As the title says, how should I go about labeling tubes that are losing their markings? Obviously if I have a box that is the best way, but what about the others? Or pulls from a console?
Best way to label tubes
- Thread starter manu et deo
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Chip Chester
Super Member
My first thought would be silver Sharpie, but don't know how well it does with heat. This would be on the base, most likely...
TENER
Well-Known Member
I just use blue painters tape. I write the values on it after testing. Then when I use it I just pull the tape off and clean it. If i stop using it I put a new piece of tape on it. I don't like to write on the tube because values of the tubes change over time. But that is just me 
multichamp12
Well-Known Member
I use tiny little white sticker that you can write on, they stick to the tubes well and come off easy as well.
arts
Addicted Member
They do make hi temperature ''Pro'' Sharpies (500°F),and Dykem (2000°F) makes something similar.
Edit: I use the silver Sharpie for marking layouts on thin stainless steel for fitting/welding,and it seems to survive.Mind you,I'm talking 22 gauge and thinner,with weld currents under 25 Amps.
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arts
Addicted Member
And when you eventually plug the wrong tube into the wrong socket,you will find that the smoke obscures the beauty of the unit in question.
I once inadvertently installed a set of 7027A's into a Fender Twin Reverb, thinking they were 6L6's.Not one of my better moments! I write on everything since then....
I always have some acetone not far away, I use it to dissolve acetate film stock to make film cement, so it's the first solvent I usually grab. I suppose alcohol is a lot more pleasant to work with, it just is stored in a different area of the house. The one thing I don't like about goo gone is it always leaves some oily residue. Not that it would really be an issue on a tube, glass cleaner would take it right off.
I tend to use denatured ethyl alcohol for marker removal for the same reason; more pleasant solvent and it isn't as hard on the fingers as acetone.
It's not like acetone causes extra heads to grow. Although that could be sort of cool and sometimes handy, although it would increase my expenses on hats.
It's not like acetone causes extra heads to grow. Although that could be sort of cool and sometimes handy, although it would increase my expenses on hats.
soundmotor
super modified
+1 on Sharpie.
On tubes I test, I write the results on the glass with one. Works great and easily removed. Does not seem to be affected by heat either.
On tubes I test, I write the results on the glass with one. Works great and easily removed. Does not seem to be affected by heat either.
soundmotor
super modified
Usually the oil on your skin is enough to smudge it off. If not, rubbing alcohol will.
On another slightly different topic, when I do repairs for someone else, I like to put a dab of red nail polish on all the parts which I change, to identify what's been changed. If the tubes are hidden by a cover, I usually mark new tubes with a dab of nail polish on the exhaust tip. I borrowed this practice from what I've seen done by repairmen of old in TVs and radios.
Most markers are a coloring agent—a dye or pigment, in this case carbon black—suspended in a carrier, typically a lightweight solvent of some sort. This is why markers smell like solvent.
The coloring agent is physically adhered, but not chemically bound, to the glass. It is thus easily removed with a finger or cloth.
I believe that practice was done to prevent customers or buyers from substituting the new tubes (or output transformers) with dying or dead ones and returning the unit because repairs were not made or the refurbishment not performed.
That's what I've heard from repair techs for decades.
Buy a repair tech a beer and have one's faith in even the most minimal honesty of humanity utterly destroyed.
