Duct Tape Tent Pole Repair

This is a rather last minute entry into the instructables "Scotch Tough Duct Tape Great Outdoors Contest" as this instructable kinda just happened by accident.  Last weekend I picked up a tent at a garage sale for $10.  It was a score as this was a Taiga expedition 4 season base camp.  Only problem was 2 of the poles shock cord were broken.  Shock cord is the stretchy elastic linking the poles together.  Now I thought to myself I will just buy some shock cord on line, as no one in town carries it.  Well a week passed and sure enough we had a chance to do a little improv camping.  Duct tape to the rescue!  Follow the steps below or watch the video.  I have to admit that the duct tape fix actually aided in the assembly of the tent.  Ours is the kind where the poles are passed through a long sleeve,  The one pole with the remaining shock cord, kept on coming apart in the sleeve, while the ones treated with duct tape slid through like butter!

1. Count how many sections you need to make one pole and assemble
2. Tear off a 1"x1" piece of duct tape
3. Fold over 1/3 of an inch of the duct tape over itself, this will give you a stick free tab to remove the duct tape later
4. Stick the duct tape patch over the joint of 2 sections, it does not need to wrap around the whole pole, 1/2 is more then enough and will facilitate removal after.
5. Assemble your tent as normal!
6. When your finished camping, undo the tent, removal the poles and grab those little tabs.  They come off super quick - hooray!