• @[email protected]
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    456 days ago

    A roll of really heavy duty velcro. The kind that can, for example, stick a sledge hammer to a wall. It’s about $12 for 5 feet or so, and about a 1" piece is sufficient for most tasks, so it lasts a very long time. I use it for all kinds of stuff; it’s amazing how many uses for it you find when you have it.

    • Otter
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      146 days ago

      What kind of uses did you have for it?

      • @[email protected]
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        156 days ago

        A lot of small things. I have some velcro on the wall in few rooms that I can stick a tablet to, for example. I’ve got velcro holding down a few items on my desk - a USB hub, speakers and the like, that I want to move sometimes, but that were commonly getting knocked off (by the cat). I’ve got a small whiteboard and a few places I can stick it, so I can use it to sketch something up and take it with me to our workbench, for example, and not have to precariously balance it.

        All things that could be solved with other solutions, obviously, but the heavy duty velcro just happens to be a one-size-fits-all solution that leaves no permanent marks and is very convenient to set up.

      • @[email protected]
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        56 days ago

        I have a IKEA pergola on my backyard and I’ve been trying to come up with a way to attach some plastic paneling on top of it without drilling. This might be it.

        • @[email protected]
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          14 days ago

          Most common adhesives will be less effective under hot (ie sunlight) conditions.

          If you don’t need it to come off, 3Ms GPH (General Purpose High-temp) VHB tape. 50% of your car is probably held together by it.

          • @[email protected]
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            14 days ago

            Thanks, interesting industry knowledge. I need the panels to come off some day though. Otherwise I would have looked at glues/epoxies from the start.

      • @[email protected]
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        75 days ago

        That’s pretty funny. Unfortunately for them, I and probably almost everyone else don’t really care about their brand identity, so I’ll keep calling it all velcro. I’ll also keep call all tissues Kleenex, and all adhesive bandages Band-Aids, and all the others that have become synonymous with their product. That’s what they get for being too successful, I guess.

          • riquisimo
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            15 days ago

            Kleenex, tissue. Band aid, bandage. Xerox, copy. IPad, tablet (some people call their android tablets iPads) Plucker, flosser.

            It’s not really that bad. Some are even shorter:

            Google, search. Invisalign, retainer.

            Some are iffy:

            Sharpie, permanent marker. (You could just say marker, depending on if you have any other markers in the house to disambiguate from.)

            And some are definitely shorter as brand names:

            Q-tip, cotton swab Velcro, hook and loop Sawzall, reciprocating saw

            (And if there was a shorter name for “oscillating multi tool” I would be so happy.)

            I can’t think of any others.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 days ago

      How do you get the velcro to stick to the wall so you don’t rip it off if it’s so strong? (And no, don’t just say more velcro!)

      • @[email protected]
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        86 days ago

        It’s velcro all the way down!

        It sticks with adhesive, and I don’t doubt it would rip wallpaper right off, but using adhesive remover before trying to pull it off lets you work it off slowly and not cause damage to paint or surfaces.

    • @[email protected]
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      35 days ago

      Last time I did install work we used double sided Velcro for cable management. I snagged a roll and made a jig to split it in half with a box knife to get twice as much and I’ve still got a ton left over a decade later. It’s really handy stuff to have around and better than zip ties in most applications I use it for.