"Don Y" wrote in message
...
On 9/2/2015 5:31 PM, Robert Green wrote:

Who here hasn't had a problem fishing a long cord from an equipment
stack like that? Or unplugged the wrong item? I try to label cords at
the
plug end just to be sure.

I bought a cheap P-touch label maker for that. The labels are "printed"
on ~1/2 wide vinyl (?) tape. I lay the label *along* the cord (power
cord, CAT5 cable, etc.). The 1/2" height of the label is not enough
to make it's way all the way around the cable (just *barely* makes
it around a CAT5 patch cord) so would easily fall off or be peeled off
when pulling cables.

I bought a few when they were selling as refurbs for less that $20 for the
full keyboard model that connects to a PC. I guess it's like King Gillette:
give away the razors to sell the blades (or in this case, blank label tape).

So, I use 2" wide cellophane packing tape cut to the length of the label
plus half an inch or so. Then, wrap it *around* the cable and label
to effectively protect and secure the label.

I've discovered that trick too because without it the labels flex off after
a period of time. Dymo makes a tape with a very aggressive glue but it's
very expensive and hard to remove when you want to. The clear tape overlay
makes removing old labels easy.

This part of the cable is then slightly less flexible but not badly.

I also use 1' mini-extension cords for things like plugging six "wall
warts"
into a powerstrip. The short extensions eliminate the problem with
power
adapters that cover one or more of the adjacent outlets. I use velcro
to
keep the power adapters attached to the piece of scrap shelving that I
attached the power strip to so that it's a little neater. They really
make
a difference if you've got a lot of wall-warts (like my charging station
that now has a record 37 chargers of different types. Really, chargers
for
cell phones, garden equipment, tools, batteries, shavers, kitchen gear,
laptops, PDAs, MP3 players, portable vacs, cameras, etc.) I, for one,
am
glad that the EU led the way in forcing phone makers (at least) to
standardize on the USB charging plug. I bought a universal solar
charger
for cell phones that came with 21 different adapters!!!!!!

These folks make a nice outlet strip for wall warts:
http://www.amazon.com/Furman-PLUGLOCK-5-Feet-Metal-Strip/dp/B001OMGZLQ
but it is insanely expensive!

Check out a similar item at Harbor Freight. About $20 for a 4 foot black
anodized strip with 12 outlets.

Lowe's has some that are suitable but, in my case, a bit too long.
As most of the guts were of molded plastic, I couldn't even cut it
down to size!

I've resigned myself to fabricating something. One of my workstations
has more than a dozen wall warts and I'd like to be able to switch them
individually on/off without having to unplug (or, unplug).

That gets to be expensive. I have an old power strip that has individually
switched outlets I got at a thrift store for a few bucks but that probably
cost well over $100 when new.

Thankfully (?), many of my devices use enough power to warrant *bricks*
instead of wall warts.

It used to be that bricks came with removable D cords to make replacing them
somewhat easier but I haven't seen one like that in a while. Must be a cost
thing.

--
Bobby G.