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Shoutout to the guy who said to use a pizza cutter on drywall tape

Had a roll of paper tape that just wouldn't tear cleanly on a job in Phoenix. Out of frustration, I grabbed a pizza cutter from my lunchbox and ran it down the line. It gave me a perfect, straight edge every single time. Anyone else have a weird but effective tool substitution?
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4 Comments
the_jenny
the_jenny3mo ago
You said it wouldn't tear cleanly. Was the roll just old and dried out, or is that specific paper tape always a pain? I've had that happen with the cheap stuff. Did you score it on the roll or after you stuck it to the wall?
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ryanc71
ryanc713mo ago
Tearing paper tape shouldn't be a life crisis. It's tape. Sometimes it rips, sometimes it doesn't. I just use my utility knife if it gets fussy. People act like a bad tear ruins the whole project... it's just drywall, not brain surgery.
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nina_hall48
Yeah I read somewhere that paper tape actually has a shelf life, like after a year or so the glue starts breaking down and it gets finicky. @abby_martinez mentioned the pizza cutter trick and I tried that last week on a humid day and it worked way better than I expected, didn't crush the tape at all. So my guess is it's less about the brand and more about how old the roll is, the cheap stuff just might not be stored as well in the store.
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abby_martinez
That cheap paper tape from the big box stores is always a nightmare when it gets a little humidity. I keep a small metal ruler in my bag just for scoring it on the roll before I pull, like @the_jenny was asking about. The pizza cutter trick is smart for a clean line after it's on the wall though, especially on a long run. Did you find it crushed the tape at all or did it just give you that clean break?
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