Stingray and ducting tape?

Does anyone have experience using a Stingray to cut ducting tape (the actual adhesive-backed aluminum foil, not the fabric-based “duct tape”)? I know that, by hand, foil is easier to cut with an Xacto knife than paper is, but I don’t know how that might translate to a Stingray. I suppose $45 isn’t way too much to drop for an experiment though… Thanks.

I did a quick test cut by hand and if you get the spring tension right, and set up the toolpaths so that they don’t overly tax the swivel mechanism, it should cut well.

If you’ve got a file no wider than a typical strip of tape I’ll gladly try a test cut.

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Thank you, @WillAdams. DM sent.

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As with any other adhesive, oramask, shelf paper, etc… Make sure you press it down really good with a roller, heel of hand, whatever as the knife will try to pull it up if it can.
Several light cuts (0.005") work better than one aggressive cut. You may need 2-3 cuts to get through it, duct-tape is a bit thicker than typical tape. :wink:

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That’s not the ducting tape you’re looking for… :palm_down_hand: (that’s supposed to be Jedi Mind Trick Hand)

I just measured a piece of 3M #3340 and it is .0065" thick including the backing paper…

Now if I could find the silvery label stock used in Zebra thermal printers, but in sheets, that would be the bees’ knees :honeybee: I will need to Google once I’m out from behind the work firewall…

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Verdict is success!

Workholding was just blue painter’s tape w/ double-sided tape.

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Thank you so much, Will! I’ll be ordering a Stingray in the morning.

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I would suggest looking into one of the adhesive mats used w/ Cricut and similar machines for workholding.

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I will do that, too. (just made the 20 character minimum on that…)

Oh my goodness, it’s sometimes fun to be on the steep part of a learning curve. When I got up this morning I knew nothing about vinyl signmaking materials, and by 7:00 I had learned about Oracal 651 and found a major t-shirt/signmaking/vinyl supplies dealer called Aviva here in Dallas (just a short jog off my normal work commute, it turns out), made the short jog, and bought a 12x15" sheet of silver-gray metallic and a same size sheet of transfer tape for less than $2. And now that my eyes have been opened it turns out that the Oracal has been mentioned here on the forum in at least one thread. I’m stoked! And I’m still interested in the 3M ducting tape, because it can be used for EMI shielding of small things… :slight_smile:

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What is your goal? I assumed you really wanted that tape as your mask. There are other options such as Oracal like you say.

Depending on what you are doing you may get away with cheap shelf liner from Walmart or Lowe’s. That is what I typically use to mask something I am going to paint.

I really want to try some liquid masking material though and will shortly. Looking for something that can be applied with a brush or spray and then peeled or washed off.

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My immediate application is a name decal for a city bike I’m “restomodding” from a 1980’s Japanese 10-speed.

The name (which is the basis for my avatar here, it is Latin for “from stuff”, and if I ever do a home business will be my business name…) will be on either side of the top tube, and the little triangles are just for centering on the tube. The frame is dark blue and all the components are aluminum and stainless steel, so the silver-gray is the perfect color for the name. I’ve already machined an ExQ headtube badge out of 1mm nickel silver sheet using the N4.

As of yesterday evening, the closest thing I knew of was the 3M aluminum tape, and it turns out that the Zebra silver-gray label material (we use various sizes at work for serial number labels on our products) is not available in sheets. So the range of colors of the Oracal was an eye-opener. And $1 per sheet! That is impulse buy area! :smiley:

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Okay so you are not looking for a mask here, you want the actual material you are cutting out. :ok_hand:

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Oh wow, thank you for putting that concept into my head… :thinking: I could make a mask, couldn’t I, and use the silver touchup paint I got for my Scion Xb to paint the name right on the top tube… :thinking: I’m not sure that’s a rabbit hole I want to dive down right now, but thank you for bringing up the concept! :smiley:

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