We are John and Cindy, a husband and wife team working to create solutions to problems. Some of those solutions are content, sharing a technique or idea. Some of those solutions are products which address a particular need. We have a long list of ideas we are working through, testing and developing and we have only just started.

 

Cindy is a three time Olympian with a lot of experience in fitness (obviously) and content creation. Camera work, video editing, you name it she gets involved and does an excellent job of clearly communicating the key concepts!

 

John is an engineer who has been doing DIY projects since he was old enough to hold the flashlight for his dad. With a broad career experience including to name just a few, construction, automotive engineering, 3D printing, and rapid product development, John has a broad skill set and experience to base solutions on.

 

Why Built Test Build?

 

Solving tough problems is an iterative effort. If you wait until you have a perfect design you will never build anything. Analysis paralysis prevents a lot of people from doing or building something they have always wanted to. (don’t ask us how we know…) Furthermore, a lot of times once you get started you learn more about the problem and your design changes. The perfect design you imagined doesn’t solve the problem because the problem isn’t as simple as you thought, or the system works differently than you expected. The only way to learn that is through trying something, carefully observing the result and adjusting. This is true for large engineering projects, small Maker projects, and DIY home projects. Find the smallest piece of that project you can make progress on and learn, and get started. The paint color you think you want may not actually look good in your house, get samples and pick an out of the way spot to try those colors you think you want. You might be right the first time, or you might be relieved that you only bought a little and tried it before you bought 15 gallons to do the whole house.

 

Why the TapeHOLD Pro?

 

When we were shopping for our first house together as a married couple inventory was low and options were limited. We found a good option that ticked a lot of boxes but Cindy wasn’t sold on the interior. Having worked in construction and also done a lot of DIY house projects John convinced Cindy that the house could be remodeled to match her aesthetic. That involved a LOT of painting, new floors and new counter tops. John quickly realized that to tackle a paint job that size he’d have to learn how professional painters do it. After hours and hours of research he picked out a paint sprayer and had a plan of how he was going to work through spraying and masking the whole house.

 

Throughout that entire process the continual pain point was managing the tape rolls. Yes, you can set it down on the top of your ladder, but if you forgot to bring it with you to the top of the ladder you are going to be frustrated. Or you leave it on the ladder but now you are working on the baseboards. You put the tape roll in your tool pouch but somewhere between tasks it rolled out and rolled away. Again, when doing the floor and laying out the vapor barrier, the tape roll had to be managed. He tried all sorts of solutions but nothing really met all the requirements. Eventually he made a prototype solution and it had promise, but still a lot of short comings. When he installed the solar tubes in the attic, once again he found himself managing tape rolls while balancing on rafters. Throughout the entire house remodel project he kept coming back to the tape roll problem.

 

Professionals and DIYers use so many different types of tape for so many different tasks, and they all need a simple and reliable solution to retain the roll well but allow quick and easy access. It has to be so quick and easy that you can grab it or put it away without even thinking. After countless prototypes, and tests run while doing projects we think we finally have a solution that is worth your hard earned money. It is simple, easy to put on, easy to take off, and it can retain the vast majority of tape rolls, from 1” wide masking tape to the big heavy utility tape rolls. We have tested it with tape rolls including specialty engineering kapton tape rolls we have on hand, Gorilla, Frog, Duck, (yeah we thought it was funny too, why are so many tapes named after animals?), 3M, Tyvek, and of course the ubiquitous blue Scotch tape that everyone uses for everything. Obviously we can’t tell you it works for everything (this particular model is not designed for electrical tape rolls) but it works on all the full sized rolls we have tested. We hope that you find this solution to be as helpful as we have, never wonder where your tape roll wandered to again!