Re: NANOG poll: favorite cable labeler?

[Faisal Imtiaz <faisal () snappydsl net>]

FWIW.

While Brother Ptouch are great, for labeling Flat Surfaces (equipment 
etc) their labels have a tendency to fall apart over a period of time 
(heat exposure ?) when used as cable identifiers. (rolling them around 
the cable width wise...and this was the more expensive tougher labels).

Between this and the very time consuming process of making the labels we 
have been using the pre-marked cable marker books available at Home 
Depot / Lowes. Typically used for Electrical Wiring Marking (Ideal 
Characters Wire Marker Booklet). These are Plastic imprinted cloth, very 
long lasting and durable.

We mark each cable end with the same unique Number / Letter or a 
combination of ..... Marking each cable with a full description was 
becoming tedious, and at the end of the day, the need was to identify 
the two cable ends of each cable.

There are also some 'Write on Self Laminating wire labels' available, if 
one wanted to be more descriptive, from other Mfg. These roll over 
nicely, and are also very durable.

YMMV

Regards.

Faisal Imtiaz
Snappy Internet & Telecom

On 8/21/2012 11:16 PM, R. Benjamin Kessler wrote:
> We use the Brady IDXPERT label makers to create the self-laminating cable labels and Brother P-Touch to label devices, 
> etc.
>
> The Brady label printers and supplies are a bit more expensive than the Brother but it's worth it for the cable labels.
>
> The Brother supplies are available at most office supply stores so you don't have issues with running out of label tape 
> in the middle of a project; several different colors are available, etc.
>
> Both machines run in AA batteries (or AC wall-wort)
>
> There are lots of cartridge options for the Brady printers that we haven't explored yet just because we've been using 
> the Brother printers for far longer.
>
> This dual-box approach has been working for us for many years but if I had to pick only one, I'd probably go with the 
> Brady.
>
> http://www.bradyid.com/bradyid/pfpv/Printers-and-Label-Makers~Portable-Label-Printers~IDXPERT%E2%84%A2-Labeling-Printers.html
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert E. Seastrom [mailto:rs () seastrom com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 9:11 PM
> To: nanog () nanog org
> Subject: NANOG poll: favorite cable labeler?
>
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> Many moons ago I worked in a place where we had a Brady LS2000 wire labeler.  So long as the supplies were fresh it was 
> great.
>
> In the storage unit I have a Brady TLS2200.  Supplies are expensive, but it works reasonably well.  Unfortunately the 
> battery is shot (gotta replace that).
>
> It seems to me that as cheap as the Brother P-Touch type labelers have gotten that there might be some product by 
> (Brady|Dymo|Brother|etc) that everyone uses and recommends these days which is (a) cheap enough that they can be 
> deployed en masse rather than treated as a scarce resource, (b) hopefully runs on standard (such as AAA) battery types, 
> and (c) has reasonably priced supplies.
>
> Labeling cables is mostly what I'm interested in.  The el-cheapo p-touch seems adequate to putting hostnames on 
> machines.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> -r