I need to stop remembering my wiring and start labeling it. So that has me looking into heat shrink label makers. A quick search on Amazon landed options from 50 bucks to almost 300. Given the nature of this group, somebody has to have one they like.
Whom are you calling a nerd, huh? 
If you smelt it, you dealt it
My 18mth old Brother P-Touch label maker has been useful, only used occasionally to unfluff and organize my setup. Didn’t realize until your topic that Heat Shrink Label Tube cartridges are available. Would’ve been neat to have discovered heat shrink labels before crimping 20-30 cat6 home runs to the router. On the plus side, the regular labels flappy tags are easier to finagle and read imo.
Also, Brother’s SDK/APIs have been fun to mess around with…
I think flag style labels are great for things that need more than a few letters. But for things like “Y MAX" in a tight space, it would be cleaner over all…. That’s the thought process anyway. I don’t actually know. But my old Brother P- touch have me years of service until it just said no more.
I did have the idea to make regular labels and use clear heat shrink over them. But I don’t know if that will activate the ink in the labels.
I have a Brother label maker that does heat-shrink labels.
It’s an older version of the PT-E560BTVP Electrician’s label maker.
I guess depending on how much use you’re planning, the heat-shrink labels get pretty spendy, especially if you need multiple sizes. I’ve tried the knock off label maker cartridges before and never really got a satisfactory result but, to be fair, I haven’t tried the knock-off heat-shrink ones.
My issue has always been the US$40 a roll or whatever it costs here, with a roll being 1.5m / 5’. Works out to around $1-3 a label depending on size and how many you’re making at once. My preferred alternative in the end was to just use the regular labels and then put clear heat-shrink over them, if you want them to be axially printed. In most cases I end up just printing them and putting them on as flags, though, just because it’s easier, especially for labeling after install. My main switchboard and so on are all done that way, as are all the cables and connections in my MPCNC, pick and place machine, etc. I still really like the standard Brother labels because I’ve had good experiences with the sticking well to cleaned surfaces and lasting outdoors, even in a port/salt water environment. Getting a cheaper label-only printer and the proper label cartridges plus some clear heat-shrink would realistically suit my usage better.
If you do get something like that, have a look at the printing modes. The default is for it to feed a short amount of tape, get you to cut the tape, print the label, feed mode and then cut. Every label wastes that first cut piece. There’s another mode where it doesn’t automatically feed out the whole label until you print the the next label and so you only waste the extra piece on the first label. That’s roughly 10mm or 1/2" of label saved after the first one. That’s a big enough deal for the correct tape but absolutely critical for the heat-shrink.
So yeah, they work well and it makes sense from a business perspective. For personal use it’s just a lot of investment for dubious benefit, in my eyes.
this works well for you? Its one of the ideas I had because I have the label maker already, just need the clear heat shrink
I have an old Brother PT-1090 I’ve had for ages and recently got aftermarket heat shrink for it, seemed to work fine.
It works ‘ok’ the few times I’ve done it. It’s more professional looking than the labels printed as flags, but more quite as nice as the proper stuff.
I can’t find an example around here, actually… All my stuff I’ve DIY’d is just flags or labels straight on the cable/connector with no clear heat-shrink, even.
That’s interesting, that doesn’t have the heat-shrink tapes listed as being compatible. Not having to use one of the fancier ‘industrial’ ones would make a big difference.
Well, I might have to give that a try myself, then… It still ends up being ~2x more expensive per/m than the regular label and clear heat-shrink, but at 20-30c/label rather than $1-2/label, I’m ok with that…
I also just checked my label maker and it feeds a ~22mm leader that gets cut off each time. That’s going to sting a little if you’re doing 1 label at a time… Might be as much as half the reel being wasted. I dunno if the newer ones are any better but it’s the same deal with the PT110 we just bought a few months ago for my new work.
Edit: I just ordered cartridges for 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, 18mm and 24mm, the whole lot were slightly more than half the price of a genuine single size one… We’ll see how they go. The 24mm one would have been bloody useful for some TPS a few weeks back…
This is what I’ve used for years. I use it with these small electronics all the time without issue. I’ve never tried the heat shrink tubing because I’ve never seen a need.
Yeah. That’s the one my coworker uses and recommended. I can’t justify the cost yet, but it’s on my wishlist…
I went the cheap way:
No keyboard, no screen, you need your phone or tablet for it.
Is it good - nah, not realy, but it does it’s job.
Heatshrink worked fine with it:
