Re: strong tape of 0.15 to 0.20 mm thickness

[Murray Leshner <murrayatuptowngallery@yahoo.com>]

With many tapes, particularly those for electrical insulation, the adhesive is thicker than the 'dielectric of choice', and is a different dielectric...irrelevant to the purpose here, but a strange thing to ponder for electrical/electronics folks.

I'll measure the tapes I have.

 

Here's one more idea. I don't know how durable lacquers are, but Kodak supposedly used a Sherwin-Williams dead flat black optical lacquer.

 

If the surface you are applying the tape to is metal, you can get pretty decently uniformly thick layers of paint if it isn't too thick. 0.003" is a good rule of thumb for some alkyd finishes. I don't know how thin epoxy paint can be made in varieties you can buy easily, but industrially, I know very thin coatings of epoxy-based primers and paints can be hand sprayed with consistent results. I have seen layers of paint used to calibrate instrument housings for navigation to level the instrument to angles of less than 2 milliradians.

 

With a thin tough solvent based paint (experiment on something else), left horizontal to dry thoroughly for hardness (be patient), or a combination of paint then tape you could possibly adjust the height.

 

Sounds crazy, but until I saw it done I wouldn't have believed it. Paint on the mounting feet was used to level the unit in lieu of re-machining the inside.

 

0.18 mm is about 0.0071"

 

The white artist's tape is only 0.002" or 0.06 mm (limited to my cheapo digital caliper's limited # of digits. It is too thin to really tell if it's hard (fingernails).

 

Ryuji Suzuki <rs@silvergrain.org> wrote:

Thanks to all who responded so far, plus those replied offlist.

From: Murray Leshner
Subject: Re: strong tape of 0.15 to 0.20 mm thickness
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:01:29 -0800 (PST)

> I think the wearing surface is probably the weak link, but
> as far as adhesives go, I think acrylic adhesives are the
> most aggressive.

The biggest problem is the friction between film perforation
and the tape. It tends to lift the tape edge and peel the tape.

> I have some FEP (teflon variant), Kapton and one other
> smooth hard plastic white artist's tape I'd be happy to
> send you a couple feet of [sorry, original poster only :O(
> ]. All are self-adhesive.

There was another suggestion from Scott Small for Kapton tape,
but all I could find were up to 5 mil thickness. The thickness
I need is on the order of 0.2mm (the thickness of usual duct
tape) and they are way too thin. Are other tapes you mentioned
in the right thickness? If so, I would like to take your
offer.

From: Dan Irvin
Subject: RE: strong tape of 0.15 to 0.20 mm thickness
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 11:03:48 -0800

> Also take a look at http://www.artuscorp.com/stock.htm they
> make shim stock in various thicknesses (from .0005" to
> .060") in plastic, brass and stainless steel. You can glue
> it down with whatever adhesive you want.

This is a potentially useful option. I just need to find a
good adhesive for strong contact with the camera with minimum
thickness. But I frankly don't know how much thickness the
adhesive will take. Also, there is no way for solvent to
evaporate between metal parts, limiting options of adhesives...

From: Barry Kleider
Subject: Re: strong tape of 0.15 to 0.20 mm thickness
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:14:28 -0600

> You might try aluminum tape. I don't know the thickness, but it's very
> strong and the surface is both flat and low friction. It also adheres to
> itself if you need a second layer.

I thought about aluminium tape, which I used to have in my
toolbox in Japan, but I can't find it in my local hardware
store... will try Home Depot next week.

Regarding my application, I described the camera and what I
want to achieve in the following page:

http://www.silvergrain.org/wiki/index.php/Horizon_Perfekt

Look at the last section, Modifying the focusing distance.

Again, the correct thickness of the tape is CRUCIAL to my
application.