How to Remove Duct Tape Glue with WD-40
Removing duct tape glue left behind. Few things are more annoying-not so much irritating to the core as much as simply annoying to the mind and the body-than trying to remove the glue left behind after you have previous had to utilize the miraculous invention known as duct tape. You know the old saying about how if you can’t fix something, then duct it? Well, what happens after you decide you can fix something and you don’t want to just duct it anymore? You try to remove the duct tape and that part is not really so bad. But always there is going to be that intensely annoying leftover.
The duct tape glue. The sticky substance that is, at its heart, the real magic of duct tape.
Fortunately, there exists another seemingly magical product on the market that seems almost to have been created specifically with the intention of removing the adhesive found on the back of duct tape. They weren’t, of course; it’s just a great bit of synchronicity at work.
Or is it?
WD-40. If you are already aware of the multiplicity of uses to which duct tape can be put to work, then you probably already have the skinny on WD-40 and the multiplicity of uses to which it can be put. But did you know that one of these uses is removing the adhesive from the business side of duct tape? Begin with the application of WD-40 spray directly onto the surface on which the glue has remained after tearing off the tape. In order for WD-40 to accomplish this task, the real magic here is a thing called time. You need to give the WD-40 time to saturate the material and do all that complicated scientific interaction required to loosen the adhesion.
If you do not have a lot of glue to remove from the surface, you do not need all that much WD-40 and you do not need all that much time. Likewise, the more ingrained the glue is within the material, the greater the saturation of WD-40 that is necessary and the greater the time necessary for science to do its thing.
At any rate, you would be wise to give the WD-40 at least a good half hour of saturation time. Just to make sure and, frankly, giving the process a half hour is definitely not going to cause the process of duct tape removal any harm. After the saturation process, just grab a clean towel, rag or other piece of material and wipe away. The more ingrained the adhesive, the more elbow grease may be required. But nothing more strenuous should be required. If so, it’s time to move on from WD-40 and find something else.
