Cable Tags/Cable labels

Thu Dec 13 10:19:13 PST 2001

> Riddle me this, O SysAdmin collegues:
> 
> How and what do you use to tag and/or label cables?

I have a dymo (p-touch style, not medium-hard-plastic style) labeller
which I use to generate "tabs".

     |_ p-link 6 feet - HGS ____________ p-link 6 feet - HGS _|

then I wrap the middle around the cord and seal the tape to itself.
To distinguish items further I have multiple colors or can use diskette
labels the same way (which are fatter, and I can write on 'em)

If I need thin ones I can write on I have a plain-paper cartridge for
the dymo.

If I just need to mark a long cord so it can be distinguished through
a maze of twisty cables (mostly alike), I band it like archery arrows,
about one "marking" every 1.5 to 2 feet.  For those not familiar with
archery, this is a simple pattern of 1, 2 or 3 stripes wrapped around
the top of the shaft of an arrow, so if a batch of you are all aiming 
down the same range, when the "clear" is called everyone is retrieving
-their- arrows.

I've found that the stickiness of the dymo tape is iffy if the tape is
too short, so I sometimes support it with a short strip of clear packing 
tape, which sticks to standard cat5, itself, and dymo-labels just fine.

> I just visited Fry's and Action Computer Surplus here in Sunnyvale
> to no avail.  What I'd really like are plastic tags with a tie-wrap
> front end which you can write on with a (low-tech) Sharpie or 
> one of those Brother labelmaker thingees.
>
> So.  Where I can buy these things or, what's a better way to solve
> this problem?

There are labels made for diskette with a surface such that they can 
be written on with wet-erase whiteboard pens.  I think the pack Jim and
I got ages ago came with one thin pen for the purpose, but at any rate
it's possible to buy packs of the thing version of such pens.  And of 
course you can always write on them with sharpies anyway.  The surface
is some sort of plastic and survives well.

If you can get the tie tabs you like but without a writable surface, affix 
any of the above mentioned label types to the tab portion.

You could also try bread tabs; though not much space is left to mark on,
the tiewrap space is about the right size for standard cat5.  I mean the
little sqwarish things, not twist-ties.

Phone cable folks seem to favor little paper tabs with a string loop, which
they half hitch over whatever point needs labelling.

> TIA,
> Mark

Yw,oc.

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         star at starshine.org
--->*<--- Starshine Technical Services - * - consulting at starshine.org
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