washer.

If you go camping, touring, or otherwise spend a lot of time outdoors away from civilization, you need a decent fixed-blade knife. It needs to be something that will stay sharp, hold up to some abuse, and not be stupidly Rambo-huge and ungainly. You’ll be cooking with it and doing any number of other chores, not taking over Grenada.

Frost’s of Sweden has been making knives for hundreds of years, and they produce a basic mora-style sheath knife called the Clipper that just can’t be beat. They come in a carbon steel version as well as in stainless, both with about a 4″ blade.

Both steels are good quality, hard (Rockwell 60, or so, a bit less for the stainless) and take an edge and hold it. The carbon steel blades have a slight advantage in both taking and holding an edge because, well, carbon steel is just better steel for edgeholding. You give up some sharpness and hardness for the rust resistance of stainless.

The sheath is pretty no nonsense, made entirely of plastic, with a drain hole in the bottom and a fairly aggressive plastic clip at the top to attach the sheath to your belt or waistband. The whole thing weighs almost nothing.

The thermoplastic handle is fairly grippy, even when wet, and the shape of the handle is comfortable. Both the handles and sheaths come in a variety of colors. The blades themselves aren’t what you’d call detail-finished, but they have clean lines and even grinds, and that’s what’s important.

They aren’t works of art, but they aren’t meant to be. They’re just an inexpensive, durable, high quality fixed-blade knife, and since the knife itself doesn’t look all “tactical” (that’s code for painted black) and scary, The Man isn’t likely to take exception to you having it.

If you want a more traditional wooden-handled Mora or something even fancier, Frost’s makes those as well, but you can’t beat the Clipper for value and utility. There are plenty of cheap, crappy knives out there at the same price point, but why would you want one of those?

You can get a Frost Mora Clipper for between $10 and $15 all day long, so even if you lose it in the river, it’s not really a tragedy.

There’s electrical tape, and there’s electrical tape. Everyone has some, and it gets used for all kinds of tasks, both electrical and not. It’s like the taciturn and mysterious ninja cousin to duct tape, which, by the way, now comes in a clear version.

The stuff you buy at most stores is just cheap vinyl tape, and it usually comes in rolls with a gigantic cardboard spindle, so that you actually end up with maybe 10 linear feet of tape. If you stretch it too much, it tends to snap, and it doesn’t do very well in cold weather. Cheap electrical tape also doesn’t stick very well, either to itself to to other things. It gets hot and it peels up and then it gets cold and it turns brittle.

Not this stuff. It comes in a plastic container, and there’s a LOT of tape on that roll. It’s high quality PVC that maintains that lovely stretchy quality of electrical tape even when it’s really freaking cold out. The adhesive is pretty aggressive, and once it’s stuck to something, it stays stuck.

Once you use up the tape, you have this nice circular plastic container with a snap top that’s handy for holding small bits of hardware.

The thing about electrical tape is that it’s so handy. The rolls are compact, so they’re easy to have nearby. I use it wrapped sticky side out on my bike handlebars as a base layer for the cork tape. It keeps the tape from slipping and gapping over time and since the non-sticky side is against the bar, you don’t end up with chunks of cork permanently bonded to your bars. I also use it to finish the handlebar wrap.

I use it to repair all kinds of things that probably would be more correctly repaired with something else, but it works. In combination with 3M 2242 self-fusing rubber tape, I’ve used it to water-seal and insulate wireless antenna connections. Some of those antennas have been in service for over 4 years with no problems at all. That’s good tape.

I even, on rare occasions, use it to protect and insulate electrical connections, which may shock and amaze you.

Super 33+ is rated for use from 0 Fahrenheit all the way up to 220F, it’s UV resistant, moisture resistant, abrasion resistant and flame retardant. It also makes a decent band aid when you hurt yourself, though I’m sure 3M would balk at that application.