Blue tape lifting wood fibers

[Robin Frierson]

Doing some prefinishing before assembly and finding my blue tape is lifting the woodfibers off the sides of the taped off panels, enough to think I need to rejoint the edge. Never seen that before....Using soft maple. Did I just get some bad blue tape or should I be using some other type of tape to protect areas from finish?

[Andrew Hughes]

Robin try pulling the tape flat back on to its self.
Its hard to describe but if your pull your tape up and away then you'll pull out any loose fibers.
Ive never really noticed a bad batch of blue tape

[Mike Henderson]

Robin try pulling the tape flat back on to its self.
Its hard to describe but if your pull your tape up and away then you'll pull out any loose fibers.
I've never really noticed a bad batch of blue tape

I agree with Andrew. And pull slowly. That way, if you do get any lifting, you can take action to recover before you do serious damage.

Mike

[Al Launier]

I think the green Frog tape will serve you well if you aren't satisfied with the Blue tape. I've found that the Frog tape isn't as sticky as the BT, yet it leaves a very clean edge with no paint bleed.

[Mike Henderson]

I've tried Frog tape and didn't see any real advantage over blue tape, either in making a clean paint line or in removal. Your experience may vary.

Mike

[Chris Padilla]

Blue tape can certainly pull out fibers from the wood but I've never noticed that it caused much of an issue.

I've never tried Frog tape on bare wood like I would use the blue tape...only on painted items in the house and there, it works fine and as advertised.

But since I use miles and miles of blue tape, replacing it with Frog tape would be quite a bit more money.

And the guys above are spot on...when removing it and if you're having issues, try different directions and go slower.

[Neil Gaskin]

One difference can be how long you intend to leave the tape down. Clean release times very.

[Tony Zaffuto]

3M has blue tape for "delicate" surfaces. It has significantly less removal tack and it is the only one I know use.

[Wayne Lomman]

It's the effect I would expect from either leaving it too long, rubbing it too hard into place, or out of shelf life tape. You know what brands you can get so test and see whether there is one that works better. I would change tape to suit my technique. Cheers

[glenn bradley]

As described, slowly pull tape this way . . . .

346840

[phil harold]

One difference can be how long you intend to leave the tape down. Clean release times very.
Exactly
people think blue tabe is for everything and is the best for long time taping but it is only rated for 7 days
I use a lot of diamond vogel masking tape
ZZ529-010 ZZ529 DV TAPE 1 INCH

[richard b miller]

a trick they taught us in structural repair school is to take a piece of tape and lay it across your body, pull it off and then place it on your project.
that takes a little of the strong stickys off but you'll still get a good line.

[Chris Padilla]

So expose my belly, tape it (hope I didn't catch any hair), and then put it on your project? LOL...I may just try that! hahaha!!

[Andrew Hughes]

So expose my belly, tape it (hope I didn't catch any hair), and then put it on your project? LOL...I may just try that! hahaha!!
What happens if I have a lot of projects that need tape and I run out of belly hair.
Ask the neighbor for some help?:eek:

[Keith Westfall]

Pulling it across your jeans as well will work. If they are not 'loaded' with dust...

[Mike Wilkins]

Agree with the green frog tape. Just finished a project with 2 colors of paint side-by-side, and it came off without a hitch. Read the directions, which tells you to remove the tape while the paint is still wet. This should not cause any problems with pulling up wood fibers. You could also use a heat gun with a low heat setting to assist in removal.

[Robin Frierson]

I think I left it on too long, over a week. And I pressed down to hard as I was paranoid about the oil seeping into the joint area. I did some yesterday and took it off immediately pulling it as you guys suggested and no problem.