wire markers

drive, and I take 27 south from my sister's place at Newberry to Ocala.

karl

Why not stop by and say 'hello' if you have the time? I'm on the south side of town by a few miles. :)

That would be fun. Email your address and phone if you don't mind. I'll print out a google map and put it in the glove box. karltownsendembarqmail.com

Karl

Sent. :)

These labels were pretty large, maybe an inch wide and a half-inch high with several (4 or 5) lines of print. This was in rack-mounted equipment, so the connector field was 23" wide (the phone company uses

Pete C. is correct. In your case, simply numbering the wires, using the labels that wrap around and repeat should be readable from any angle. You can, in putting on those labels, make a small flag yourself by not wrapping the last few numbers, and doubling a few of them them back-to-back, sticking out from the wire, and then wrapping the remainder - ending just at the base of the flag. You'll have to experiment a little to get the flag to come out the size you want.

Or, you can buy a brady machine. Or a Brother P-touch, which is way less of a pin now that they have crack and peel tape. I've used one of those to do pretty big (about 300 cables) jobs - setting up the lables so they are printed on both ends but not in the middle. Then you just fold the label in half with the cable in the middle. Pinch it together, and the cable is flagged.

You can do something similar with the laser-printed self-laminating labels Ned pointed out. That, in fact, is what I'm planning to do here next week, though I ended up ordering the labels from

Oil is a problem with any of the self-laminating or tape type markers. Oil on your hands and wire ends makes it difficult to apply the markers, and I'd be concerned about the adhesive becoming gooey over time. The vinyl cloth markers you're using seem to be more tolerant of oil and dirt than the others.

The clip-on tags are my preference in this sort of environment. Downside is they're relatively expensive and several sizes are needed if you need to fit a wide range of wire ODs. I've seen embossed metal tape markers on some old machinery that's still readable after 50 years covered with oil. This prompted me to try marking flagged wire ties with number stamps where I didn't have the proper snap-on tags and was concerned about durability. Works OK, but it's obviously slow.

If you email me your mailing address I'll send you some samples of the various markers I have on hand.

For cables, however, there were thin aluminum tags made like this (maybe 3/4" square head on the tag):

And there was a machine which had a turret of number and letter stamps being cycled slowly up and down by a cam and a geared motor. You spun it to select a character, put the tag under it and stamped the letter, then quickly spun the turret to select the next before it came down again. Once that was done, the long tail was wrapped around the cable, tucked through the slot in the head, excess length was cut of with dikes, and it was folded and tucked under. All in all, pretty durable, and there were (in one case) 100 cables going from under one

Anyway -- the tags would be easy enough to make with tin snips, except for the slot for the tongue. But they would not work well for the individual wires.

Another approach used was to take white vinyl sleeving, and hot stamp identifiers on short strips of this and slip them on wires before crimping on terminals. The same vinyl sleeving can be dropped into a small jar of lacquer thinner, and it will swell up to about twice its normal size. Slip this on over something which needs to be insulated, and it will shrink fit nicely as it drys -- without the risk of heat damage which heat-shrink tubing will produce with some of the more heat sensitive wire insulations, such as the inner insulation in RG-58 coax cable. But the lacquer thinner would likely dissolve the hot-stamp markings on the sleeving.

Of course -- that was before heat shrink tubing became common. But it does have advantages anyway -- it is a lot quicker to slip the soft sleeves onto a bunch of wire without having to wave each at a hot-air flow for long enough to properly shrink it.

Enjoy, DoN.

Them's da ones. I've seen them small enough to be suitable for 14 ga wire and up, but only on old equipment, never for sale.

When using the heat shrink markers it's usually more convenient to shrink a group of them after connecting the wires. This is quicker and also allows for adjusting the position and rotation of the markers before fixing them in place.

Mebe so, but it makes an awful mess in the wiring harnesses...

Eh? What sort of mess?

They have to be staggered throughout the harness - can't all be located at the same place...

You've lost me. The original question was about control panel wiring, like this:

O.K. I've seen metal wire markers which started life as a 'U', and ended up looking sort of like this after crimping (open side of the 'U' started to the right before crimping). These were on the wires on my Bridgeport motor from about 1975 I think.

(3

starting as: __ (__

Can you get 'U' shaped aluminum stock in rolls? You'll need to make something which supports the 'U' from the inside and cuts it to length, something which supports it from the inside (again) for stamping the designations into the aluminum, and a crimper which will close the 'U' into the "(3" shape when it is in place. Amp "type F" crimpers will do for some sizes -- perhaps with the secondary crimp for the insulation support removed. For crimping a few, even the cheap AMP crimpers with no ratchet used for pins in multi-pin connectors will handle up to a certain size.

Hmm ... aluminum intended as support for crimp-in-place gaskets (for car door openings and the like) might work. Or -- you could make a custom press to fold flat to the 'U'.

For the really small ones -- I have a letter stamp set picked up at a tool flea market which is 1/32" height letters -- but unfortunately, no matching number stamps. :-(

Enjoy, DoN.

Indeed. And the bastards have JACKED up the prices in the last few years.

$45 for a simple plastic gizmo and 10 rolls of tape????????

Geeeze

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Any place close to rent a Uhaul?

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

A dozen in the area.

I preferred the old flat books of strips. Some batches of the rolls had so much release compound that they wouldn't stay on the wire. Some wholesalers dropped the entire line for a while, after too many complaints.

Indeed. Ive got a number of Ideal brand wire marker books..numbers and letters as well as a bunch of older ones that still work nicely.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Karl may wish to note which are the closest to your place.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)