[sdiy] Cable Label choices and Preparation Methods

[Michael E Caloroso]

Heat gun and shrink tubing has been my preferred methods for over 30
years.  I don't label them by device names.

I build my own cables and had developed a convention of using cable
lengths in multiples of 3, 6, 10, 15, and 25 ft.  Any cable 10 ft or
longer gets shrink tubing.  I use short tubing bands indicating the
cable length - a single band is 5 ft multiple so 3 bands is a 15ft
cable, 5 bands is a 25 ft cables.  I have more of the long cables than
the short ones, and this color coding helps immensely to following
cable routing.  With various colors of shrink tubing, I can get more
than enough permutations of color combinations for the cables I make.

I have a few cables over 25 ft, they get an extra wide tubing band.  I
also have insert cables with TRS plugs, I label these with one wide
band then short bands over the wide one.

Some of my MIDI cables are 5-wire, I just write "5-wire" on the DIN shell.

I don't like using tape labels - the adhesive dries out with age, and
I never liked the gum residue that is left behind on the cable.

MC

On 5/25/21, Ingo Debus via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>
>> Am 25.05.2021 um 11:07 schrieb Ben Riggs via Synth-diy
>> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>:
>>
>> Heat shrink label cartridges are available for some types of label
>> printers, the one we use at work is a Brother P-touch. If you have a label
>> printer, check to see it there is a shrink label cartridge available.
>
> Yes, these are great. Kept one piece of white shrink tubing with something
> printed on it in my purse. It still looked like new after several months.
>
> But to attach it to a cable you have to remove at least one plug, no?
>
> Ingo
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