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I was building a kind of switch. That is another story all together but for the design I needed copper tape.
For those not familiar with copper tape: it is indeed a tape that consists of a thin strip copper with an adhesive at the back side. You can use it to build circuits on paper but also to have a conductive material that can be bend easily and cut with scissors.
I did use aluminium tape in the past but there is a problem with it. It conducts great but you can not solder Aluminium tape. Well actually you can solder aluminium but it is such a hassle that I quit doing that all together. 
Copper tape on the other hand solders easily.
Next to that copper tape adheses very well to paper and to my 3D printed designs and that is just what I needed.
The copper tape I used was .5cm (about 1/5 inch) wide and that was not wide enough for my purpose. Next to that I did not have enough off the stuff. So I started a search.
Copper tape can be bought at several electronic shops and is sold for building all kinds of paper circuits. Just search google for paper circuits and you will stumble upon many projects suitable for building with your kids.
And then I found something I never knew. Well it's a big world so I always find things I never knew. But this really struck me.
Copper tape is used in gardens. It is used to prevail snails to cross lines. So people put copper tape on their outside planters and the snails will not cross it. It is an animal friendly repellent. My local garden center actually sells it !!!
The copper tape they sell is shorter in length but a lot wider. It is more then an inch wide. It is about 1.18 inch. That is actually fine as I can cut it to the size I want with plain scissors.
And here you see the original tape and the new bought tape in a test phase. As you can see they adhere very well to paper and soldering the tape is a piece of cake.
To connect the ends of the wire to my breadboard I use paperclips as shown in this story:
http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/diy-breadboard-cables-i-am-doing.html
This shows that you can find components for your projects in the strangest places.
Till next time
Have fun
Luc Volders
