There was a discussion on a Voron 3d-printer Reddit group about printable heat shrink tubing:
That got me thinking. Has anyone tried writing on white heat shrink tubing with a sharpie (or an “indusrial” sharpie) and heat-shrinking that? The ink should shrink with the plastic like a shrinky-dink right? Being able to do that gives more possibilities (color coded stripes or what not) than just printing letters and numbers.
I’ve tried labeling heat shrink tubing with sharpie once. It didn’t work so well as the ink doesn’t adhere to the smooth rubber very well and tends to rub off. I usually just use my label maker for cable assemblies.
Yes I’ve done it. However over the years the sharpie tends to get harder & harder to read. Additionally you have those who do not have good clean handwriting. I myself may start out great but taper off. I use & ironically just bought another Brady BMP-21 PLUS because I’m actually replacing a 27 year old panel this week. I bought the heat shrink tubing cartridge for it. First time I have used the heat shrink cartridges, I have white & yellow. I do like it. Ive used the standard Brady label maker in the past with good results for marking wire.
I have used the peel & stick where you write on the white then stick it on the wire. It has a layer of clear tape that goes over the top of it. Those work ok.
Used the regular numbers, heatshrink with numbers & a few others. To this day the label maker is the way to go in my opinion. Its worth it if you are re-doing panels.
Heh?
Wow, that M210 is surprisingly affordable.
I have a bunch of this in a few different sizes if anyone needs some. I’ll see if I have a spare box and leave it in the electronics area.
I use fineline black Sharpies and it seems to work fine. I also have some third party heatshrink for Brother TZ labellers that seems to work reasonably well.
Oz
Yes, I’ve Sharpied many a heat shrink, and as others have said, it will wear or fade, depending on its normal environment.
I have found that it’s often best to label it pre-shrink. One tends to need to write whatever it is in a taller font around the circumference, and heavier along the length, (like pavement lettering) as the shrinkage will shorten and narrow the letters/numbers. I also go over it at least twice, because the darker the writing, the more resistant it will be to fade/rub-off.
If I know the cable/connector will be handled sporadically, I will shrink a tube of clear over whichever color I wrote on, adding a bit of protection against wear.
Absolutely. I have some that was done this way in the 90s and it’s still very readable.
I left a strip of precut strips of what I have rolled up in the “cable tie/heatshrink” drawer in the corner of the elab. It’s designed for a Brady printer so it’s more porous than normal heatshrink. I wrote on and partially shrunk the first trip as in example.
I also have a roll of 3rd party Chinese stuff I bought off Amazon that works in my Brother TZ tape printer. Looks good, but I don’t know how it will last. Really handy for cable labelling.
Oz (in DFW)