# How do you protect your bulk bands and tubes?



## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

I've heard some people say they keep their bulk bands and tubes in sealed bags in the refrigerator or freezer.

Others just say they keep them out of sunlight.

I don't have really large bulk rolls of bands or tubes, but do wonder if what I do is sufficient for the latex to last.

For example I've been buying tubes in rolls of 10 or 20 feet, 6 feet of TBG at a time, 6 feet of Gold's Gym Green at a time.

I have been keeping them sealed in large plastic Folger's coffee containers (the large red ones) and stored in a closet that is under a staircase in the basement.

The temp is pretty consistently in the 60's, and it's always in the sealed containers in pitch black unless I have one of them out for making bandsets.

Bandsets also are stored in the same place, in another sealed Folger's coffee container just like the bulk stuff.

Once a slingshot is banded, when i am not using it, it is stored in the dark (usually a desk drawer) but not in a sealed container.

I only keep maybe 4-6 slingshots banded at once.

I'm just curious how this compares to how others protect the life of their band/tubing material, and what kinds of experiences they might have had that brought them to their current way of storing their 'slingshot lifeline'?


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## Smashtoad (Sep 3, 2010)

Shelf life of unused tubing is something I never really thought about. I need to move some stuff.


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Sealed in a zip lock bag with desiccant packets at room temperature and in darkness . UV rays are a killer .


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## Alfred E.M. (Jul 5, 2014)

*Mine are stored pretty much the same as yours, Nobodo. Each type gets its own zip lock, identified by Sharpie writing on the bag, a packet of desiccant in each and then into one of two dark brown plastic Yuban coffee cans, and finally into the dark confines of the 20 gallon tub next to my desk. I can't point to specific instruction other than advice from TexShooter and general knowledge from the Forum. Most of the products are very inexpensive, so if a batch were to go bad over time, it wouldn't be a big financial deal to replace it.*

*The freezer is out of the question, what with all the body parts we store there. * :rolling:


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## wll (Oct 4, 2014)

Since I'm so crazy "conscience" about everything.... yep ..... most of my tubing is kept in large Food Vac vacuum jars in the refrigerator, covered in black plastic bags. If I lived in a colder area i may not have done this, but because of where I live getting so hot I wanted to protect the tubes/bands as long as I can.

wll


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

As posted above UV kills rubber, even if reflected from outside to inside. I seal my elastic in a box that my roll of Theraband came in. I have stored elastic in the freezer and it came out just like new a year later. I used a zip loc bag and aluminum foil. The foil assures zero light of any wave length hits the elastic. Avoid handling unused elastic, skin oil and salts will degrade natural rubber.


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## wll (Oct 4, 2014)

Chuck Daehler said:


> As posted above UV kills rubber, even if reflected from outside to inside. I seal my elastic in a box that my roll of Theraband came in. I have stored elastic in the freezer and it came out just like new a year later. I used a zip loc bag and aluminum foil. The foil assures zero light of any wave length hits the elastic. Avoid handling unused elastic, skin oil and salts will degrade natural rubber.


Chuck!

I did not know you could store it in the freezer ? I imagine you take it out and let it thaw, take out the desired amount and then re-freeze ?

wll


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