Why didn't anyone tell me wiring patchbays is such a pain in the...

Control room shot... Patchbays are to the right...

..The front of the patchbays...

sodderboy said:

I use the Panduit lables that are like a 3" piece of tape.  1" is white and the rest is clear.  I print or write on the white and it wraps around and gets covered with the clear.  

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I've only tried the 3M ones like that that come in a dispenser. No ink known to man sticks to them. Especially the special marker that comes with it. Total crap. Until the $100 Brady type labelers came out it was pretty much the only option besides the super expensive laser portable types.

The Panduit ones that come in sheets are nice, but you need to be well organized to use them. You also need a computer with a laser printer. They ain't cheap either and if you blow a whole sheet it stings.

...those 3m ones are awful. Forget them.

The Panduits can be done by hand OR printed, and a sheet can be fed through mutiple times, so you don't have to lose a whole sheet if something is wrong... and you can hand-write them also.

Keith

Panduit does not have the most descriptive website, but the labels eliminate:
-sharpie on the jackets
-gooey ripped artist tape labels
-old school clear-shrinked brady labels
A good small quantity/ high quality idea is to use Brother or Sharp labels ON the Panduits.
Mike
PS: another good (cheap) trick is to write on pieces of white drinking straw, slit to fit over the cable.  It works great with big mix sessions with rental/ guest gear and you have many I/O's of snakes patching into a bay, and you need to move things around.  eliminates the need for tape flag labels

sodderboy said:

PS: another good (cheap) trick is to write on pieces of white drinking straw, slit to fit over the cable. 

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Nice! Eating lunch can be billed as R&D.

I don't use keefs piece of paper clipped to the patchbay to grade the length of the individual cables. 

I have a plank of wood that is marked for the pitches of various different patchbays & pitches.  I then cable tie the cable bunch to it before cutting to length.  It saves me having to make a new one each time & being rigid I find it easier, to use than a piece of paper.

Here's some of my work !

The paper tape is adhesive Rob, so it's as rigid as my workbench!

-nice work there. -I should dig out some pics of my Capricorn patchbay installation, with 48-pairs exiting from opposing ends...

Then you'll ALL fall to your knees!

Keef

SSLtech said:

Pucho... -For SHAME!

the prep work on that patchstrip would give Carlito a fit...


Keith

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yeah it's not perfect but hey it's still better then most I've seen and if carlito has issues he can wire the dam things himself