Years back I bought several hundred label tags to mark parts with, on an auction from a dealers parts store, the kind with the small wire ties on them and the manilla label that you can write on, to label the parts, left, right, to pump, to filter, front, back and so fourth, where ever you needed them and for dozens of things, I'm about out now, used them so many times you can't read them anymore or lost them over the years, oil soaked, can't read them, etc. Does anyone have any idea where to find them or buy them, I've looked on ebay and can't find anything large enough to be able to write on, most are jewelers tags, asked locally and they have no idea what I'm wanting, which brings about the next question, what does everyone else use to label things with and where you do get them from, or am I asking for the wrong thing, are they called something different?
This might fit the bill - http://www.staples.com/tags/product_948264_2_-1_10001
Thanks CM, just what I was looking for, I'm actually going by a staples this weekend so I'll stop in and get some.
It was the first place I thought of. I go there to get 24x36" plans printed in their copy center. Most GC's and engineers email the PDF's and I think it's $2 or so a sheet to print them. They carry industrial items too.
You can get freezer tags made from plastic that you write on with whiteboard marker, if you need something more durable. Tagging sure is a good move when you've got a lot of parts items stored around the shop, and you start forgetting what an item belongs to. I'm often working on several projects, and if I run into a major problem, such as an inability to source a part - that job goes on the back-burner, while I go on with another project. Then when I finally get over the stumbling block by finding the part or the solution to the problem, I go back to it. One time, I could remember where everything went and what fitted what, even 6mths later - now I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch yesterday.
Oz, I know what you mean by not remembering and also having things apart for months before getting it back together again, we try to mark everything we can in some way, draw diagrams whenever possible and even have gone to taking pictures in the last few years, my son even goes as far as taking pictures and downloading them onto his laptop computer. I never used to think this was needed, but now, its the first thing I do, for several reasons, first we can zoom in on the picture, second, its usually large enough for me to see what I need to see and lastly, its the nicest thing ever to have dozens of pictures from many angles to go back to along with parts books and service manuals, maybe its because I'm getting older and can't remember anything, or blinder as the years go by, but I'd like to think its because I'm so busy with so many different things, anyone would have problems remembering how they came apart, or better yet, I have so seldom breakdowns on each thing, its decades since I've had them apart to fix. Anyway you look at it, I use a lot of tags to mark parts with, more than I ever did before it seems and I've even gone to putting parts numbers on each thing to match the service manual so I know what goes where when it comes time to reassemble things, especially when it comes to nearly identical looking parts and some time between disassembly and reassembly. A few cents per tag is nothing when it saves time or eases the process somewhat.
Who can remember when Cat used to have nice little aluminum tags on most smaller parts, with the P/N embossed on the tag! That sure was a big help!
I get thin sheet plastic sign material from the hardware store and cut it up in to smaller pieces and use a stationary hole punch to put holes in to it. I use a sharpie to write on to it and use either tie wire or zipties to attach it to my parts. This is durable and I can steam clean parts with the tags on them.
I use telephone wire. If you can get a fat piece about a foot long and cut it open it will give you a lot of different colors to color code your parts. Works very well when removing valves with a lot of hoses on them.