On Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 12:49:36 PM UTC-5, Electric Comet wrote:
may be shipping a piece that will require assembly as some parts are
too long to ship economically


have seen very very thin plastic sheets used for labeling parts where
they adhere only thru static forces or van der waals

but mostly that was for flat pieces


tape is too messy and post it notes fall off


this is not something i have had to do or thought much about


looking for cheap and reliable solutions
that would mean they stay on in shipping and unpacking and can be
easily removed once assembled


i imagine ikea probably has a large team that does nothing but figure
out how to make fool proof assembly instructions but even then there
are assemblers that will do it for you

Who is it for? A customer who will consider your work to be shoddy if the
"tape is too messy" or friend/family member will just put it together and never
even think about the quality of the labeling?

Try blue painters tape, neatly affixed. Either tape on printed labels or use a Sharpie
directly on the tape.

A few years back I sent my daughter back to college with a full size bed that I built for her.
The design requirements were that it was tall enough that those 18 gallon totes could
be stored underneath, but more importantly it had to be in small enough pieces that she
fit it all in the back of her station wagon, carry the pieces into her house by herself and then
assemble it.

I numbered each piece in an inconspicuous spot with a sharpie and took pictures of the bed
as I assembled it. I then put the pictures in a PowerPoint document and added step-by-step
text instructions.

She's moved the bed 3 times since I built it and has never had any trouble taking it apart
or putting it back together because she has the "illustrated instruction manual."