CarolB

Tunneling when rolling up vinyl!

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Hi there, 

I'm noticing tunneling (air bubbles) when rolling up large wall vinyl decals. Before rolling up the decal, it seems perfectly fine - no air bubbles. I've tried everything from rolling it loosely and making sure the vinyl side is facing out. Unfortunately, it's not possible for me to ship these decals laying flat as some do get quite large. What do you all recommend?

I'm using clear medium-tack application tape currently. I was recommended to use either Oratape HT55 High Tack Decorative Film Transfer Tape. This tape is "Specifically designed to be the best high tack tape to pick up matte finish and small details, yet not to damage your wall for indoor applications". I was told this tape is great for rolling up and will not cause tunneling.

However, I also heard that if shipping to others, I shouldn't use a paper tape and was recommended the Oratape MT50P - Transparent Medium Tack Application Tape on a Liner. How is this different than regular medium tack application tape? What does this liner do? 

If anyone has experience shipping large decals, advice would be greatly appreciated!

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not sure who is giving your advice but  with about 95 percent certainty I can say it is your clear tape - never used clear app tape - leave it for the crafting group and not things you sell and ship.

Wall decals are a tricky thing to sell - people will try to adhere it to easy clean paint, rough surface etc and blame your product when it doesn't adhere - seen way too many on here go thru that over the years

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Never used that tape I use 4076rla but then again I don’t do walls.  Hopefully someone the is still around that does walls will chime in.  They seem to come and go quickly in that specialized area after being burned a few times 

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Ok great. That's great info. I'll wait to see if anyone else chimes in. It seems like the 4076rla is a similar product.

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29 minutes ago, CarolB said:

Ok great. That's great info. I'll wait to see if anyone else chimes in. It seems like the 4076rla is a similar product.

paper tape flexes - clear doesn't and why it tunnels much like metallic vinyls that don't give

 

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I totally agree with you! Sorry, I meant to say that your item (4076rla) looks similar to the paper application tape that I'm looking to get now - not saying that it's anything similar to the plastic stuff that I've been using.

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My only experience with matte, rolling, and walls was all in the same. A request for a very long quote to go on a wall that was painted with semi-gloss interior paint.

I used 631 vinyl with a high tack paper tape. I did not do the installation, but gave them whatever suggestions I thought necessary. I was told that it arrived on site with very minimal tunneling (I'm not sure if they rolled it tighter than the barely folded in half when I put it in the back seat of their car. They did experience some difficulty with the installation because the vinyl wanted to stick more to the app tape than the wall, but I told them that it was a possibility, and to be very, very patient with their installation.

They got the decal up, it looked fabulous, and they were happy. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with 46 yards of matte beige vinyl, but the high tack tape is being put to good use as test/mock-up material for my laser machine ;)

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631 works reasonably well for sandblasting glass. Guess you need to buy a blast cabinet now to use up your vinyl.  ha!

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HT55 is specifically designed for mat finish vinyl. I talked to the manufacturer about what makes it different. They told me it has extra adhesive that allows some to sink down into the mat finish better than regular paper app tape and that's why it works a little better than some other options on mat finish vinyl. I have a roll and it seems ok. Nothing works great on mat finish even the HT55 struggles to do what I would consider a GREAT job but I think it's the nature of mat vinyl. I use Rtape 4076 most of the time which is one sticky step above the 4075. Either of those are a great choice for cut vinyl. The biggest problem I have is you have such a large roll of tape that keeping them from drying out before you use them up can be an issue. THat's what happened to my HT55 I tried to save it for only mat finish but I rarely do mat and it started to dry out so I used it up for regular work. To be candid I don't do a lot of regular vinyl work so my stuff sits around too much. I do mostly HTV these days. 

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35 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:

HT55 is specifically designed for mat finish vinyl. I talked to the manufacturer about what makes it different. They told me it has extra adhesive that allows some to sink down into the mat finish better than regular paper app tape and that's why it works a little better than some other options on mat finish vinyl. I have a roll and it seems ok. Nothing works great on mat finish even the HT55 struggles to do what I would consider a GREAT job but I think it's the nature of mat vinyl. I use Rtape 4076 most of the time which is one sticky step above the 4075. Either of those are a great choice for cut vinyl. The biggest problem I have is you have such a large roll of tape that keeping them from drying out before you use them up can be an issue. THat's what happened to my HT55 I tried to save it for only mat finish but I rarely do mat and it started to dry out so I used it up for regular work. To be candid I don't do a lot of regular vinyl work so my stuff sits around too much. I do mostly HTV these days. 

what goose said with one note - climate makes a huge difference too in longevity - my basement in michigan with humidity control year round along with the temp control is more like the perfect storage area for vinyl products than say a garage in arizona or florida . . . some of the older app tape when I was buying other people out was great much longer than others had experienced.  with the printer we always tried to keep the humidity just over 40 percent year round and temp high 60's down in the basement

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