Recommendations Wanted for labeling small wires

@G3750 posted:

I'm struggling with a problem.  I have a lot of small wires (22 awg or less) that I need to keep straight.  I am looking for ways to label them.  Any suggestions?

George, I expect the best method depends on the intended use for the label.

Most of my labeling has been while I'm in the process of construction or renovation, and for that I usually just wrap a section of Scotch invisible tape (the frosted kind), or generic equivalent, around the wire and mark the tab with a Sharpie, whenever there's a risk of mixing up the wires involved. After I secure the wires, I often just rip off the tabs.

For a more permanent identification, I'd probably use something like self-stick mailing labels, doubled back around the wire, and hand-label the tab created with whatever legend best fits the situation. You could also just stick on the numbers, if that works better for you.

I just cut the number strip long enough to wrap around the wire and stick back to itself. Usually 3 numbers will do the job.

@G3750 posted:

All:

I'm struggling with a problem.  I have a lot of small wires (22 awg or less) that I need to keep straight.  I am looking for ways to label them.  Any suggestions?

From the photo below, you can see (at left) a Klein book of number labels and a cable tie with an ID plate.  The cable tie will certainly hold the Klein number, but is too big to fit the wire.  Any ideas as to alternatives?  Ideally, I'd like to use the numbers.

Thanks!

George

the wire markers you show are the best.

Wrap the numbered label around a half-turn, and then back on itself, creating a "flag."

Thanks all!  I am going to make flags out of the numbers (3 numbers long) and use those.

George

I just bought these on Amazon for labeling test set wires.

Kenco Cable Labels - 240 Labels 12 Sheets, 10 Colors Waterproof Cord Labels

I found that flags and folded over tape often slide along the wire especially after a little bit of heat gets at them.

I use light colored heat shrink tubing on the wire when I can and write on that. 

John

Purchase a Brother p touch labeling machine.  You can write anything you want . Label tape is one-half inch wide. Print out your selection twice,  fold over the wire and you have a easy to read label,  black on white.

@Craftech posted:

I found that flags and folded over tape often slide along the wire especially after a little bit of heat gets at them.

I use light colored heat shrink tubing on the wire when I can and write on that.

You can also put the label on the wire, then put clear heatshrink over it, that protects it and keeps it in place.

We're talkin' 22awg wire here. I'm pretty sure I can't write on that heat shrink, and if I could, you couldn't read it.

@third rail posted:

Purchase a Brother p touch labeling machine.  You can write anything you want . Label tape is one-half inch wide. Print out your selection twice,  fold over the wire and you have a easy to read label,  black on white.

Any specific model? I searched it and came up with a bunch. I think this may be the route I go.

@BillYo414 posted:

Any specific model? I searched it and came up with a bunch. I think this may be the route I go.

Bill, this is the model I use. As you can see, all the wiring is well marked. It has come in handy for many uses.

Gene

Buy a set of different colored rolls of plastic tape. Stick your number(s) to one side of a small piece of the tape and wrap around the wire - done.

Ideally, you could use a particular color tape to classify certain kinds of accessories, like yellow for lights, red for signs, blue for telephone poles, etc.

Popular sales sites sell bundles of multi colored heat shrink, ……I use the different colors as tracers and jot down the tracer ID in a notebook, ……on a long stretch I might toss 4-5 chunks of a particular color down the line……makes for easy identification in the notebook,……if I’m doing a hot & not for a specific block, the red & black wire might get all blue heat shrinks designating those wires to that specific block,……hasn’t let me down yet, …..also, you can buy wire that has tracer stripes already on it, ….you’re not condemned to only using the 8 basic crayon colored wires…..

Pat

I used small shrink tubing on mine and printed the number on it myself. You can get in different colors. I used yellow

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I just bought these on Amazon for labeling test set wires.

Kenco Cable Labels - 240 Labels 12 Sheets, 10 Colors Waterproof Cord Labels

I use these to mark my under layout wiring. I've had good luck with them. Makes it much easier to know what wire goes to what than trying to trace wires under the layout. Have a color code for everything and stick to it. Sharpies work great on them, then put clear Scotchtape over it. I have the 12 color cord labels I purchased from Amazon

In the past I've used various types of heat shrink markers on projects.  Last time I got them from Wiring Depot, 

-Mike in NC,

I have used all of these on a variety of commercial work projects:

The Brady number and color books - but for small wires you have to fold them ("flags")

3M wire marking tape - ability control how long the strip is, again may need to flag

Brother "wire labels" - need to do as flags on very small wire.  However a home label printer that has a 'sideways' font (ie across the width of the tape) and a 3/4" or 1" Flexible Id tape works well and sticks as a wrap or a flag.

3m Scotch Code markers - you do flags or wraps depending on size of wire and text, nice part is label has a clear protective flap (via Amazon or local electrical supply house)

+1 for the Brother P-Touch.  You can get labels as small as 3/8" high up to 1-1/2 " high, with the labels available in five different colors.  And of course you can type in whatever text you want on the label.  The labels look nice on the control panel, too....so much better than post-it notes.

Dale

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Here's my label maker. Gotta be at least 15 years old and a sample of the track labels I made for my layout yard. I understand that you can get yellow label tape, but haven't found them locally.

@third rail posted:

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Here's my label maker. Gotta be at least 15 years old and a sample of the track labels I made for my layout yard. I understand that you can get yellow label tape, but haven't found them locally.

You can get tapes in different colors. I get mine on Amazon.

I used my label maker to make the wire labels in my service panels when wiring my house. Like mentioned above, I folded the labels over the wires to make a flag.

I have used a Brother P-Touch label printer for years. I got a model that connects to my computer via USB. That allows me to use any font installed on the PC, in any size or orientation that I need.

The label tapes themselves come in widths from 1/4” through 3/4” for the model I have.

I'm happy with my DYMO Rhino 5200 labeler. They are made more for industry - especially electrical. All the models I own have a built-in flag function. There are also cable functions, breaker function etc. Labels come in lots of colors and materials . I use a lot of "Black on Clear" labels. That way you don't see a lot of different size white tapes on your panel.  Obviously you must have a light background. They have vinyl, flexible nylon, Polyester, Metal and heat shrink labels.  They even have the models that connect to your computer like Rich said.

I keep it simple and very low cost without any special equipment.  I write, in ink, on a small piece of usually white or light colored paper, 1/2 inch wide x 2 inch, the function of the wire, not just a number that would require keeping a list of numbers and functions.  A written function allows one to know the purpose of the wire immediately, like while crawling under the layout.  This is very helpful when searching for the purpose of a wire among many wires where all the wires have numbers.

I fasten the paper ID tag to the wires with regular clear shinny Scotch tape as I have found it more durable, tougher and longer lasting than the Scotch Magic tape that is frosty and can be written on.  The regular Scotch tape is wrapped around the wire and fastened to both sides of paper tag, covering all the paper on both sides.  I often use double layers of regular Scotch tape.  This will work with any size or gauge of wire.  I have some tags put on by this method for many years on my layout.

I do not have to label most my wires on my layout.  I used old control wire from a destroyed chemical plant that had four colored 14 ga wires in a cable.  I used the black wires for common, and other colors for each transformer loop and for switches.   The color gives at indication as to the function.   Where the wires all meet at the control panel, I can tell the wire function from the switch it goes to as the switch functions are labeled or known from the track diagram on the control panel.  These two means has allowed most wires to not requiring labeling.

Charlie

Probably more expensive than you want to go, but here at work we use a program called LabelMark. Using Panduit label pages we create labels for the various cables we install in our trucks. Some of the smaller cables we wrap a blank label and then a printed one to get the needed circumference to have all the text show. The labels over lap with a clear section to seal in the print.

We create the label file in excel and import it.

As a cheaper alternative;

For my tv/stereo I just used blue painter tape with permanent marker though the other suggestions here are neater

@John H posted:

We're talkin' 22awg wire here. I'm pretty sure I can't write on that heat shrink, and if I could, you couldn't read it.

Agree.  Lots of suggestions here but not many that I think would work on real small wire.  I currently do what Charlie does, but may try grj’s cable labels.

Yikes!  Man, did I start a fire! 

Thanks everyone for the buckets of great ideas!

George

@G3750 posted:

Yikes!  Man, did I start a fire! 

Thanks everyone for the buckets of great ideas!

George

Thanks George.

GREAT thread

John

I also bought a Brother P touch label maker ($12.99 at Staples I think) and it was one of the best purchases I ever made. In addition to wire labels under the layout, I've used it for many different control panel labels, including toggle and rotary switch positions, tower call letters, and location names. In a few places, I also labeled the fascia with a location name. I've also made labels pasted into sections of Plastruct I-beam for on-car tabs for routing of various cuts of cars. Another use is labels of track numbers over red lights that show that a backing train has reached the end of a stub track, mounted at ceiling height above the layout over a 12-track stub yard outside the main train room. I'm on my third reel of label tape and the device has paid for itself many times over. I've likely forgotten a few uses.