I am asking if any member has had experience using the Brother "P" touch label system. What model(s) would be advisable to purchase?

Need to label plastic tabs for suspension folders, insert labels for parts storage drawers, maybe some old tubes.

Brother site is overwhelming. I do not want a label maker that is bound to the computer for any reason. Brother in their infinite wisdom, included a page of the obsolete models, extensive. Not interested in an obsolete model.

Best,

Chas

we have a PT-2730 here at work, works fine no PC no real issues. Stick cartridge in and go.

I got a used PT-1290 on eBay and it works well; no complaints yet.

I think mine is even older, Model PT-65, works perfect.

I can still buy new label cartridges.

So Brother is providing support as far as consumables for its "obsolete" equipment?

Chas

I bought mine at a Thrift Store some years back, could still get cartridges then.

What annoyed me most is the cartridges are fairly expensive, and the machine wastes an inch of tape at the start and end of every label.

I haven't used it in years since the tape ran out, the batteries are probably dead by now, unless I took them out.

It's easier to just use a Sharpie to label things.

Support as in "User Manuals"?

They have everything here for download, even a help line.

https://www.ptouchdirect.com/brother-pt ... nuals.html

I have the Brother PT-320 which was an early generation P-Writer for the company. Although it does a nice job making labels it has several things that I do not like and if I knew then what I know now I would not have bought it because as time has went on these things seem to get more irritating.

My biggest complaint is the high cost of Brother TZ tapes. I fixed that problem by buying the tapes from an online seller (https://www.ebay.com/usr/labeltape?_trk ... 7675.l2559). The aftermarket versions work just as well and are considerably cheaper.

The display in my early generation PT-320 is a "low-tech" LCD and it's hard to read unless you tilt the
P-Writer to a certain angle. The graphics are similarly hard to read and some of them (particularly the punctuation and symbols) hard to discern. For instance 5 dots represent a plus (+) symbol. On the printed label the plus symbol is solid but when you're setting up a label some of them lead to mistakes and I dislike wasting that expensive tape.

My biggest beef was covered earlier: The P-Writer wastes 1-inch of tape on each side of each label. Good for Brother's business strategy...but a bad ripoff for the user.

When I bought mine I bought all the accessories including the carrying case. Forgive my complaining but the carrying case is a molded plastic affair that easily slides off the desk when opening it. Its design, the glossy plastic obviating any adhesion to a surface and the fact that it is molded but hollow inside causes it to glissade off the desk as you open the lid or remove the P-Writer. As with the tape, all accessories including the wall wart are absurdly expensive.

Set up is somewhat cumbersome with considerable use of altermate keys that must be held down to generate another particular letter, numeral or symbol. And the fact that the keys were made for my hands when I was 5 years old makes fat-fingering a label a constant thing to try to avoid when setting up a label to print..

On the PRO side, the labels look nice and they do not curl over the years as I remembered with the old Dymo tactile-feel labels. The P-Writer is well-made and solid.

If I were buying a new one I would probably look at some of the other brands simply because you never ask a girl out a second time after your first date with her was sort of lousy. When you go to yard sales I seem to see the same printers being sold all the time because people were sucked in by their low purchase price; then later realized the toner cartridges is where the company makes their money. You could say the same thing about Brother and their tape cartridges although the initial outlay isn't cheap either.

I have a hand-held PT-85 that I got some years back.

It uses thermal tape, so no cartridges.

Works great, as do all my other Brother products.
I've been a loyal Brother customers for all of this Century.

- Leigh

I like the p-touch, good choice of labels. EXCEPT, they eat batteries! and its what 6 or 8 AA's
Here is NEW one for $50 with ac adaptor, https://www.amazon.com/Brother-P-touch- ... EQF5WYH7VX

That is exactly what I want to get away from, I can only read, sometimes, my own hand writing. One of the label requirements is a tight space on the label slot for a parts drawer, hundreds of drawers. I find it hard to write 4pt size

My wifes Sanskrit is even worse. She often makes another folder for files because she can't find (read) the one she made a year ago. Documents get lost in two places

By support I mean suppling consumables like the cartridges for "obsolete" models.

I shall keep in mind battery consumption and opt for a power adapter model.

I don't mind the cartridge cost so long as they are available.

I suggested P-touch as that seems to be the name that I see around for "computer" driven labels. Like the old DYMO of years past. I still have a DYMO kicking around but the raised embossing won't allow flush insertion of the label into a Pendaflex plastic folder tab.These are all good points...

Is there another similar printing label maker?

If I can get my wife to imprint the labels and help re-organize the files, I know she will keep them neat.

Everything filed under "A", a letter, a bill, a document

Chas

I bought this PT-D200 unit at least a couple years ago and have used the thing A LOT. Great little machine, lots of different tapes available at decent prices on the bay and other such outlets.

I too got tired of replacing batteries and made a power cable so I can run it off any of the bench supplies.

This is the one I have. Got it for $20 off craigslist. Yes, the tape cartridges are expensive, but I've found them at yard sales and stocked up at a good price.

Thanks to this thread I took a look at mine and found the batteries were leaking, it was the hard white corrosion so no damage to the machine at all.

It's a model PT-1700 and tapes are still available for it, they seem to have pretty good support for older models.

I have several P-touch models. I like the PT-2700 the best because it has many different cartridge size options. Some lower cost models Use only a few cartridge sizes. I’ve found some stores like Office Depot or Staples only stock popular sizes and often run out.With the PT-2700 I can use whatever is available until I can order the desired size. All models work equally well.

I use a P-Touch at work that takes pretty much all the available TZ cartridges.

Has a decent LCD display and does a good job at printing labels.

It can be used stand alone or conencted to the computer, although I find that conencted to the computer is easier for me to use.

I like how the labels once printed have a clear portion over the label which means the print will stay there and won't rub off unless you remove the label itself.

For some things I like the clear labels as it looks like one just put the letters right on the thing the label is on.

What model Brother is this and what is the cartridge part number for the clear overlay label? Are there features only accessible from the computer port?

I did shoot myself in the foot. Can't put a thermal label on a tube that may get even warm

I did hop around the Brother site and found a tool to select the desired printer. So far a $29.99 model but I'm still questioning my choice...

More Please?

Thanks much.

Chas

The model is PT-2700/2710

The clear tape is TZe-151 and is 24mm.

Far as I know all functions are available from the label maker itself.

The computer for me made it easier to type the labels as I then had a full size keyboard versus the small keyboard on the label maker.

I use Black on white, white on black, and clear type for most all of my panels.

that black on clear looks really good, I was wondering about that, thanks for sharing pics.

Joe