I use a lot of painters tape in my work. We use it to affix repair orders to customer's equipment so it doesn't leave any residue, easy to remove.

I always found it fussy to pick the tape off the roll, using too much tape or not enough. Didn't like the sloppy ragged edge of tearing it. All minor gripes, but I wanted to make something to solve this minor inconvenience.

Tape is fed from the holding spool, down and underneath the large geared paddle wheel. Where it is adhered to one of the paddles. As you turn the large knob counter-clockwise. It is fed into a smaller geared paddle gear that has 3 razor blades. The double-teeth of the paddles of the large wheel, forms a small taught bridge of tape. To which the smaller bladed wheel then punches though and cuts the tape into uniform lengths of about 1".

To build you'll need some super glue and Gorilla Glue.
Some 3/16th metal rod.
3 disposable saftey-razor blades (the type used in pre 1950's safety razors like your Grandpa used to use).

Insert the 3 blades into the 28 toothed wheel, a dab of Gorilla Glue on the face of the blades. I prefer Gorilla Glue as it expands as it cures, it's a bit gummy too and helps hold the razors in place. Then place the 28 tooth cap over the hub.

Line up the big hub with the little hub so that the razor lines up with the double toothed feature of the larger hub.

My tape spool was designed for my own personal use. I use 0.75" painters tape and made my spool holder, hub and spacer to fit that size of tape. But you could make your own spool and spaces to accommodate other sizes of tapes.

The acorn nuts have a slight taper on the ID of it's holds, so no glue necessary for holding the spool on. Press fit should be enough.

Have supplied my Fusion 360 files so you can modify and adapt as you see fit.

Hope this is obvious, be careful! This machine uses razor blades. Very, very, very sharp blades at that. It is very easy to cut yourself to the bone and not even notice till you find blood over everything. I have blood all over this print finding this out for myself. You've been warned! Kids, this ain't for you. Let a grown-up get stitches for you!