How self laminating label printers work.

Clive, how, after all of these years in stage/production work, are you just NOW getting a real P-Touch? I bought one for myself when I was working for a broadcast company in my teenage years (~25 years ago) and was building studios. It's the laminated P-Touch labels or nothing -- as in nothing else is worth using. ENG trucks and equipment I installed back then STILL has the labels stuck on it, looking pretty good for 20+ years of wear & tear on them. Even some on the outside of the ENG trucks are still there. The Casio / Dymo / non-laminated Brother machines are useless. And many, many, many studios, shows, arenas, touring rigs later, my P-Touch machine still works like a champ. Also, the machines with the auto-cutter vs. manual cutter are worth the extra $ if you're labelling anything big.

Sean M

just ordered one, I pick it up from toolstation tomorrow, also going to try one of their automatic cable strippers says from 0.2mm to 0.6mm only a fiver so why not, already have loads of cable strippers but I love my gadgets, might be because of me being a mechanic and auto electrician now dabbling in electronics, on a side note Clive, i really want to try and make my own wee pcbs, i make models and like to light them up so any info on what to get, I have a laser and inkjet printer, also really interested in trying to program pic microcontrollers for model lighting effects, i have arduino but wan't to do it via electronics rather than using a nano, regards Terry

i quite like the software, have you got the proper DymoLabel, not the Lite version?

mark barratt

recently replaced my decade old PT85 with a Dymo "twin pack" one that's USB on the desktop and a USB capable handheld for "in the field" - both have performed admirably on cheap tapes ( i get the 'strong adhesive' ones) not had an issue with delamination or unsticking, but have had a couple not fed properly, so the printing looks skewed. [LabelManager PnP and LabelManger280]

mark barratt

I wonder if you can get a new battery online or if it's just dropped below the protection threshold if you could gently nudge the battery back into life. At worst you might be able to transplant a new battery into the it.

Big Clive

Thanks for this video - it was a real eye-opener of me. I have a Brother P-Touch 1230PC. I've had it for 8 years and never noticed the cable labelling wizard. I'm busy labelling every thing right now :-)

Kevin Leah (AKA Zoinks!)

I bought a Dymo XTL 300, it looked like a nice machine, especially for cable marking. Within a year the Li-ion battery died. The holeseller does not let me return it, i should contact Dymo. Dymo does not reply to my support questions. I think Dymo is more for the consumer market, and i should have bought a Brady or Brother labelprinter.

Guy Van Loo

Years ago I learned that guitar effects pedals used positive barrel / negative tip because it made it easy to disconnect a battery supply when plugging in a DC adapter. I still can't see how that is any different from a conventional positive tip lead. Im also not sure if reversed polarity makes it easier to use the 1/4 inch jack as a means to switch on and off power when plugged and unplugged. Seems like such a simple concept but I still struggle with understanding how polarity matters with these connections.

Jim

I use a tape label machine all the time for labelling samples and chemicals in the lab. The cheapest machines (like Dymo Letratag) use the direct thermal labels which are totally unsuitable for this application because they fade over time and exposure to various solvent/chemical vapours darkens them. Obviously I have no desire to have a lab full of bottles of unidentifiable hazardous materials. My current machine is a Dymo Labelmanager 280, which is the thermal transfer type (without overlamination). This is MUCH better and generally works very well for me. I usually use knockoff label tap, specifically the vinyl based ones because I find these work well on round glass bottles etc. However, the text is damaged by exposure to certain solvents (the liquid, vapour alone doesn't hurt it) like dichloromethane. So, a self-laminating label machine would be absolutely ideal for me. And at that price, I am very tempted indeed... The wider label tapes would be good for multiline labels too. And built-in barcode generation would also be neat (my dymo can't do that standalone but can via the nearly unusable PC software).

I picked up a used PT-E110 labeler about a year ago on eBay for a good price and it happened to come with a full cassette of the TZeFX231 (FX for "Flexible ID") tape in it. It has different properties to the regular tape to allow it to better conform to cylindrical surfaces like cables and different adhesive that's supposed to laminate the label to itself more effectively. It seems much easier to make neat cable flags with it than the regular stuff, and the cable wrap tags stick very well. Before running out, I bought a cheap clone version of the FX tape and it seems quite similarly effective. I really like the "switch plate" feature on my unit which allows me to use a preset or custom label length and automatically conforms the text to fit within that length. It allows me to make very tidy labels for wall switches and especially circuit breaker panels.

The labels for the older large Brother labels makers were overpriced. They are similar to the ptouch but don't have the lamination and didn't have the back split. The maker would waste as much label as possible, it will make a long flag, then a half cut thru just the label and not the backed, then the label with extra long margins on both ends which cannot be adjusted. I now have the upper model of The Ptouch and it's a lot better. It can do the half cuts, but it doesn't have to do the start flag (is a user option) and can do series of labels with half cuts in-between each. The prices on the ptouch labels is reasonable. The old ones costed as much or more, had less label, wasted up to 40%, and weren't laminated. The old Bother has this gimmick, it had special ink only cartridges for directly printing on to CDs. Didn't stick to many common CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. At home I have a Dymo industrial Rhino. It's ok. Lacks some basic punctuation like commas. The labels are cheap and hold up pretty well. The clone Dymo labels I have used have been fine (unlike the ptouch ones I mentioned in a different reply).

Kadah

The delamination of the cheap ones happens rapidly on every 3rd party cartridge I received in a lot of junk. All used as cable flags failed within the 2nd week. Several failed on flat surface. Any exposed to any heat failed, only 35-40C. Had to spend a whole day relabeling dozens of cables that mostly became unlabeled. After that I see bought a few packs of the extra expensive ones for cable flagging. Two of the cheap clone cartridges were made wrong. The dye ribbon wasn't anchored to its take-up and fed out with the label. Trashed both, wasn't worth the effort to fix. At least for the Brother labels, even for free, the clone ones aren't worth using for serious stuff.

Kadah

The eBay keywords are dymo label embosser. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_osacat=0&_odkw=dymo+label+printer&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=dymo+label+embosser&_sacat=0

Big Clive

I just checked and it does have the radiation symbol.

Big Clive

I used to have a Fargo Primera dye sublimation printer that worked in a similar way for transferring the pigment to paper. The printer and the ribbons were horribly expensive (you could get an RGB ribbon and a CMYK one).

Chris Crowther

Well this is serendipitous: I've been thinking about getting a label printer, so that I can label the million cables I seemingly have in my home office.

Chris Crowther

I bought the Brother ptouch 550 about 4 years ago, it's similar to this model but has a few extra features: self cutting, wi-fi direct connection, database printing, uploadable graphics. I can print battery date labels which have our company logo,this isa nice touch. The 550 was about £200 back then. What I will say is that the clone labels delaminate, especially if you use them as cable flags or cable wraps, I often get to go back to my installs to carry out PPM so I see which ones have come apart. I only use Brother tapes now for that reason.

The Tinkering Shed

Remember the classic "Dymo" label printers that impressed the plastic tape with characters? Any time I see one of those labels these days they are quite old and brittle. I want one of these printers and have placed it on my wish list

Michael Thompson

Just ask Alexa, she can spell anything, she is extraordinarily well suited and yes I had to ask !

The e300 at Walmart is 91 (pounds) , the newer one the e500 is 116, I see it does that first cut for you, hope that's not all for the extra cost. I have the "old" adding machine looking one, No symbol for Radioactivity, I had to buy a roll of stickers. Is it included in that ones symbols ? (Not that my collection will ever outgrow my 500 stickers) Great Explanation of how it works, Thank-You

Does this model have a spellcheck? Seriously I need a spellcheck, I've got labels all over that are wrong. I have a refurbished 21 year old Brother model PT-300 that still works, and I can still get cartridges for.

Paul Malloy

checked my local office supplier - this retails for $220 aud... even with conversion tool station would be cheaper... if only they shipped to aus with out doubling the price :P

Russell Peake

You can get heatsrink tube cartridges that fit the normal TZe printers on aliexpress too, searching for 'HSe' will turn them up. They're pretty handy for labelling cables.

I own one like that big orange bastard. The ONLY thing wrong with it, is the battery is tiny and crap, and doesn't last 5 mins.

mikenco

I wish I had seen this one before I bought a Brother 210 about six months ago. Aligning terminals with labels using that one is quite difficult.

Bill Kerr

This unit seems much better than the Brady machine we have at work, that has a better display with accurate previews but doesn't laminate the labels and the material always seems to be creased inside the cartridge, making the text inconsistent. Also the massive internal battery is toast after only a few years of infrequent use.

Matt Tester

Nice! Been looking for a new printer since my dymo broke

You can get heatshrink cartridges for this one, but you only get a 1.5m sleeve (5').

Big Clive

My dymo does the same wastage thing but doesn't pause for a cut so you end up with a huge over hang on one end witch I trim off the brother way of pausing and cutting the overhang is much better

I got a dymo mobile Bluetooth thing, it can even print on heat shrink tubing, love it!

Mikey