Animal Planet...Chasing Nature

[spudz03]

Never really watched the show but caught a quick preview this morning. Normally they try and build from man made materials the stuff found in nature. Tonight they're going to build among other things a 130 foot tall STICKY spiderweb. Sounds interesting.

The show is on the Animal Planet channel and airs at 10:00 pm PST.

[spudz03]

Well I caught the 5:00 pm showing, I liked the concept BUT the show wasn't that great. Was hoping to see someone get stuck but it didn't happen.

The web was only 60'x40'. They used latex tubing for the radial strands and some sort of double sided tape for the sticky spiral strands. The web looked good but wasn't that strong.

The final challenge was for it to catch a fly made from what looked like a water filled beach ball with steel mesh wings. The "fly" was hurled into the web with a trebuchet. On the second try it was caught so the web worked.

Not the greatest but the web they made looked pretty good and didn't appear to be that expensive to make. Before making the full sized version they first made a model. One of the engineering students actually jumped into it to see how strong it was. He got tangled up in it pretty good, wouldn't take too much improvement on the design to make a pretty convincing version for perhaps a video.

[denauli]

I caught the rerun of that episode yesterday. The double-sided tape that they used did look the part and was certainly sticky. It certainly would work great to create a spiderweb for a stuck video if you could find the same stuff. I would find something else for the radial strands other than the rubber tubing they used though. On a large scale like they did it wasn't noticeable but on a smaller scale, like strung up in a doorway for a video shoot, it would look far too fake.

Maybe it was just me but the female host seemed to keep saying words like "stuck", "sticky", and "super-adhesive" far more than was probably necessary when she was explaining the challenge to the contestants. The way she was saying it kinda led me to maybe she may be a closet stuck enthusiast.

[spudz03]

denauli said:

Maybe it was just me but the female host seemed to keep saying words like "stuck", "sticky", and "super-adhesive" far more than was probably necessary when she was explaining the challenge to the contestants. The way she was saying it kinda led me to maybe she may be a closet stuck enthusiast.

I noticed that too, in fact from the way she presented herself in a couple previews I was sort of expecting some sticky mishaps while they were building the web. Had visions of of that cute little female engineering student struggling with it as she applied it to the web but alas it was not to be. The chic knew her stuff.

The double sided tape looked very good, clear, shiny, sort of stretchy and above all super sticky. From the look of it, it has to be some sort of industrial bulk only type stuff but it's available through the magic of the Internet.

That clear industrial grade double sided tape is very strong. Would make for a fine web, not that expensive either, been looking into it. You'd be surprised at the number of uses that stuff has.

[grundy]

The double sided carpet tape works good, really sticky. I tried it on my sister-in-law, she needed a ride home so I cut some of it and put it on the floor of the passenger side. The tape has a backing, but I didn't take it off and just layed it down sticky side up. She stepped on the edge of it and it stuck to her shoe. After she moved her feet around a little it got stuck to her pants leg. She notiiced and went to pull it off, it came off her shoe pretty easy (probably because of the dirt) but it stuck to her pants pretty good.

[spudz03]

That's a cool prank, yes the dirt and lint cuts down the stickiness. I like to play tape pranks on my old lady and her sister too, problem is my old lady is hip to it now, when I get sloppy with the masking tape during painting jobs my old lady just picks the stuff up while complaining about it. Occasionally though she ends up collecting it on her shoes then gets whiny when she finds out. I also like decorating her back and lovely bottom with it too, loads of fun there.

I've seen double sided carpet tape very sticky no doubt about that, I even read about someone making a human sized trap with it, sounded really good. Still for making a convincing spider web there's better stuff around.

What I'm looking for is the kind of tape used to fasten trim onto stuff. I like to repair bikes as a hobby. Have a Schwinn World Sport had it since the late 80's, nice bike. It has an aluminum piece attached to the frame to protect the paint from the chain rubbing on it when you remove the back wheel.

This piece WAS attached to the frame with some sort of super sticky transparent sort of rubberized plastic version of double sided tape. I'd say it was 0.30 in. thick and kind of stretchy. Of course the stuff dried out over the years and the aluminum piece eventually worked loose, it's now glued on with silicone adhesive.

From what I seen on the show they had industrial sized rolls of similar stuff which came out unmarked cardboard cases. Typical for industrial bulk rolls of tape. This stuff will make for a fine looking very sticky web, I know it would, trick is finding it.

I live right near by a major industrial area with luck and a little perseverance I should be able to find some. When and IF I do I'll let everyone know. I see no reason in why the stuff shouldn't be available to the general public.

[denauli]

I wonder if this is the same stuff.
www.technologylk.com/product_view.aspx?product_ID=1478&source_ID=nextag

For whatever reason I've been thinking alot lately about the 'spiderweb' those engineering students made. I started looking for the double-sided tape they used and this is the closest I've come to what it looked like they had.
I wasn't impressed by the surgical tubing they used for the radial spokes, purely from an aesthetics standpoint. I've thought about picking up one of those 6 foot Halloween spiderweb decorations made out of nylon twine later this year and combining it with double sided tape like they did to make my own spiderweb. I know it won't support a person's weight but it would be really cool for a role-play stuck, maybe combined with one or two of those Spiderman webshooter toys that shoot silly string.

[spudz03]

It appears to be exactly the same stuff used on the show and like I said it's used to fasten trim to various surfaces. Will be very strong.

If someone made a big enough web of the stuff and someone else tried to jump through it they'll probably get tangled up to the point they will have trouble getting out of it without help.

Remember what happened to the man who jumped through the small web? Maybe he didn't end up suspended but you can see what I mean.