Glow Tape

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akodo

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Okay I recently picked up a gunvault box for my nightstand. works great. However, I think it could be improved by some glow-in-the-dark to make the buttons a tad easier to find at night.

I did some on line searching and found lots of places willing to sell me glow in the dark tape for $8 per roll, plus $8 for shipping, and I don't need 12 feet of the stuff.

So last time I was at Target I looked in the toy area for one of those bags of glowing stars, and that was 12.99!

I looked around and didn't see any area where they had regular stickers, the kind that teachers would give out for getting an A, or for cleaning up your table real good after lunch (remember scratch-and-sniff stickers? I remember when they first came out and I was in oh, probably 2nd grade)

Suprisingly, it seems the places on line that sell glow in the dark tape are aimed at stage/theater type production for marking stuff. Got me thinking if there were any other specialty industry that would use the stuff that maybe I could go to and get a few inches for cheap.

Or maybe someone on here has glow in the dark tape, willing to sell me a few inches for a couple of bucks, US mail? Like I send you a george washington and a SASE and you send me some glow tape for marking my box
 
Go to your local sewing/quilting shop. Most of those places have bottles of glow-in-the-dark T-shirt paint. It's narrow tipped, so you can keep the lines thin or thick as you please. Also, it'll peel off, so when it loses it's glowing effectiveness, it'll be easy to peel off and re-paint.
 
'Glow in the dark' stickers need light beforehand to charge it. They last from minutes to a few hours. I can't see how that's long enough for a whole night. Unless you get some (like in watches) with radioactive elements.

Should get a gunvault with a lighted keypad or just use a lamp/flashlight.

Or maybe taiwanese genetically modified fish that glow. You gotta have an aquarium though.
 
Go ask nicely at your local high school theater club or amatuer theater. They use it to marke the corners of steps and risers so the cast doesn't break their necks when they have to move and the lights are down.

Suggest you come up with an alternative use for it before you make your request.
 
foob nailed it.
Glow-in-the-dark stuff only glows for a short time after it is removed from the light.

Maybe one of those round dome lights that run on batteries and turn on when you tap them?
 
when I was a child (1960's) I had a small bottle of something named "Lightning Bug Glowjiuce".

It was a sor of whitish color and you spread it on like nail polish.

2 things I remember.

1 it gowed all night.

2. Do not paint a face on your dressor - it will glow for years and it takes the finish off which Mom & Dad did not appreciate.

It came in around an 8 oz. bottle - wish I could find it now it would be perfect for nightsights.

I think there is some sort of paint on night sight stufff maybe that would work.
 
yes, it must be 'charged' However, the box is going to be getting light all day long, I expect it to glow quite brightly for the first hour or so. Yes, by 4 am it will be dark or barely glowing at all. Still, plenty of time inbetween when it will be glowing some, and some is better than none
 
Good glow tape if exposed to a bright light will glow for about 30 minutes to an hour at best.

Go ask nicely at your local high school theater club or amatuer theater. They use it to marke the corners of steps and risers so the cast doesn't break their necks when they have to move and the lights are down.

Suggest you come up with an alternative use for it before you make your request.

Hey some of us theater folks have a lot of guns.


akodo if you PM me your address I will send you a foot or so of it, in the next few days.
 
Ozarkhillbilly beat me to it
I would go to a model airplane shop and see if they had glow in the dark paint. With a good charge of light, the tape or the paint will glow well for a few hours, faintly after that, stumbling around in the dark, it might be enough for you to see it.
If Ozarkhillbilly falls through, PM me. I have a roll of GID- tape around.
 
Suggestion, Sportsman guide sells a "headlight" led light that actually comes off the headband to expose a very nice magnet on the base of the light. I have 3 of them, 1 on each gun safe and 1 on my wall locker safe in my bedroom. Got 4 or 5 extras for other stuff but the mag base works real well, (never knocked one off slamming the door).

edited to add the link http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=250472
 
Glow tape is different from glow in the dark tape. As a musician and sound engineer, I've worked in the industry for many years, and the tape that's sold at theater supply stores is FAR superior to the glow in the dark stuff marketed to kids.

It will glow for hours!
 
Suggestion, Sportsman guide sells a "headlight" led light that actually comes off the headband to expose a very nice magnet on the base of the light. I have 3 of them, 1 on each gun safe and 1 on my wall locker safe in my bedroom. Got 4 or 5 extras for other stuff but the mag base works real well, (never knocked one off slamming the door).
Click to expand...

i was more or less thinking of those- you can get a decent cheap one on ebay for $9.99 shipped!
 
Tape a Small Cyalume stick to the top of the safe with a small support under each end so you can break it with finger pressure.

Don't have to worry about dead batterys when you need it to work real bad.

http://www.opticsplanet.net/picture...hemical-light-stick-5pk-for-reflex-scope.html

http://www.technomoves.com/glowsticks_6-inch.html

The Red ones might protect your night vision, but I haven't tried them.

BTW: Halloween is just around the corner so everybody will be selling them cheap!

1224.jpg
rcmodel
 
Tape a Small Cyalume stick to the top of the safe with a small support under each end so you can break it with finger pressure.
Click to expand...

now THAT is a killer idea. i think i will employ that one elsewhere myself, thanKS!
 
yes a glowstick vs flashlight is a good idea. Batteries is just one angle. There is always talk about a flashlight giving away your position, but seems to me you hear a bump in the night, a few glowsticks broken and chucked into the hallway +++!

However, tha isn't the goal. the goal is faster getting the hand on the keypad, not finding out you are 'one finger off' and having to reajudst.

I had an inferior model to my current which had | || ||| |||| on the buttons, and let me tell you | and || feel a LOT alike
 
That GlowInc paint looks like it'd work fantastic for almost anything. However... I personally am very sensitive to light levels when I'm trying to sleep. Even the led's on my computer components tend to keep me awake.

Just a reminder to think whether you're easily kept awake or not. Whatever you decide, test it before you make it permanent.
 
Here's a tip on stocking up on chemical light sticks, hit the super markets, Longs drugs, etc, a day or two after Halloween and you can get them on sale for around 10 cents each. I got fifty last year for five bucks plus tax.
 
For years I've had a Gunvault bolted to the closet wall, low down, 3 feet from my bed. Because it's bolted to the wall, the keypad is on the right side, and the hinge is on the left. Clothing partially conceals it, but doesn't block the door.

I can not SEE the keypad unless I crawl in there and stick my head among the clothes, but I can have that thing open and be armed in about one second flat ("one-mississippi") from the moment my hand touches the keypad.

The point is, you don't HAVE to see it. The raised rubber ridges guide your fingers to the raised rubber buttons. Beep-beep-beep-beep-Sproing! One armed homeowner!

If you think you might place your hand incorrectly on the buttons (almost impossible, due to the design), maybe you could glue an additional pad onto the first, index-finger button. Get some self-sticking moleskin from the foot care section of your pharmacy, and stick a little piece on just the first button. If you don't like it, you can easily remove it.

Tactile! Not Visual!

Also, I strongly recommend you keep the combination simple, though (after assessing your individual security needs). At first I had a really complicated combination, including double-entries. Even with practice, I just had too many mistaken entries, and the Gunvault locks down after three mistakes. Very bad when the SHTF, and you're operating in "reptilian-brain".

I reprogrammed it with a nice simple "four-beep" combination, and I've been very happy with it.

I strongly recommend the Gun Vault to anyone.
 
'Glow in the dark' stickers need light beforehand to charge it. They last from minutes to a few hours. I can't see how that's long enough for a whole night. Unless you get some (like in watches) with radioactive elements.
Click to expand...

So who is going start making a gun safe a tritium night sight keypad? :D
 
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