Zeno Loc: Omaha NE

In the recent film "The Martian", there is a running gag about duct tape. A manned Mars mission brings copious amounts of the adhesive wrap to the Red Planet. Thank God they do! Stranded astronaut Matt Damon finds a thousand and one life-saving uses for the miracle tape. On this unhospitable world, there are numerous things to keep you breathing, and duct tape is high on the list.
Bad guys(and sometimes girls)in thriller novels have found a novel use for duct tape-they use it to bind their victims. I have doubts if even Houdini could have escaped from DT bonds. Anyway, these sticky cuffs work well for villains in Tom Clancy novels. Sometimes the heroes use duct tape for the same purpose, before Miranda is invoked.
I always have a roll of this amazing tape. I mainly use it to mend books with shattered spines. Oh beautiful book, I deliver unto thee a firmer backbone.
How do you use duct tape? How would you use it if you were on Mars? Has anyone seen "The Martian"?.
Please help to expand appreciation of duct tape.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Duct tape was one of the most influential inventions coming out of WWII. Without duct tape, Apollo 13 would have been a complete disaster, as the crew would have died of CO2 toxicity - so the tape HAS been in space - and saved astronauts. The precedent has been set for duct tape and space travel.

I use duct tape for all kinds of things, from emergency automotive repairs, permanent automotive repairs, emergency bandages, retrieving keys lost down a sewer drain, tent repair, splints for broken bones, upholstery repairs - well, you get the picture - the first thing I reach for is a roll of duct tape.

With today's varied colors of duct tape, my repairs and improvements no longer look like Hill Billy jerry rigging - so keeps the wife from complaining about how "cheap" I am. I don't consider it "cheap" behavior, when using what works and works well. Using expensive epoxy adhesives, that either don't stick, or lose their hold after a short time - or using a near permanent cloth and adhesive hybrid, that sticks to almost everything and holds until the last fiber - even in space? What's cheap about that?

Zeno Loc: Omaha NE

I agree, especially with the last part. If something(like duct tape)works best, use it. Thanks for the information about this multi-used tape.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

When I had two stents put in auntiE and SWMBO duct taped me to my recliner so I would behave myself and not start doing anything strenuous for a few days., We have used duct tape to muzzle a dog so we could rescue it from a bear trap. (not our dog or our trap, just a stray dog that we ended up rehoming) We have also used duck tape to bandage an injured goat until we could stitch it up; Great stuff duct tape.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

I injured my wrist a while back, and planned on wrapping it tightly with duct tape, and go on about my business. My snobbish wife wouldn't have it though. She said she wasn't having me out running around making us look poor, drug me to the clinic where they found a small fracture, and put me in a brace. I asked if duct tape would perform as well as the brace with my wife telling me to shut up the whole time. The doctor thought for a minute, and said yeah, probably. I left with the brace, a mad wife, and some laughing medical people behind me! It would have worked!! But NO!! It wasn't allowed!
I could have bought 80 rolls of that wonderful stuff for what that visit, and brace cost!
Has anyone else noticed that you can't get hay bailed with wire anymore! Bailing wire is duct tape's partner!

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

You are right. the hay around here is bailed with twine, useless stuff which breaks when you are putting the bales in the barn. Bailing wire is much better and can be used for hanging bird feeders, fixing fences and tieing down garbage can lids, among other things.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

The uses for bailing wire are endless. Just like duct tape! I actually made a horseshoe out of bailing wire years ago just to see if I could.
I had read about farriers in the wars resorting to that because of the lack of steel, and just had to try it. My daughter's mare wore that shoe on her left front hoof for 6 weeks. I still have it.