Label Maker

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wolfman56

Senior Member
You can get this one on Ebay for $85 new. It does pretty much everything the expensive ones at the supply house does. It uses a tape you can get at Office Depot, Staples, etc. For a lot less $$ also.

It an obsolete model, but for about $170, you can get the better newest ones also. Check out the Brother website.

Brother P-Touch PT-1400 Label Thermal Printer or like those.

Rick
 

sii

Senior Member
Location
Nebraska
I'm partial to the Brady BMP21, I have two of them. The PermaSleeve heatshrink labels are great if you do a lot of terminal block work. Plus the mgnet on the back is very strong, I usually stick it to the panel beside me and I've never knocked it off.
 

Strathead

Senior Member
Location
Ocala, Florida, USA
Occupation
Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
Regardless, don't worry about which one you buy, worry about the cost of labels. I recently had the 3M rep in the office. He was willing to give us the label makers Pl100 200 or 300 if we bought x number of label rolls. Not an excessive amount either. He knew we would buy more. Check in to it. Those labellers are far more versatile than the cheap Brother ones, since you can make cable labels etc.
 

wolfman56

Senior Member
Strathead

3M tapes and the like cost about four times the Brother TZ tapes and are not as readily available. Why would anyone who only uses a label maker occasionally pay so much to use one?
You make it sound as if the Brother units are cheap junk. They have a full range to choose from. For the amount of labeling I do the PT1400 is perfect for me. It will print on flexible tape designed to wrap wire, it will print rotated for wire, and it will print 1" tape, so the only thing it doesn't print is heat shrink tape. It uses the Brother TZ tapes if you check there is a large of variety of tapes to choose from.

Rick
 

Strathead

Senior Member
Location
Ocala, Florida, USA
Occupation
Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
Strathead

3M tapes and the like cost about four times the Brother TZ tapes and are not as readily available. Why would anyone who only uses a label maker occasionally pay so much to use one?
You make it sound as if the Brother units are cheap junk. They have a full range to choose from. For the amount of labeling I do the PT1400 is perfect for me. It will print on flexible tape designed to wrap wire, it will print rotated for wire, and it will print 1" tape, so the only thing it doesn't print is heat shrink tape. It uses the Brother TZ tapes if you check there is a large of variety of tapes to choose from.

Rick

Your points are not invalid, they are yours after all. There are other functions to the 3M as well, but that is personal choice. The Brother has less functionality and I find the additional functionality of the 3M helpful. I am pretty sure I am not the only one since they sell them all over the place. To each there own.

PS I have 3 Brother TZ labelers
 

Jacob S

Senior Member
Regardless, don't worry about which one you buy, worry about the cost of labels. I recently had the 3M rep in the office. He was willing to give us the label makers Pl100 200 or 300 if we bought x number of label rolls. Not an excessive amount either. He knew we would buy more. Check in to it. Those labellers are far more versatile than the cheap Brother ones, since you can make cable labels etc.

Is there anything different between the 3M printers you have and the Rhino printers by Dymo? The lineup looks exactly the same. Do you know if the tape is compatible between them? I find the Rhino tape to be easy to find and priced reasonably. I own two Rhino 5200 machines and I have used tons of the Flexible Nylon labels for wire labels. Unfortunately, I have had tons of them fail in environments, with very little heat. The glue gets all gooey, and it unravels off the cable. Talk about a pain in the butt. I tried working with their tech department, but they stopped responding to emails. I now use Brady laser printer labels, which are by far the most robust cable labels I have ever used.
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
I've used the P touch labeled for years, and have had good service from them, but as others said, it does have it's limits when labeling cables. Replacement tapes are readily available. I also have the 3M labeled too, but as others have said, tapes are harder to find. I ran out on one job, and found out that the Panduit salesman had talked all of the local supply houses into dropping 3M and going with Panduit. I had to use my backup P touch.
 

Rampage_Rick

Senior Member
I use a Rhino 5000 for most of my work. I believe it's been replaced by the 5200, but I like being able to swap the AA batteries rather than wait for the lithium-ion to recharge. I've looked at the fancy 6000, but I can't really justify buying another machine just for the PC connectivity.

I like the heat-shrink labels for wiring, and I've had decent results with the permanent polyester labels outside. Pretty much all the suppliers around here stock cartridges for Dymo.

Pro tip: You can use Dymo D1 cartridges for light-duty jobs, they're about 1/3 the cost of the Dymo Rhino cartridges. I buy them whenever I see them on sale at Staples.
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
I've got a Brother labeler the shop gave me, it works great except it consistently wastes about an 1" of label at the beginning of every label. I called customer service and this isn't a fluke, it's just how the labeler operates. We had a Dimo similar to this that everyone used before we each got our own that worked great and didn't waste any label.
 

chris kennedy

Senior Member
Location
Miami Fla.
Occupation
60 yr old tool twisting electrician
I've got a Brother labeler the shop gave me, it works great except it consistently wastes about an 1" of label at the beginning of every label.

I have gotten into the habit of printing many at one time with double space between. Cut the with sissors, less waste.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Is there anything different between the 3M printers you have and the Rhino printers by Dymo? The lineup looks exactly the same. Do you know if the tape is compatible between them? I find the Rhino tape to be easy to find and priced reasonably. I own two Rhino 5200 machines and I have used tons of the Flexible Nylon labels for wire labels. Unfortunately, I have had tons of them fail in environments, with very little heat. The glue gets all gooey, and it unravels off the cable. Talk about a pain in the butt. I tried working with their tech department, but they stopped responding to emails. I now use Brady laser printer labels, which are by far the most robust cable labels I have ever used.

my experience has been that brady labels are much more durable than anything else....

the 3m printers are made by dymo, which i find odd for something from 3m. their stuff
is usually the best in it's class that you can find.

i've got three brady labelers.... and the labels are pricy, but they don't fade, don't come off, etc.
 

Speshulk

Senior Member
Location
NY
I tried a couple labelers and had problems with batteries being dead and cold weather effects when they were left in the truck in winter. I bought one of those cheap ones made by Dymo that look sorta like a gun with the disk of letters that you rotate. It's old school and a little clumsy, but it's inexpensive.
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I've had a couple, have one right now buried in the truck.

For normal panel or cover labels, a basic style from Staples or Office Max is fine. If I did lots of commercial/industrial work I would get 3M or Brady, that can label cables, terminal blocks, etc.

Yes, note the price/availability of the tape when buying the gun.

Supply houses sometimes have a 3M roll of tape with a marker. I tried that, was no good at all. Better luck with a marker directly on surface.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Regardless, don't worry about which one you buy, worry about the cost of labels. I recently had the 3M rep in the office. He was willing to give us the label makers Pl100 200 or 300 if we bought x number of label rolls. Not an excessive amount either. He knew we would buy more. Check in to it. Those labellers are far more versatile than the cheap Brother ones, since you can make cable labels etc.

as i said earlier, the brady idxpert labels are very high quality.... and very high price.

i have two idxperts, and now both of them are broken... and there is a trade across with the 3M
P300.. give them a qualified product from the competition, working or not, and buy ten tapes,
and the thing is yours.

anyone using the 3M P300 labeler, and how's it working for you? i'm gonna trade one of these
brady's in for a P300....
 
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