h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How did civilization function before the invention of duct tape? How did people attach their side view mirrors on to their cars when they scraped them off on posts and stuff? (I mean... not that I've ever scraped off my side view mirror or anything... because, like, NObody does that... right?) How did they wrap their birthday presents? And keep their soles attached to their shoes? And take up the hem in their pants? And make duct tape eyeglasses? And, well, tape their ducts?

I know. These are questions that boggle the mind, eh?

How have YOU used duct tape?

Two strips, put face to face will make a lovely belt or sash.
The double thickness is practically indestructible. Attaching
buckles is fairly easy. And while grey goes with everything,
other colours are available.

~jwf~

Indeed! Duct tape is now available in black, gold, camouflage,and floral prints - just think of the many fine sashes and belts one could make - and for so many occasions - everything from a night on the town to survivalist cave-dweller!

Repair a flexible vacuum tube in the workshop - patch a hole, reconnect the connector.

Also good for patching umbrellas, sleeping bags, tents, air mattresses, and the hole in the kayak. Who knows how many more lives would have been saved if there'd been duct tape on the Titanic?

Not too good for turning a bad knee into a walking stick. OK for a while maybe, but a bugger to get off

YOUCH!!!

worked supprisingly well as a tempory (well about 6 months until I got round to calling a plummer) fix for a leaking taps on the bath has many other uses too mind

It's great for leaking things! Leaking taps, leaking pipes, leaking boats...

The taps were* sort of leaking... basically the top handle bit (the bit you turn), had sort of sheered off.... and the taps (mixer shower taps), were kinda then really wonky and trying to sheer off near the middle bit (by where the water mixes?), and so some duck tape round the ' handle' on the tap, then all about the middle bit, sort of held the entire thing together... It still leaked quite a bit in use, but it could* be used... and enabled me to put off actually getting a plummer out to put on a new set, for about six months... : the plummer was most 'impressed' with my 'repair' work... well... he laughed at it anyhow

Its also possible if a bit painful, to use duck tape as a make-shift gag, just taping over someones mouth or, indeed, for makeshift bondage uses in restraining someone... the pain on removing said tape, may or may not in itself, add to the use in such situations

Mahatma 2legs - Indeed! I can certainly see why the plumber would have been impressed by your resourceful use of duct tape in fixing the recalcitrant bits of your plumbing.

And while the rest of us have carefully avoided the mention of duct tape used in any activity that might seem...umm... questionable - you have fearlessly stomped right into the thick of it. You are to be commended. Or something.

(I do rahter tend to not have a filter, for 'bashfulness', or 'sense', when it comes to mentioning such things... )

You need only two tools, duct tape, and WD40, if it moves, and shouldn't use the tape, if it doesn't move, and should, use the WD40 (a quote far better written which I stole from somewhere, of that very same nature, has been on my personal space, on here, for about a decade.... - its slightly better DIY advice than my Father uses; he assumes anything and everything can be fixed by judicial use of a large hammer.... )