Anna asked: I would like to know if you have a cleaning tip for my specific problem too. My husband works as a sound engineer, and part of is equipment is a bunch of long, 65 foot, thick cables. To ensure that no one trips over these cables, he uses gaffer’s tape to fix the cables to the floor. But when the gig is over, and he removes the tape, the cables are all sticky. I’ve tried to clean them once with ethanol, but you have to scrub them really hard, and that’s not very fun after the first few feet. Also, I’m guessing it’s not too good for the cables either. So, do you have a tip on how to get the remainders of the gaffer’s tape off?
When 
any adhesive or tape is utilized to keep cables in place, they are likely to remain covered with sticky residue. Removing gaffer’s tape residue from cables is easy with the right product. You’ll be surprised by how effortless the task becomes when you give this method a try!
You Will Need:
- WD-40
- Clean rags
Steps to Remove the Residue:
- Wet the rag with WD-40. Generally, it’s less messy to spray the rag than it is the cable, but if the cables are really sticky, it might work better to apply directly to the cables.
- Run the soaked rag down a length of the cable. Don’t try to scrub yet. First, you want to get the WD-40 on the residue so it can begin to do the work for you.
- After a couple of minutes, begin wiping with the same WD-40 soaked rag, using pressure to remove the adhesive.
- Repeat with a fresh coat of WD-40 as needed. Heavy residue may require more than one application for the WD-40 to work through the entire mess.
- Once the adhesive is gone, wipe the entire cable with a clean, dry rag to remove any remaining residue.
Additional Tips and Advice
- For particularly sticky situations, you can use a cloth scouring pad instead of a rag. It will provide more “oomph” without damaging the cables.
- If the residue isn’t coming off, make sure to apply a good coat of WD-40 and allow 5-15 minutes for it to work before you try wiping the residue away.
- There are other products to remove sticky residue including baby oil, rubbing alcohol and Goo Gone.
- One of our site users (Thanks!) suggests using another piece of tape to remove the residue. Lightly press a small new piece of tape onto the residue and quickly pull it back off. Repeat this several times until all of the residue is removed.
Don’t put tape on the cable. Put rubber matting over it and tape that to the floor.
Never clean a cable again…
Don’t use gaffa tape. There are tapes out there that are specially made to stick on fabric, carpets or wood to hold your cables down that don’t leave the tacky mess of gaffa tape. Any good photographic supplier should stock them; not camera shops or any companies supplying the TV industry. The tape is also only around £6,00.
Gaffer tape IS the product to hold down cables. Not all cloth backed tapes are gaffer tape.
Gaffer – chief electrician on a film set.
Yeah, you’re just talking about gaffer tape. That IS what they sell at photography supply stores.