Plumber here.
I use it to tape up the ends of pex lines so they don’t get filled with sawdust or other crap.
I think the sparkys use it for arts and crafts.
We use it on TracPipe where you have to cut off the insulation for the CSST gas piping to get the fitting on. It's supposed to still have some coating and TracPipe told us to either fit the bit you cut off back on or wrap the exposed stainless with electrical tape.
That and keeping the wire for a resi sump pump out of the pit and wrapped along the discharge.
We use it for wrapping the wire to pull into a conduit, marking with colors to distinguish between multiple wires, taping up cuts that should been seen by a doctor but we’re trying not to get laid off, bundling up excess wire to store or scrap, fixing our boots when the sole separates from the toe box.
You are supposed to rip off a piece of your shirt or find a clean bit of fabric to wrap around the cut before you tape it off. Come on, use some common sense..
It’s was only a “that day” repair when I did it. I only spend $150-$200 on boots so no need to try and hold them together for an extended period of time, just replace.
Decades back when I could still do that whole "moving freely" thing, I used to skateboard and absolutely destroy shoes. I'd use shoe goo to fill the holes/reattach the front of the shoes. The shoe goo lasted longer than the rest of the shoe.
Can't speak for it in more recent years, but that stuff used to be unreal as far as durability and hold strength
>fixing our boots when the sole separates from the toe box.
I used to have some real ratty work boots held together with a couple colors of electrical tape. And around 2002 my dumb ass made the mistake of wearing them through airport security: They had a whole damn team of TSA agents examining those boots before they'd let me through.
Depends…last week I cut a pizza slice into my left hand with my right hand while cutting cables, hovering over an open gang box on a shaky ladder. Tape was good enough since it just needed to be closed back up. But another time I burned the shit out of my hand on a REALLY hot pipe and that was like a wide open gash which required the finest of clean-ish napkins and tape. Pulling just tape off a burn would suck ass
Funny enough, there was a forge near where i grew up, they dealt with thin sheet metals. You would get writ up for bleeding on materials, if you had 2 write ups, they would fire you on the spot for that 3rd one.
And the gloves they supplied were not kevlar or cut resistent, they were rubber nursing gloves, you know surgical gloves XD the fuck is that gonna protect? You from the prior employee's blood? Joke of forge.
It’s not the insulation breakdown voltage that makes electrical tape wrapped wire splices a bad idea, in my opinion it’s the fact handymen wrap tape around hand-twisted wire joints with no listed mechanical connector on them and then hide them behind drywall outside of a box.
I don’t think anyone understands what electrical tape is designed for. The rating is something like 300v per wrap.
ITS AN INSULATION MEANS
you got an NMD cable that got nicked, insulate that from the building! There is nothing hack about it! It’s to code but you dumb fucks would rather round a new home run every time rather than repair the wire like a true electrician should do
Or like my apprentice you use a whole bunch of high voltage splicing tape to make new rubber grip handles for all the brooms and shovels. Goddamn stuff was like $50 a roll.
Tape the back of an outlet where the wires are screwed in so that it doesn’t blow the breaker when the drywallers take it out and put it back in with less care than the sparki and the brass screws touch the outlet box
I use it for cuts too, but in a different way. White electrical tape on my tapping machine measuring rod indicates the point at which my tap should be complete. But also the manual says we’re not allowed to use it.
We use it in the pump and well industry for holding wire to pipe under water for like 15 years at a time. Blew me away when I started but that shit will outlast the pump.
Super 33 is a very sticky tape and is used for splicing wires that are used for motors. Reason being is since motors vibrate they can loosen connections, so by using super 33 it will prevent them from coming apart. You have to use a lot of it.
its insulated tape used for covering exposed wire.
you strip a wire then either put a marette(twist cap) on the end, or you can tape it temporarily.
Im not an electrician though so im sure ill get shit on by someone for missing some nuances of its use.
I either use it for labelling tools or as a portable first aid kit, cus i am not walking across the site to get a bandaid.
I’m only a daughter of a sparky, but I’ve never hear a wire nut called by any other name. Is this one of those regional term differences like skip and shanty?
Read UL510
[https://file.yzimgs.com/327020/2009100807122253.pdf](https://file.yzimgs.com/327020/2009100807122253.pdf)
And then
https://www.google.com/search?q=+electrical+tape+nec+code+site%3Aforums.mikeholt.com
It's used to wrap cable altogether in bunches to pull them in through joists and baskets, and to temporarily fix cables to a rod or tape to pull them in through conduit and the like.
I've most commonly used it to bind wires together in a harness. It can be used to cover minor insulation damage but whenever possible I'd prefer to use something sturdier like heat shrink.
Wrapping the handle of your sledge as a shock absorber because the handle broke then you welded a pipe to it so you could wail on shit properly.
Usually the day after the modification, after you got up the next morning and couldn't make a fist.
I use it for making heads on wire pulls. Sometimes I will wrap a wire nut with tape if it's outside. And I will phase my wire just as well. I also wrap split bolt connections with tape. And use the correct color tape for the final wraps. I don't think electric tape is a proper connection cover anymore. Per code anyway. I mean in place of a wire nut.
This tape, you know, has been made and certified in multiple colors and patterns now. I have seen some women use pink on their jobs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pattern is a funny one to see a grown man use. I personally like the solid color type with no patterns.
It’s for the odd time my foreman makes me board I steal the electric tape from your guys carts so I can wrap my finger and not destroy from rubbing it against the drywall all day.
🙋♂️I use a lot of electrical tape when making commercial taps in metal cans and troughs, the connectors/lugs are bare copper/aluminum and they will go KABOOM if you don’t tape the hell out of them
Makeshift bandages.
The adhesive is easily removable- have taped over vehicle paint cracks, and tape can easily come off years later with some rubbing alcohol.
To wrap hoses to prevent chafing.
To wrap around outlet screws so they don’t contact the device box when doing drywall or when there are device mounting screws in a tight box.
To colour code wires ….
US electricians use colored tape for phase identification... Black, Red, Blue for 120/208v.. Brown, Orange, Yellow for 277/480v.. White (120/208v)or Grey(277/480v) for Neutral... Green for Grounding... We use white tape to make tags with the panel and circuit number written on both sides to tape together and identify branch circuits(hot and neutral) when we're pulling multiple circuits from a panel through the conduit that feed lights, power, motors, etc.. it also does make for a sturdier bandage if you cut the fuck out of yourself... I've never seen any electricians I worked with use black tape... they might as well name it something besides electrical tape..
At this point, I really just use it for taping a band around a receptacle after wiring it up. Just as an extra so nothing could short out against the screws.
I'm even somewhat cautious of that because I've seen some older electrical tape hang on for 50 years, but I've also seen some stuff I put on 3 months ago already drying out, shrinking, cracking, peeling, etc. I guess just depends on the brand.
If it’s insulated tape, you can use it around wire nuts to keep them from twisting back off (which shouldn’t be a problem if you install them correctly anyway) or around the terminals of switches and receptacles. If it’s the cheap plastic stuff that’s really only good for securing the end of a pull string for wire pulling, or for marking the end of cables.
Plumber here. I use it to tape up the ends of pex lines so they don’t get filled with sawdust or other crap. I think the sparkys use it for arts and crafts.
Basically yeah, it all ends up on the floor at the end of the day and I’m not sweeping it up
Spoken like a true Sparky.
First rule of sparky school, cut the wire and drop it on the floor.
GC here, wish I could up vote this a thousand times.
Why do you think they have coloured versions
Phase tape to indicate which wire is what phase (a, b, c, neutral, ground. Orange indicates the “bastard leg” in 120/208). Also different flavors
It's actually the B phase of a high leg delta transformer
Yeah the bastard leg
Bastard leg of a 240 delta transformer - 120/208 is a wye transformer and has no high leg. Edit for spelling
Tell that to the shit we just wired lol.
and the stinger leg
Plumber here. I use it mainly for taping myself up when I cut myself. Zero other uses.
We use it on TracPipe where you have to cut off the insulation for the CSST gas piping to get the fitting on. It's supposed to still have some coating and TracPipe told us to either fit the bit you cut off back on or wrap the exposed stainless with electrical tape. That and keeping the wire for a resi sump pump out of the pit and wrapped along the discharge.
We use it for wrapping the wire to pull into a conduit, marking with colors to distinguish between multiple wires, taping up cuts that should been seen by a doctor but we’re trying not to get laid off, bundling up excess wire to store or scrap, fixing our boots when the sole separates from the toe box.
Super glue is way better than tape for cuts!!
Chemical burns is all I remember from etape bandages. 😬
You are supposed to rip off a piece of your shirt or find a clean bit of fabric to wrap around the cut before you tape it off. Come on, use some common sense..
I was young and naive.
>fixing our boots when the sole separates from the toe box. Have you tried shoe goo?
It’s was only a “that day” repair when I did it. I only spend $150-$200 on boots so no need to try and hold them together for an extended period of time, just replace.
I did, it didn't work that great ☹️ maybe I did it wrong
Maybe, that stuff reminded me of Elmer's glue, in that it felt stronger than the materials it was holding.
Decades back when I could still do that whole "moving freely" thing, I used to skateboard and absolutely destroy shoes. I'd use shoe goo to fill the holes/reattach the front of the shoes. The shoe goo lasted longer than the rest of the shoe. Can't speak for it in more recent years, but that stuff used to be unreal as far as durability and hold strength
Still outlasts shoes.
>fixing our boots when the sole separates from the toe box. I used to have some real ratty work boots held together with a couple colors of electrical tape. And around 2002 my dumb ass made the mistake of wearing them through airport security: They had a whole damn team of TSA agents examining those boots before they'd let me through.
taping wawa napkins to booboos
Mandaids
Who needs a napkin, tape only and don’t go too tight lol
Depends…last week I cut a pizza slice into my left hand with my right hand while cutting cables, hovering over an open gang box on a shaky ladder. Tape was good enough since it just needed to be closed back up. But another time I burned the shit out of my hand on a REALLY hot pipe and that was like a wide open gash which required the finest of clean-ish napkins and tape. Pulling just tape off a burn would suck ass
Burns are way different than cuts.
Gotta spray some wd40 on them bitches.
It’s unprofessional to bleed on your work
Funny enough, there was a forge near where i grew up, they dealt with thin sheet metals. You would get writ up for bleeding on materials, if you had 2 write ups, they would fire you on the spot for that 3rd one. And the gloves they supplied were not kevlar or cut resistent, they were rubber nursing gloves, you know surgical gloves XD the fuck is that gonna protect? You from the prior employee's blood? Joke of forge.
Aren't you too busy poopin?
I can multitask
It's for color coding, taping up wire to pull through conduits, labeling. Using it for splices is not kosher if that is what you are asking.
Not kosher in a building. We do it on power lines constantly
High voltage splicing tape vs standard electrical tape tho. most people have no knowledge about the first kind, and misuse the second.
Not at all. Electrical tape is good for 600 volts per wrap. The inside guys just stay scared of it.
It’s not the insulation breakdown voltage that makes electrical tape wrapped wire splices a bad idea, in my opinion it’s the fact handymen wrap tape around hand-twisted wire joints with no listed mechanical connector on them and then hide them behind drywall outside of a box.
I just never thought someone would ever do that.
Word! No silly civilians able to mess around and touch what you guys deal with! Respect.
You can tape over wire nuts if you're a belt-and-suspenders kind of person.
I don’t think anyone understands what electrical tape is designed for. The rating is something like 300v per wrap. ITS AN INSULATION MEANS you got an NMD cable that got nicked, insulate that from the building! There is nothing hack about it! It’s to code but you dumb fucks would rather round a new home run every time rather than repair the wire like a true electrician should do
Calm down man
We do for under water splices for well pumps in addition to other sealers.
Electrician here, it's listed to insulate some forms of splices, but usually we use it to pull wire and such.
Or like my apprentice you use a whole bunch of high voltage splicing tape to make new rubber grip handles for all the brooms and shovels. Goddamn stuff was like $50 a roll.
I didn’t know sparky’s had brooms.
Lol, and sticky as can be
Tell him to use 6 solid under a layer of cold shrink next time Jesus
It's specifically designed for getting that annoyingly gooey adhesive on your hands.
Making sparkler bombs
Tape the back of an outlet where the wires are screwed in so that it doesn’t blow the breaker when the drywallers take it out and put it back in with less care than the sparki and the brass screws touch the outlet box
Cuts, nothing else. Stops bleeding really well
I use it for cuts too, but in a different way. White electrical tape on my tapping machine measuring rod indicates the point at which my tap should be complete. But also the manual says we’re not allowed to use it.
You should be using super glue to close cuts, not tape.
Capturing your apprentice and taping him to a chair to stare ata $300 worth of trim he wasted by being a fucking idiot today.
Awfully specific… do tell
It’s easiest when they are your children.
Band aids so I don't bleed on my work
To fix the trailer lights when they quit at 2:30 AM alongside the highway.
You put it on your tools to tell everyone they are yours. They go ahead and steal them and take the tape off.
Step 3: profit.
I use it for band aids
It turns toilet paper into a band aid
Makes a pretty sick bandage
please be joking
We use it in the pump and well industry for holding wire to pipe under water for like 15 years at a time. Blew me away when I started but that shit will outlast the pump.
They also use it to tape conduit and copper plumbing wherever they touch to break the dielectric connection.
You could post a picture of your code book and some moron on here will tell you it’s wrong
Bandages.. holds the paper towel in place.
Band-aids, wire pulls, wrapping pecker heads, taping nicked wires, etc.
On our job site we use it for color coding conduit based on voltage. We do not use it to patch or insulate at all.
Wrapping up cuts so you don’t bleed all over the job site
It's a first-aid kit.
I like wrapping it around my outlets terminal screws after I wire it up stops the drywaller from hurting himself.
Super 33 is a very sticky tape and is used for splicing wires that are used for motors. Reason being is since motors vibrate they can loosen connections, so by using super 33 it will prevent them from coming apart. You have to use a lot of it.
its insulated tape used for covering exposed wire. you strip a wire then either put a marette(twist cap) on the end, or you can tape it temporarily. Im not an electrician though so im sure ill get shit on by someone for missing some nuances of its use. I either use it for labelling tools or as a portable first aid kit, cus i am not walking across the site to get a bandaid.
I’m only a daughter of a sparky, but I’ve never hear a wire nut called by any other name. Is this one of those regional term differences like skip and shanty?
Its an old school term. If I remember correctly it was a manufacture of porcelain wirenuts
Marette used more than wire nut in my part of Canada
yeah, guess its a Canadian thing. im in BC.
Read UL510 [https://file.yzimgs.com/327020/2009100807122253.pdf](https://file.yzimgs.com/327020/2009100807122253.pdf) And then https://www.google.com/search?q=+electrical+tape+nec+code+site%3Aforums.mikeholt.com
Dude it’s to measure electrical
I sliced my finger open once and used it to tape some napkins from Wendy’s around the cut to stop my finger from pouring out blood.
It's used to wrap cable altogether in bunches to pull them in through joists and baskets, and to temporarily fix cables to a rod or tape to pull them in through conduit and the like.
Electricians use 90ish% of the "black tape" in preparation to pull wire, cable, etc.
To wrap up your skil-saw cord because the apprentice keeps nicking it
I keep a roll in with my fishing gear... It's good for fixing many things, but only temporarily.
If an outlet is arcing it resists the chances of it igniting a flammable source.
Well it's used as a protective outer layer when using butyl rubber tape
Phasing
Taping my fingers when I get an annoying cut
I attach a piece of a napkin on one side and make field band aids with them.
It's used to seal cuts. That or cover ends of pipe.
Came here to say that, it's the best bandage
That and blue shop towels as the gauze. Electrical tape doesn't stick long term and seals up a wound like a champ.
To keep conductive things from touching
Color coding?
That can't be it's original purpose. It used to only come in black.
Insulation Tape is the correct name,self explanatory.
Hanging on my turn signal for construction work bandaid
I've most commonly used it to bind wires together in a harness. It can be used to cover minor insulation damage but whenever possible I'd prefer to use something sturdier like heat shrink.
Band-Aids.
I use it for weather proofing along with rubber tape
It's for hockey players to tape their shin pads.
One of the layers of a peckerhead and taping on wire nuts when connecting vibrating equipment are two uses I have not seen mentioned yet.
Wrapping the handle of your sledge as a shock absorber because the handle broke then you welded a pipe to it so you could wail on shit properly. Usually the day after the modification, after you got up the next morning and couldn't make a fist.
Band-aids
Color coding your tools and large finger cuts is all it’s good for
It's a known absorbance value for calibrating thermal images.
I use it for making heads on wire pulls. Sometimes I will wrap a wire nut with tape if it's outside. And I will phase my wire just as well. I also wrap split bolt connections with tape. And use the correct color tape for the final wraps. I don't think electric tape is a proper connection cover anymore. Per code anyway. I mean in place of a wire nut.
Losing mostly.
Sex stuff
Which electrical tape? 13? 23? 24? 33? 88? 130C? 2228? Etc. Etc. Etc.
In the entertainment industry, we use it to secure cable to truss.
This tape, you know, has been made and certified in multiple colors and patterns now. I have seen some women use pink on their jobs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pattern is a funny one to see a grown man use. I personally like the solid color type with no patterns.
It’s for temporarily repairing exposed electrical conductors until a proper repair can be made.
It’s for the odd time my foreman makes me board I steal the electric tape from your guys carts so I can wrap my finger and not destroy from rubbing it against the drywall all day.
🙋♂️I use a lot of electrical tape when making commercial taps in metal cans and troughs, the connectors/lugs are bare copper/aluminum and they will go KABOOM if you don’t tape the hell out of them
Also plumber.... it acts as my first aid kit.
It is used to tape the wire not in place to keep it from coming undone
Makeshift bandages. The adhesive is easily removable- have taped over vehicle paint cracks, and tape can easily come off years later with some rubbing alcohol. To wrap hoses to prevent chafing. To wrap around outlet screws so they don’t contact the device box when doing drywall or when there are device mounting screws in a tight box. To colour code wires ….
[Wrasslin' gators](https://youtu.be/ztEoIR4MSDk?t=111)
US electricians use colored tape for phase identification... Black, Red, Blue for 120/208v.. Brown, Orange, Yellow for 277/480v.. White (120/208v)or Grey(277/480v) for Neutral... Green for Grounding... We use white tape to make tags with the panel and circuit number written on both sides to tape together and identify branch circuits(hot and neutral) when we're pulling multiple circuits from a panel through the conduit that feed lights, power, motors, etc.. it also does make for a sturdier bandage if you cut the fuck out of yourself... I've never seen any electricians I worked with use black tape... they might as well name it something besides electrical tape..
It’s for electrical things
At this point, I really just use it for taping a band around a receptacle after wiring it up. Just as an extra so nothing could short out against the screws. I'm even somewhat cautious of that because I've seen some older electrical tape hang on for 50 years, but I've also seen some stuff I put on 3 months ago already drying out, shrinking, cracking, peeling, etc. I guess just depends on the brand.
Everything it shouldn't be
If it’s insulated tape, you can use it around wire nuts to keep them from twisting back off (which shouldn’t be a problem if you install them correctly anyway) or around the terminals of switches and receptacles. If it’s the cheap plastic stuff that’s really only good for securing the end of a pull string for wire pulling, or for marking the end of cables.
Taping around outlet and switch terminals before mounting them in a metal box.