Great printable color coding labels for tools

[gellfex]

I've had these drivers for 3 decades, and once did a paper tape color coding that came off. I printed these, stuck 2 on each tool and wrapped with polyethylene tape. No more scrabbling around for the right driver! 2016 labels for $6 on Amazon. I'm sure I'll find other uses for them, like non color coded nutdrivers, or the little plastic drawers of screws that often get the 8-32s in the 6-32 column, etc.



Yes, I caught the 0.50 typo!

[genea]

Now all you need is color coded socket head screws.

[Paul Alciatore]

Looks good. I hope they stay put.

I have seen color coded sets of sockets and always wondered if there was any standard. I know Xcelite makes nut drivers with color coded handles. IIRC, red is 1/4". But it would be nice if the various manufacturers had gotten together and settled on some standard colors. And perhaps some way of marking English and metric ones.

[lynnl]

A few years back I bought a nice new set of ratcheting box-end/open-end wrenches having both metric and SAE flavors.
I wrapped them with some durable colored tape to enable me to easily distinguish them. ....proved largely an exercise in futility. I can never remember which color is which!

[gellfex]

A few years back I bought a nice new set of ratcheting box-end/open-end wrenches having both metric and SAE flavors.
I wrapped them with some durable colored tape to enable me to easily distinguish them. ....proved largely an exercise in futility. I can never remember which color is which!

Which is why I have the size printed too! Last time I did this I eventually learned the colors, but my brain was younger then...

[gellfex]

Now all you need is color coded socket head screws.

Easier to tell the size of a screw than the size of the driver. But now that you say it, I'm tempted to put a color code sticker on the drawers of cap and set screws that tells me which driver they take.

[Dave C]

gelfex, I've been trying to find these with no luck: 2016 labels for $6 on Amazon. Do you have a link for them?

[gellfex]

gelfex, I've been trying to find these with no luck: 2016 labels for $6 on Amazon. Do you have a link for them?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K8JLOJ8

Another site I frequent does not allow commercial links, I get out of the habit, and don't want to be seen as an Amazon shill!

[Baz]

Look interesting but you are clearly not into electronics or you would have used the resistor colour coding.

[gellfex]

Look interesting but you are clearly not into electronics or you would have used the resistor colour coding.

How would that have worked for fractional sizes? I did a fair bit many years ago but the last time I tried to read a resistor I got pretty befuddled.

[Baz]

For fractional sizes you could just do everything in 64ths with two colours even if it could be reduced. ie mark a half inch as 32. Or have a band like the tolerance on a resistor to tell which denominator is used. Though for some like say 47 would obviously be in 64ths. You could also rely on a bit of common sense as you would have some appreciation of size anyway telling you when something marked as 27 is 27/32 or 27/64.

[Jammer Six]

At one point in my long, storied career, I tried to color code wrenches.

Ended up using tape. On top of the obvious problem, (the tape came off) there are two hidden issues, the standards issues Paul and Linnl alluded to.

With no standards, blue can be half inch in one set and 9/16 in another. This leads to confusion, even without apprentices who need to keep their last name written down.

And the fasteners themselves need to be the same color as their wrenches.

Don't even get me started about remembering the colors.

[Dave94Lightning]

Or you can laser mark all your tools I'm doing this to all my worn out end mills, taps and drill bits.

[gellfex]

Or you can laser mark all your tools

That sure is cool, but I'm pretty sure the gear cost a whole lot more than the $8 cordless micro engraver I bought from harbor freight for the same purpose.

https://www.harborfreight.com/micro-engraver-98227.html

[darryl]

I did a project once (twice actually) where I needed to identify wiring at both ends. Same sort of idea- I used colored stickers and wrote on them, then used clear heat shrink to keep them in place. Not only did that keep the stickers in place, it also kept the sticky goo from oozing out and making a mess.