Zippity-do-dah - the second pair of hands

[old man emu]

I'd like to thank the man who put the zip in the zip-tie. Although originally invented to solve an employee injury and time and motion problem, the zip-tie is indispensable when you want to hold something out of the way temporarily. 

 

Here's the story of the zip-tie.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Oh, when I saw the title of the thread, I thought we were going to be talking about Victa and the recoil zipstarter.

I remember the ad ....

"Zip on the doo dah....."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do I get a prize for the fastest thread hijack of the year?

[onetrack]

But it's only a zip-tie in the U.S. Everywhere else in the world, it's a cable tie. You won't find any packets of them here labelled "zip ties".

[pmccarthy]

They are next to the cotter pins and wrenches. Near the Duck tape.🙂

[old man emu]

Interesting name of a product. Is it "duck" or "duct"?

 

I have two similar types of adhesive tape in my workshop. One type looks like this  It is duck tape.

 

The other looks like this  It is duct tape.

The difference lies in the material that the sticky stuff has been applied to. If the tape backing has that woven look, and you can tear it across from side to side, or lengthwise, the backing is a fabric which in the original design was a type of fabric called "duck". If you have to cut the tape to get it off the roll, then the backing is a petrochemical (plastic) material. 

 

Duck tape was developed as a waterproof packaging tape. Duct tape was developed for use in joining air conditioning ducts because it could create an airtight seal. Duct tape is also known as 100 mph tape because it was used during the Vietnam War to repair helicopter rotor blades and could withstand winds up to 100 miles per hour.

 

Because both tapes do very similar jobs, the correct name to use is often confused because "duck" and "duct" are homophones. For temporary repair jobs, ask for duct tape, and sound out that "T" sound, or you will have to duck around the consequences of the repair failing.

 

 

 

[Mr.Vegemite]

The interesting thing about the zip-tie for me is it took me ages to realise you could press a little tab to release and reuse them. I was just cutting and throwing them away.

 

[pmccarthy]

"Because both tapes do very similar jobs, the correct name to use is often confused because "duck" and "duct" are homophones." 

Before we had gay dating sites, we had homophones.

[onetrack]

Of course, the correct full name for duct tape, is "duct joining tape".