Double-sided adhesive tape for camera grip

Hi everyone,

not sure this is the best forum, but I didn't find anything more specific.

I recently tried to fix my camera rubber grip with a double-sided tape, with no luck. I don't want to use glue, because (A) I tried and it didn't work (B) I'd like something removable.

I experimented with several 3M tapes that I had around, including:

• a transparent tape based on 3M 300LSE
• 3M VHB tape 4952P (a special tape for low-energy surfaces, I believe)
• 3M 9448A

They all do stick decently to the camera body, but none of them really adheres to the rubber (which is also slightly deformed by use and age). I believe they fail for different reasons: the 4952P would have the required thickness to fill the gaps in the deformed rubber, but I guess its glue is unsuitable for the material; the other tapes are possibly less weak, but too thin, so the tension in the rubber prevails.

As a side observation, I recently bought the official Sony grip for my RX100 and noticed it's glued with some 3M tape, so I guess this is the proper tool, but I don't feel like experimenting with every possible 3M tape on the planet... Also, the tape on the RX100 grip was factory-glued to the rubber part, which may be a hint that the process might not be super-simple.

Does anybody have an idea (or better, a 3M tape product code)?

thanks,

MH

Milql wrote:

Maybe this is not super professional way how to do it, but I removed whole rubbery grips from my Canon EOS60D, which is known from bad quality grip. Then I used Sugru on all surfaces where rubber was glued previously. Nice thing about sugru is that after molding it becames real rubber. You can mold shape of your fingers for better grip. Only issue is that rubber is smooth so in some cases it could be useless.

Could you impress a texture into the surface before it hardens?

Milql wrote:

Heritage Cameras wrote:

Milql wrote:

Maybe this is not super professional way how to do it, but I removed whole rubbery grips from my Canon EOS60D, which is known from bad quality grip. Then I used Sugru on all surfaces where rubber was glued previously. Nice thing about sugru is that after molding it becames real rubber. You can mold shape of your fingers for better grip. Only issue is that rubber is smooth so in some cases it could be useless.

Could you impress a texture into the surface before it hardens?

Yes you can, sugru is really soft before it hardens.

Sugru is mostly silicone + talc... which is sort of better than rubber, although it sticks a little too permanently. There is a photo of a camera grip repaired using sugru on the wikipedia page .

I'd try something like the Peachtree Woodwording 1" Double Stick Tape, PW3599. It's made to temporarily stick wood pieces together so that you can machine them (e.g., turn a bowl on a lathe) without having to drill holes to secure the workpiece. Years ago, I used a similar tape from 3M to secure metal parts to the bed of a Bridgeport Series 1 CNC milling machine. Basically, the trick is that these tapes have amazing bond strength in the plane of the tape, but are weak enough in the Z dimension that you can separate the parts fairly easily when done. Thus, it wouldn't prevent the grip from being peeled-up to access the camera guts, but it would strongly resist any movement of the grip surface.