Wire Labelling

[RUSSELL]

I am getting materials together to work on wiring. I would like to label each wire at a connection; e.g., "To Ign Key", "To Ign Coil +".

My initial thought was to print these items on paper, wrap around the wire, and cover with clear heat shrink tube.

Does anyone know of a waterproof, durable label that one could just apply like tape?

Has someone been down this road before?

Thanks!!

[edwardc]

At work, we used labels that were printed on heat shrink tubing. They come mounted on a "carrier" that can be put through an ink jet printer. There are others that fit the Dymo or Brother label printers. In either case you can just skip the printer and hand label them with a fine Sharpie. The writing is done at the larger size, and then shrinks to a size that is quite readable, but much smaller than you can hand print.

Here's a couple of links:

http://www.cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink-labels/

http://www.te.com/catalog/labels-identification/cable/menu/en/23686

http://www.amazon.com/DYMO-RhinoPRO-Heat-Shrink-8-inch-18053/dp/B000AN9I6O

[Al Schober]

I like using the labels made by my Brother label printer - the 1/4" size works well. Using shrink tubing to hold them on is best, but you have to put on the label before crimping on the terminal! Anything relying on adhesive has to be considered temporary.

[BunnyPlanet169]

At work, we used labels that were printed on heat shrink tubing. They come mounted on a "carrier" that can be put through an ink jet printer. There are others that fit the Dymo or Brother label printers. In either case you can just skip the printer and hand label them with a fine Sharpie. The writing is done at the larger size, and then shrinks to a size that is quite readable, but much smaller than you can hand print.

Here's a couple of links:

http://www.cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink-labels/

http://www.te.com/catalog/labels-identification/cable/menu/en/23686

http://www.amazon.com/DYMO-RhinoPRO-.../dp/B000AN9I6O

+1. This works well.

[hanleyclifford]

Also try to follow color coding as close as is practical. http://www.defender.com/pdf/abyc-wire-color-chart.pdf

[Tim]

I am going through the same thing with my rebuild. The ideal situation is to use the correct color wires. However, I have had no luck finding marine grade yellow wire with a red stripe or 8 gauge orange wire. Any ideas on where to find the wire?

[hanleyclifford]

I am going through the same thing with my rebuild. The ideal situation is to use the correct color wires. However, I have had no luck finding marine grade yellow wire with a red stripe or 8 gauge orange wire. Any ideas on where to find the wire?

Just call Defender; they will get whatever you require. http://www.defender.com/category.jsp...011&id=2290012

[BunnyPlanet169]

Also try to follow color coding as close as is practical. http://www.defender.com/pdf/abyc-wire-color-chart.pdf

Practical (or practicable) being the operative word. In bulk (>500 feet) you can have a wire house custom stripe and/or mark wire for you.

In our world, a rational approach coupled with a schematic is better than most installations. If you label both ends you're ahead of the pack.

[JOHN COOKSON]

Also try to follow color coding as close as is practical. http://www.defender.com/pdf/abyc-wire-color-chart.pdf

+1 on this.

I color coded my wiring to the original scheme when I rewired. It was a big help keeping all the various wires straight. It helped me follow my original plan to have one solid wire from point A->B with no connectors in between. All end conncetors are soldered and heat shrunk. As you have probably guessed by now I was damm sick and tired of chasing wiring problems so I made sure I wasn't going to have them anymore. I don't.

My engine is under the cockpit. There was a giant coil of a wiring harness attached to the underside of the cockpit above the engine. I had way more than 2X the length of the various colored wires that I needed. After the rewire project I still have 1/2 of a bread bag of marine grade wires left over.

TRUE GRIT

[The Garbone]

I have started to order my wire from genuinedealz.com

Cheesey sounding name but a great source for marine grade wire etc.
The have a nice selection. Also bought some fire retardant loom to make my harness an tinned battery connectors.

[Launchpad McQ]

Russel,

I've been using a Brother P-touch label maker to print the labels, and then covering them with clear heat-shrink with decent results. The challenge has been applying sufficient heat to make the heat shrink react without burning the underlying label and blurring the print. I've been using an Ancor heat gun. It's a delicate operation but I'm patient. On some labels, I've burned 3 or 4 before getting it right. I don't think most people would feel this is a worthy use of time but I'm anal. If you decide to go this route, here's what I learned:

1. After printing, trim down the label with scissors lengthwise and widthwise to the edge of the lettering. It will help the label sit "flat" on the wire (especially small gauge wire) and reduce the label binding under the heat shrink.
2. Buy the largest diameter heat shrink that will shrink to fit. You'll "burn" less underlying labels
3. Buy more heat shrink and printer label tape than you think you'll need. You'll screw up a bunch.
4. The heat shrink is critical. With out it the labels stick to the wire for about 28 seconds.

I get back to the boat tomorrow and I'll post some pics of my progress. In the meantime, here's a couple teasers...
What I started with, courtesy of the PO

First attempt. Hadn't learned #1 yet

P.S. Like Garbone, I've been sourcing most of my electrical wire, heat shrink, terminals etc from Genuinedealz on eBay. So far I've been pleased with them other than the fact that they're frequently sold out of certain things.

[RUSSELL]

I have found a great availability of colors for certain gauges and less for other gauges. E.g., for 8 AWG the only colors I have seen are red, black, yellow, green, and white.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

The "Series Jumper" picture is exactly what I have pictured in my mind.

I don't think this will help that much in doing the work, but will be a biog help if I must return to later.

I have CRS disease (Can't Remember Squat).

[toddster]

Dang, I wish I'd known about the heat shrink labels years ago. Turns out they don't work in my label maker, but it would have been worth buying a new one...

Clear heat shrink is just another thing that can't be had out here in BFE. Can't stop and wait two weeks to order-in every little thing. For better or worse, when wiring the boat, instead of buying many rolls of color-coded wires, I went with big spools of safety-cable. Which does tend to make the wire-races kind of crowded.

Anyway, the method that I learned, somewhere lost in the mists of time, was to cut off a small scrap of the empty (stripped-off) cable sheath, write the label on that with sharpie, and slip it on over the hot wire. It doesn't shrink to fit, but it stays on. And it's free. And there's always a pile of it right there at your feet.

Doesn't Moyer sell an engine wiring harness with the correct colors? I should tackle that end of the system one of these days...

[BunnyPlanet169]

Dang, I wish I'd known about the heat shrink labels years ago. Turns out they don't work in my label maker, but it would have been worth buying a new one...

Clear heat shrink is just another thing that can't be had out here in BFE. Can't stop and wait two weeks to order-in every little thing. For better or worse, when wiring the boat, instead of buying many rolls of color-coded wires, I went with big spools of safety-cable. Which does tend to make the wire-races kind of crowded.

Anyway, the method that I learned, somewhere lost in the mists of time, was to cut off a small scrap of the empty (stripped-off) cable sheath, write the label on that with sharpie, and slip it on over the hot wire. It doesn't shrink to fit, but it stays on. And it's free. And there's always a pile of it right there at your feet.

Doesn't Moyer sell an engine wiring harness with the correct colors? I should tackle that end of the system one of these days...

They do.

http://www.moyermarine.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=OVEL_01_394

[Launchpad McQ]

Not the best pics but you can get the idea. You can see in the pic I haven't "sleeved" the 'To Battery' label yet.