Hi,

I was wondering if there is any kind of heat resistant tape you can buy that is a pro product or non, like something at home depot for example, for fixing broken or ripped gels? preferably something that is clear, and can handle the high heat of lights. Also I'd want to use it for attaching black wrap.

I know gaffers tape is the be all and end all, but is it heat resistant won;t it melt quickly when attached to lights anywhere?

Thanks

Luke

I think you can tape torn gels with regular scotch mylar ("magic") tape.... or at least we do this for our theatrical lights. Black wrap is another issue however. Actually, I think they are making a companion tape now which works with blackwrap IIRC. Otherwise, if you go to a big home/hardware store and look in the heating dept you will find aluminum tape. This is actually very thin, shiny aluminum with an adhesive backing for use on heat ducts. If you use this however be very careful. Since it's thin metal the edge can be just like a razor blade!

hey

Doesn't the scotch tape melt or anything or give off fumes when it gets hot? I'm thinking that wouldn't be safe at all, maybe in theatre since the lights are up high, but this will be used on lights for nteriors in small video productions.

Well actually we throw away gels if they're torn. However many lighting designers like to use "split gels" which consist of two or more different colors taped together to give a graduated effect. I've never seen a problem with these on lights up to 1000 watts. If something burns we won't use it, regardless of how high up in the air it is!

I have no idea what kind of lights you're using or how hot they get. But instead of conceptualizing, it's pretty easy to just TRY and see if it works. But honestly, gels are so cheap that I don't think it's worth trying to fix torn ones...

Apollo makes a double sided gel tape that will stand up to the temperatures. They may make a single sided also, but I've only use the doubled sided.

If you have a regular supplier you can ask them or just do a web search for Apollo gels.

Their gels are identical to the other big names...

Actually Apollo makes color scrollers, so that tape is probably for joining the gels together for do-it-yourself scrolls. One concern with these is the amount of pressure on the splices as they spin at high speeds on the scrolls, so it's probably a pretty good product. However it's also common practice to make or repair scrolls at the last minute with the Scotch Magic Tape I mentioned above...

J-lar. is the permacel trade name 2 inch wide.

hey

Doesn't the scotch tape melt or anything or give off fumes when it gets hot? I'm thinking that wouldn't be safe at all, maybe in theatre since the lights are up high, but this will be used on lights for nteriors in small video productions.

I didn't know that there was a Scotch brand mylar tape, but if there is it should be pretty heat resistant providing the adhesive is heat resistant. A few years ago I used mylar to encapsulate an antimatter source by welding it between 2 layers of mylar using a soldering iron on high heat. That stuff is tough.

J-Lar works is heat resistant but up to a point. I taped together 4 sheets of CTO to fit a 4x4 frame and put the frame about 1 foot away from a 1.2K HMI Par and the J-Lar melted. Only the J-Lar in the center at the hotspot melted - so probably if you kept the ripped section away from the hotspot it will probably work fine.