Weapons Safety: How to tape tips

[Traceroo]

I've seen a lot of mangled weapon tips lately, so I thought I'd post a few pointers about a clean and efficient way to tape the tips of your weapons. This would be a lot more helpful if I provided photographs, I realize -- but am I just too lazy to put that project together? Or a cruel and sadistic dictator who feeds off the energy of your broken dreams? You decide!

Tip on Tips #1: Tape the blade separately from the thrusting tip.

• Tape the "blade" of your weapon entirely before you apply the open cell foam tip.
• That way, when you inevitably need to replace the tip, you only have to re do the tip itself, not the whole end of the weapon.
• This is an especially important practice to observe when you make weapons to donate to NPC camp! They will see heavy use, and the tips will need to be replaced frequently. Observing this good habit will make future maintenance of those weapons orders of magnitude easier.

Tip on Tips #2: Crafting the perfect open cell foam thrusting tip

• Measure 2.25" for your open cell foam tips. Make them a little large so that when the tape compresses them, you end up with a 2" finished product.
• After you cut the cubes, use scissors to cut the corners barely to make the cubes into octagons. This makes them look rounder once they're taped. You avoid that nasty "corner bulge" visual effect by doing this... and no one like corner bulge, after all! (Be prepared for comical episode of static cling with the shaved off pieces, by the way.)
• Cover your tips with cling wrap! This is possibly the single most helpful piece of advice I can give you about making traditional taped boffer weapons - trust me on this one. This helps in 2 ways:
  • 1) The tape will never stick to itself in the finished product when you squeeze the tip. The foam will bounce back more easily to its original shape. Makes for a safer and better looking weapon.
  • 2) This makes your foam tips reusable! When you need to retip a weapon, the old tape sticks to the cling wrap, and comes right off, leaving the foam good as new. You can just reapply the cling wrap, and move on. Since cutting the foam for tips is annoying, this saves you a few steps.
  • Poke holes in the cling wrap before you tape this -- It'll make it easier to poke the holes in the final tape layer. Since at least one of our Weapons Marshals is a real stickler for telling you that you've never poked enough holes in your weapon tips, again, trust me on this step.
  • For those of you who make a lot of weapons, I recommend sitting down in an assembly line to make yourself a whole big bag of pre-cut, cling wrapped tips all at once. I just keep a grocery store bag of them around. It's such an annoying step of weapon making, and it can easily be done en masse in advance - do yourself a favor and knock that out.

Tip on Tips #3: How to tape a tip.

• Use 2 small slivers of tape at the "corners" of the foam to tack it down into place on the weapon. No, this isn't wholly necessary, but it's an easy step that helps you from taping yourself, the cat, and maybe the remote control later... or so I've heard. You know. Around. From people who might've done that. People other than me, of course.
• Cut 2 pieces of tape. You will eventually form a + shape over the end of the tip with these.
  • Each of these pieces of tape should be long enough to form a U shape over the foam, and extend about 1.5" down on either side. Turn your tape with the non-sticky side toward the foam, and just stretch it out to eye-ball this distance. Then use the first piece you cut as a template for the second piece.
• Using the non-sticky side, fold the tape in half to find the middle point of its length. Tack it down on the top of the cling-wrapped foam tip, just one point in the center. You're not fully taping at this point.
• Smooth over the circle of the top surface of the open cell foam tip -- but do not tape the sides yet.
• Using scissors, cut 4 slits at what will be the "corners" of the tape when you fold it down. If you're looking from the top down, this will be at 10:00, 2:00, 4:00, and 8:00 of the circle of the top of the foam.
• Neatly fold down the top "corners" that you just cut. Pinch them to make sure they adhere correctly. Give them an extra squeeze to condense the surface area of the top -- In other words, just make it neat.
• Now neatly fold down each side of the tape. Run your finger down its center from top to bottom, and use your thumbs to smooth out from center toward the outside. This is how you tape to a rounded surface without making wrinkles or capturing air bubbles. This is what will give your finished weapon a smooth and polished appearance. Take your time.
• Then fold down the little "ears" that are sticking out at the top.
• Then repeat with the second piece of tape.
• Use an Xacto blade to poke 7 billion holes in the tip: Top, all sides, even in the hard seams between the two pieces of tape. Give it a squeeze -- does it bounce back immediately? If not, poke more holes. If so, probably poke more holes anyway -- Like I said, one of our Weapons Marshals is really persnickity about this!!
• If this weapon is being made for NPC camp, or for a serious stick jock: Add one more length of tape laterally around the circumference of the base of the tip. This tape should have its top half covering the base of the foam tip, and its bottom half covering the weapon shaft. This is added infrastructure to hold the tip on.
• Poke more damn holes through that piece of tape, too.

Tip on Tips #4: TLDR on the important parts you skipped

• Use cling wrap over the open cell foam before you apply tape.
• Don't squish the tape down, tack it down smoothly with care.

If you've got any questions about how to do this securely or neatly to make your weapons all pretty as well as sturdy and long-lasting, feel free to ask me anytime. I'm always happy to show anybody how to make traditional style boffer weapons.

Thanks,
Trace Moriarty
Weapons & Safety Marshal
Alliance Denver