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3M Blue Tape alternative

We use quite a bit of rather expensive 3M Blue Tape. Anyone have suggestions for a cheaper alternative, perhaps even better performing?

TIA.
 

Boudica

Back to "educational purposes"
There is another thread about this. Might be a spin-off discussion. I'll see if I can find it.
 

MikePro

New Member
Menard's green painter's tape is cheaper and performs just as well. 2" rolls at $5 vs. $8 for 3M blue.
amazon has a house-brand of blue tape at <$5ea, haven't tried it though.
 

Evan Gillette

New Member
I usually get 3M when it's on sale at Sherwin Williams, bought some orange high tack a while ago for working on a car with ceramic coating and it is heavy duty and sticks well for several applications where blue tape falls short. I will have to try some from the body supply shops.
 

fuzzy_cam

The Granbury Wrap & Sign Guy
We were up against the same issue a couple of years ago and then a contract installer turned us onto this PG American masking tape. We were going through 3-4 rolls of 3M 284 on one large wrap job (had several of the same jobs at once) hanging panels and it got pricey. This stuff is also rather pricey but it can be used over and over again - we literally use the same 2-4 QTY 8" strips of tape to hang/hinge 10-12 QTY 125" tall wrap panels before it lost its sticky. It's also great around the shop for hinging vinyl on signs and resuable for hanging panels on cars. One of the best finds we've come across. Won't leave any residue either.


I can't find the exact link but the best price we found was on Zoro.

American Tape 2" PGTM Paint Masking Tape​

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MikePro

New Member
you pick your battles, but nuts & bolts add up... not trying to swap out bargain-bin crap vinyl here, or coro vs acrylic, but $5 vs $8/roll becomes hundreds/thousands to pad a departmental wishlist.
 
I've always found that trying to find cheaper tools and materials ends up costing more. Cheaper usually means inferior product.
I can understand wanting to save a buck but a roll of tape is just pennies compared to what the sign should sell for.

There are often times when an alternative/lesser known product costs less and even performs better. I'm not crazy about 3M Blue tape performance to start with. And as someone said in this thread, it does add up. So why not see if there's a better option?
 

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
If you don't like the 3m blue tape you will definitely not like a generic blue. I don't like any of the sherwin williams branded tape either. 3M has a yellow tape which is really good, I think that the yellow automotive tapes are the best all around, Indasa is cheaper and performs about the same. Honestly, how much tape are you actually using to where price is such a concern? A roll is what? 5-6 bucks?
 

MikePro

New Member
oh god, if for tape hinging i don't use blue painter's tape at all.... waste of $$$ and tends to release at the wrong times.
disregard my posts, thought OP was referring to paint mask alternatives :(

for general purpose masking/applying, we use the 3M Yellow Tape that comes in the contractor's packs. Hard2stick we reinforce with DUCT tape... will only use blue tape for install on freshly-painted drywall that we don't want to get too aggressive on.
 
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