Electric Cable Identification

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Pete735

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I have been doing some boat wiring and for the smaller diameter cables I have bought some circular white/numbered cable markers. Slide them on before you do the final crimp - as long as you remember!

I am struggling to find anything at a reasonable price that I can use on battery cables (25sqmm so around 10mm od). How have others done this?

Thanks for any ideas.
 
I use a Brother tape labelling machine. On the first boat I rewired, I stuck the labels around the wire, sticking out like a flag. This was a mistake - after a couple of years they were starting to unstick and come off. On Ariam, I stick the label along the wire and then cover it with transparent heatshrink - this looks very professional and should be almost indestructible.

Pete
 
prv said:
I use a Brother tape labelling machine. On the first boat I rewired, I stuck the labels around the wire, sticking out like a flag. This was a mistake - after a couple of years they were starting to unstick and come off. On Ariam, I stick the label along the wire and then cover it with transparent heatshrink - this looks very professional and should be almost indestructible.

Pete
Click to expand...
+1.
Sometimes just put a bit of coloured heatshrink, it's enough to label a wire as black with red sleeve etc
 
prv said:
I use a Brother tape labelling machine. On the first boat I rewired, I stuck the labels around the wire, sticking out like a flag. This was a mistake - after a couple of years they were starting to unstick and come off. On Ariam, I stick the label along the wire and then cover it with transparent heatshrink - this looks very professional and should be almost indestructible.

Pete
Click to expand...

Jeez and I thought I was OCD! Good tip though but you've probably just doubled the time needed for all my wiring jobs.
 
Hadenough said:
Jeez and I thought I was OCD! Good tip though but you've probably just doubled the time needed for all my wiring jobs.
Click to expand...

+1

But I now have wiring envy. And am tempted to start labelling new cables in this way. Roll on spring when I can banish such thoughts and be envious of other people speed, pointing ability, shallow draft, boat handling etc.
 
prv, I had considered a labeling m/c and using the labels as "flags ", I had not thought of running them along the wire and sealing with heatshrink, that sounds ideal so many thanks.

Can I ask if there is a particular Brother tape m/c to use and without drifting the thread too much, is this the labelling m/c that is talked about on the forum for making labels to use on switch panels?
 
Pete735 said:
I have been doing some boat wiring and for the smaller diameter cables I have bought some circular white/numbered cable markers. Slide them on before you do the final crimp - as long as you remember!

I am struggling to find anything at a reasonable price that I can use on battery cables (25sqmm so around 10mm od). How have others done this?

Thanks for any ideas.
Click to expand...

More OCD envy and jobs for slow days.
 
The Kroy 5100 heat shrink printer which I have used for some time is now down to a price that makes sense for anybody doing any serious amount of cabling, prints directly on to heatshrink.
 
The down side of the Brother and similar label machines is they print using a thermal process. If the cable gets warmed up by the engine or whatever, the label turns totally black!! A bit like putting a hot coffee cup down on the old thermal fax paper!!! Remember that???

It is also not as permanent as you might like.
 
Alpha22 said:
The down side of the Brother and similar label machines is they print using a thermal process. If the cable gets warmed up by the engine or whatever, the label turns totally black!!
Click to expand...

I wondered about that - but remember I'm using what amounts to a small blowtorch to shrink the transparent tubing over the label. No sign of any darkening whatsoever.

Pete
 
Alpha22 said:
The down side of the Brother and similar label machines is they print using a thermal process. If the cable gets warmed up by the engine or whatever, the label turns totally black!! A bit like putting a hot coffee cup down on the old thermal fax paper!!! Remember that???

It is also not as permanent as you might like.
Click to expand...

I think if the label goes black from cable "warming" you have a real problem that you need to know about. Sounds like a good safety measure to me.
 
As always, thanks for the comments and pointing me in the right direction with the Brother kit. The Kroy 5100 is impressive, however I am hoping this will be a "fit and forget" type job, not something I will be doing on a regular basis.
 
The Brother P-Touch labels use a heat transfer process, but it's not like a thermal printer. The "ink" is like an old typewriter ribbon; the heat transfers the ribbon onto the backing tape and a clear layer is glued over the top. The ribbon with the negative of the printing goes into the waste side of the cartridge

(I had to rethread a cartridge where the layers had gotten out of alignment)
 
I use heat shrink cut into ~6 mm lengths. Using the normal resistor code, I use up to 4 such bands. Starting from the cable end, the first band denotes the sourcing breaker, the second the terminal on the patch panel behind the main switchboard, the third any intermediate connector and the last after the destination switch. Heat shrink is very cheap and comes in a large variety of sizes thus accommodating any cable.

OCD yes but it makes cable tracing a doddle.
 
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