A look at the wireless, DRM-free Dymo label makers that have been in production since 1958 -- the only kind you can use to make woodgrain labels! #dymo #drm #label
They used to use these lDymo's for labelling control switches in everything from race cars to fighter jets back in the 60's & 70's. Had one myself growing up as a kid.
We had that exact same Dymo label maker (the one in the early part of the video) when I was a kid with the extra wheels as well. I used it a good bit back in the day,
I had a smaller Dymo Junior when I was a kid and I always thought these kinds of label makers were merely a kids product. Cool to know that's how they used to do it way way back! Might pick up my Junior again, haha.
Seeing how Dymo appears to have embraced HP-style consumable management, I almost wonder if the new printer spaces the letters so widely so that the tape is used up sooner, and you have to buy more.
I have literally never seen or remember seeing one of these label makers, but have seen labels made by one and wondered how in the world do people make them. Now that curiosity has been fulfilled and I feel kind of dumb that this didn't click sooner. Nice stuff.
I've seen these at an office, being used, like just a few years ago, as they are so handy (literally) for short runs. It is time we get to to see more mechanical fallback systems. We used to use abacuses in primary school. Now i feel old. No, but seriously, we have become too dependent on electricity and electronics. I just saw a video about automatons of the 19th century and they were incredible pieces of craftsmanship and ingenuity. So let's have some sort ofmechanical backups everywhere in case the serialization and lock outs have gone completely out of hand, or another apocalypse.
One of my first student job was inventory at Sears and they used one for identifying random racking for winter salt and utilities, they had stolen it from the clothing dept in 1978, that was the legend...
They work as a thin coloured film on a white tape. The raised letters are embossed from below. When the tape is stretched by the impression, the colour "dissolves" revealing the white underneath.
It's also one of the first membership store chains -- I believe a lifetime membership still costs only $5 (it was $2 when our family joined in the mid-70s). Much cheaper than Costco, Sam's Club, etc.; the smaller store size and hometown feel make for a more-enjoyable shopping experience according to many customers. There's also Lucky Number Tuesdays -- but that's for a future comment! I don't think the origin of the name "Bi-Mart" was ever publicized. I always thought "Bi" was just a (weird) play on "Buy". Nowadays the store name could be misinterpreted...
@@clydecrashcup2708 In Canada, there used to be a large chain of neighbourhood discount department variety stores call Bi-way. Don't know the origin of the name, but they folded years ago.
@@clydecrashcup2708 Yeah I always go there over Target and Walmart, if I can. Most of the time, they have what I need. Even cheap Mobil-1 and Rotella-T oil, which normally has to be from Walmart. Also seems like the cheapest place to buy car batteries, so both my car and truck have Bi-Mart batteries. Just the most friendly employees, it's like they actually like their jobs! I used to think the name was funny but I guess I quickly got used to it.
What great nostalgia! I got one of these for Christmas in 1965 and I made labels for everything I had. When I took it to school my classmates wanted to put labels on their lunch boxes Sounds pretty square but I miss those simpler times.
@@AltimaNEO Not even really back then, my 6 year-old niece is obsessed with my labelmaker, she'd go through entire spools if I let her. I didn't know these older style ones were so cheap, this actually might make a good gift for spelling practice.
As a kid, my parents labeled everything with a red Rotex labeler. I think they still have it. Nowadays, my parents use a Brother P-touch and I use a Brother industrial label maker. I like that Dymo doesn't need a leader section of label to pull it through, but I'm sticking with Brother because of the aftermarket support.
I have a p-touch as well and just bought a bunch of aftermarket labels. they work just a good and I gone through many reels of cheap labels and have no complaints. I'll definitely have to be wary of DRM whenever I buy anything in the future.
Recently found my late grandfather's old Dymo label maker from probably the 60s. All metal except for the wheel, still has a roll of label tape that is still good and sticky! He passed away in 1996 and I'm not sure when he last used it but I'm willing to bet it was probably last filled sometime in the 1980s.
Dymo still makes the older, beefier design - it's called the Dymo Office Mate II model 1540. They also make a bigger, beefier one that prints on stainless steel labels called the Rhino M1011. I remember my mom having one of these and it sitting in the bin of 'nice' craft supplies that I wasn't supposed to touch without permission, with the metallic paint pens and glitter and such.
Sometimes old is better than new! Especially in this case. Dymo making you have to purchase their own non-third party labels was the worst thing they ever did. I watched the videos Dave Jones made. Great video on tried and true classic technology!
It really is baffling to me that a company with a well known brand name would sell terrible products. But it's probably because they want people to buy there electric printers and lock everyone to their label cartridges. But I for one would not buy another Dymo product if I had bought that new POC.
the brother P-touch is superior compared to the dymo thermoprinters. cheap aftermarket tapes, easy to use and some (maybe all?) desktop ones can run off of batteries too!
You are my hero, I have been advocating for these label makers for years- My personal favorite are the metal chromed 1570 and 1550s they were a fantastic design.
If Clint from LGR sees these woodgrain labels he's gonna want it too and probably will label everything in his house including the woodgrain 486 and perhaps even the labelmaker itself 😅
There was some fantastic technology back then that seems to have been lost forever. I remember incredible devices such as this one that were so advanced that they could work without having to depend on cloud resources and a broadband connection. I also remember we had a toaster that you would just plug in and use without even the need of entering the WiFi password.
I can imagine that the old one could also write Braille if you have the correct wheel And while embossed letters might be touch readable, that requires the blind person to know what written letters -look- feel like
Dymo were big in the UK and my late Dad had loads of these when I was growing up.I remember a very vivid bright orange dispenser. It was poignant when clearing my parents house after they had passed away to find so many things still labelled with dymo tape.
@@cdl0 I had an orange one too. I vanished from my life many years ago but a couple of years ago I bought a fine second hand orange one on ebay. I use it to label my spice and herb jars!
I almost ordered one of the DYMO makers before Christmas and I'm so glad I went with a much cheaper (NO DRM) printer instead after finding out about this mess. Absolutely disgusting to put DRM in fking paper labels.
There are many that's have DRM I have one printer at work and there's service that guy comes once a year and cleans it out for free. Obvious reason obviously you get that face to face time to sell you more goodies 😀 Anyway, I digress. So it had just been cleaned and all of the sudden machine began to make prints somewhat garbled and cutting line was in done in wrong place. I called the guy and told about behavior and he immediately told me that I should replace roll and I was like, but I just changed new in and then the guy sounded absolutely confident and told that very occasionally someone might have received roll with corrupted rfid tag and that's why machine is likely behaving oddly. Tried to change it again and yeah, that was the thing. I never-ending noticed its, but feeling their label carefully I found that they indeed have tags hidden in them. What I really dislike how it's done. I would be ok if computer had just stated that incorrect roll, but that it begins to behave oddly to make it feel like printer or media is faulty. That's shitty thing to do.
These labels are still being used for offices and mailboxes. Because they come in different colors to match the fixtures. They’re simpler to use and cheaper than the computerized labels.
Nice! I can remember that my parents had one (in the 70s or 80s), a blue one and you needed to insert/feed the label at right hand side. It had a gear to transport the label. I always wondered why transparent labels doesn't exists however now I know that stressing plastic turns into white. Yeah that is not usable on a transparent label unless you stick the label on a darker surface. Still a great idea. I think the new one use a bigger spacegap so you run more easily out of label (= to sell more or to buy a better DYMO). The new version is very poor, like many new plastic products. The question is why, why have everything new to be so bad? We don't want quality in our lives anymore? Nice subject anyway, nice video!
Transparent labels for these do exist, though don't think Dymo ever made it themselves. Works great on dark surfaces and still pretty visable on lighter surfaces. Even still somewhat visable on a white surface and works well if you don't want the labels to stick out, though that's part of the charm of these.
I've never used one but it looks like it would feel terrible and all the buttons would be horrible in comparison to a super Nintendo controller. Also in modern times the greatest PC controller is the steam controller. Sadly it's not made any more.
I prefer my Gravis Gamepad over every other PC controller except for the CH Flightstick in flight or driving games. Gravis took the best parts of the SEGA Master System, NES and other controllers of the time, and combined them into a D-pad style controller that was also comfortably usable by left and right handed players by flipping it over and changing a setting to flip the controls so down is now up, and the buttons rotate their positions too. It’s brilliant, comfortable and heavily supported on the software side of DOS and Windows games. A SoundBaster and Gravis combo were high-tech gaming PC necessities in the 90’s.
My (autistic) son was entertained for years of his childhood with a Dymo label maker. He's a young adult now, but we still often see his labels on things: chairs, tables, boxes, books...
We had one of the cast metal label makers when I was a child in the late-1950s. My father worked in the plastics business and was a good friend of Arnold Horowitz, one of the developers of the Dymo Label Maker. They did business together for many years. The secret to how it works is that the label stock is made of stress-whitening vinyl that is manufactured to turn white when embossed. It was my understanding that Arnold helped develop that plastic and/or the manufacturing process. They even made clear label stock that showed white letters on semi-clear plastic as the adhesive prevented it from being totally transparent.
Hah, neat seeing a Bi-Mart price tag all the way in NJ. Bi-Mart is a northwest membership store in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Man, these labelers bring back some memories. I used to make labels for our family's electronics repair shop parts bins, service data binders, etc. I got pretty good at the ol' Dymo. :)
My father has had one for many years, with all different color tapes. I also ran into one at a garage sale many years back, I'll have to dig it out. Clearly, the new one makes the letters spaced farther apart so you end up using more tape for the label than you would have in the past. Besides the fact it doesn't look good (and the embossing is of very poor quality), the reason they did that is so you buy more tapes. Perhaps that's ARM, Analog Rights Management.
I grew up with a few of those over the years from the early 70’s right into the 2000’s. The earliest colors I remember were the avocado green and the orangey-yellow with a few interchangeable discs; I remember the script as well as both directions of text. Absolutely the label standard in the days before the Brother P-Touch style printers. I still prefer the older Dymo units too. A much cleaner embossing and it didn’t flex like it was about to break like the new ones do. I’ve always loved the wood grain labels too. I’m still a fan of wood grain paneling and stained wood doorways and finishing, and these labels just look right in that environment.
@@planetX15 Thermal Labels, unfortunately. But for outside labeling of trunks and circuits the DYMO aluminum embossed tags are still in use in some areas.
I have a Dymo 1570 I got from Goodwill for $6. It's basically the same as the vintage one you showed except it's made out of metal instead of plastic. Naturally it feels extremely high quality and not at all cheap.
I had one of those hand operated embossing dymo label makers and there is a flaw in them. There is a plastic catch that is connected to the trigger and it advances the tape via a small rubber roller and this catch broke off on mine and the tape will no longer advance. I took it apart and the plastic catch had split from stress. The new ones are junk and I will never buy one again but would love to get a vintage one like yours. I have three of the electronic ones. For a moment I thought you were going to write "Subscribe" at the end.
Yep, I've got the same new Dymo (the only difference being the colours are reversed and instead of "3/8" it has "9mm" on the label feed), and it gives the same results as depicted here. If I ever need an embossing label maker again, I'll look on eBay for an old one.
In a previous job in a 80s datacenter, I used a very large one with tape an inch wide, which was used to make the labels for the sides of full-size computer tapes. It sat on a table top and had a large lever you pushed down on with your whole arm.
12:56 - A sound you would never hear on "Calm"... Now do the '80s grocery label gun with the rubber roller wheel. Loved to watch 'em peel 'em off and change the price on more expensive items...
good stuff, and those are indeed old, and have been available at one point or another pretty much the whole western world over (and prolly china and japan too), we have a soviet one lying around at home, for example no wonder, too, given how trivially simple they really are, the only reason it changes color to white, is because of the stress on the plastic, and you can see the same effect on everything else too, such as ripping a plastic bar, or bending something else, if it's clear, then it goes cloudy too, and it always goes whiter, lighter, when deformed (not much when shattered, though) and the label maker itself literally only has to press the glyph through the label, and that's it, lol
I hate the l a r g e spacing of the new dymo. Was very disappointed to see that the demo label on the packaging has narrower spacing but the real thing does not. Is there anything to hack to get the old narrower spacing?
I had a small one of these when I was a kid, and I must have been a really little kid because I used to pretend it was the starship Enterprise and fly it around with my hand. Hey, come on. These things do look a bit like the Enterprise... We had imagination in the 1970s if we didn't have iPhones.
I didn't know vintage label makers had more compact letter spacing. I'm sure it's to make you buy more embossing tape. I feel like looking for older label makers now because the new ones don't look very good.
I remember my dad having one of these mechanical label makers, even in the same greenish color. I can barely fathom the concept of being forced to use an electronic one with DRM.
Ha! These labels are the true classic. M-6 with a daisy wheel, IBM Wheelwiter style... it would probably be something Doc Brown used, haha. I'll try getting the vintage stuff because I saw too many of these modern embossers (model branded as "Omega" here in EU) sold as returns, some of them non-functional. Modern models 1540 and 1610 seem to be based on M-6. I'd try getting a Rotex 880, professional grade and very reassuring. I'd also love to get a Dymo Rhino M1011 someday. The real deal, thing of beauty and joy for ever! Made of die-cast aluminum and capable of working with metal tape labels, but definitely too expensive for my budget.
Not thicker or thinner, width is what you are talking about. And, it is 1/4" or 3/8". About 50 years ago I watched a local librarian making labels and tearing off the small tab at the end and then struggling to peel off the backing. When I attempted to show her how to use the tab to peel off the backing, she blew me off because I was kid and obviously couldn't know something she didn't know.
For some strange reason I was taught to learn cursive in school and I loved it. I can write extremely precise cursive but sadly few people can read it.
That vintage label maker definitely looks like it's worth the $20-30 bucks from ebay. The digital ones may be easier to use, but the batteries and labels aren't cheap.
I recently got an electronic Dymo label maker for about $50, which takes aftermarket labels just fine (the standard D1 cassette). It has a rechargeable battery pack, and allows you to design and print labels on a computer rather than restricting you to the built in tools (it does have a keyboard, and basic formatting tools like bold text and label borders), making it worth the extra price in my opinion.
I think they used this one to make the labels inside the DeLorean for Back To The Future. It seems like engineers today often lack the ability to design things in the real world, so they rather build a computer simulation of it with an analog interface...
My uncle labeled the outlets and switches in his house and other buildings on his farm. I think it was either the amp rating or the circuit number corresponding with the number at the breaker panel. So I did the same for my house. Very useful when doing electrical work to easily know which circuit to turn off. Those labels on outdoor receptacles do endure the elements, years of direct sun and rain, and haven't faded or fallen off yet.
I recall getting an embossing label maker in like 2004 (because I was 9 and wanted to be cool like the older kids who used the heck out of embossed labels for some reason) and, the device didn't feel like a plastic hunk o' shit, but the print quality was god-awful. Like, what I eventually ended up doing was taking the thing apart so I could rewind and take a second pass at labels (I don't know why, I even tried putting all of my weight into pressing the letters on the first pass, but the first pass always came out looking horrid on that thing). I gotta wonder if the older kids got their labelers in the '90s. Of course, when I'm saying "older kids", I'm referring to probably the graduating class of like 2003-2005.
I've had a few of these over the years. I have found the latest ones get jammed very easily. I bought aftermarket cheaper tape and while the tape worked for a while, it was too thick and eventually buggered up the label maker. Had to buy a new one. I hadn't thought about looking for vintage ones so I'll give it a go.
- 1:25 - LGR has entered the chat… 1:33 Pea-green? Clint just exploded. - 2:05 45 years ago, all they could do to prevent using 3rd-part labels was a warning. They're chuffed about modern tech. 😒 - 7:22 _Dymo labels… to stop your brother from stealing your Gravis Gamepad… or not_ 🤷 - 13:03 Doh! That last label was legally obligated to say "SUBSCRIBE". Don't you know how to RU-vid? 🤦 😛
I have one of those vintage Dymo label makers in that same general style, only the body is made of metal with woodgrain applique on the sides. Likewise with the red plastic model, only it's in blue and was sold/branded by Dymo. (They look so similar that I have to wonder if the same company made both.) It would be interesting to know how many of those new ones they sell. I wouldn't think it was a whole lot, especially as poorly as it works.
I have something very similar to this, but it outputs Braille. I’ve had it for many years but I don’t know the manufacturer of the one I have. RNIB still sell one called the ‘Reizen RL-35’ but I don’t know if it’s what I have, or if it looks like the item you’re demoing in this video. Now I’m curious to find out. I haven’t had to use it in years, but it’s still full of tape, and would work as soon as I needed it. Forgot about it until this video.
I wonder how many people were still using a gravis game pad in 2009 when that was copyrighted? (that's the SNES-looking pad on the packaging of the new one) I don't think any of my computers have included a game port in the last decade or more.
I don't know why it says (c) 2009, because i remember my grandma getting me the same one in like 2004. And she also got the rainbow tape. Still have it today.
I love how VWestlife answers to other YT videos ... Labelmaker controversy by Louis Rossmann ... Weird cassette eject mechanism from techmoan .... Thank you for showing us this old-school embossing labelmaker. I didn't know they are still making them today. I will have to get one just for fun.
What this video also proves (without even trying) is the difference between quality Made in USA products, and made in China products. The old Dymo labeler is made in the USA. The new one was made in China.
Yeah, my Dymo embossed label maker is a 70s (maybe 60s? I had assumed 70s) model I inherited from my grandfather - basically identical to yours but it's black with a little bit of chrome trim and cast alloy. Works perfectly!
Show my age - I used these to label my home recorded 8 track tapes. Nowadays I do use a Dymo label printer to make barcode labels. I use refills from ULINE. Shhhhhhh!
There were so many of them, way back. We also had Avery, it did a fine job and Dymo made a small one that sold for a few bucks at Radio Shack. Dymo had the widest variety of products.
I wonder if the poor quality results of the new embossing style label maker are tolerated and perhaps even preferred by DYMO so that people buy one, think "Wow, what a piece of junk," and buy a more expensive electronic one.
That woodgrain label with a price tag from Bi-Mart. It wouldn't surprise me if my local Bi-Mart still has some on their shelves that have been sitting there for 30 years...
That Brings back memories when I was a Kid in Ireland my father had one of these in in drawer in his radio/hobby room in that exact weird pea-green/yellowish colour. I used to pretend it was a sci-fi gun as a Kid.
Unfortunately these plastic labels can't make bar codes. Still good for storage bins though. In fact, thermal labels fade with time. They are really two completely different products with no shared uses.
The sneaky spaced out characters of the newer label maker, is obviously to ensure the label tape runs out sooner - every MM counts in profit to them. I did find the modern one robust enough, for thin plastic, but couldn't compare it to an older model from not owning an older model of the label maker. The newer model needs modded to feed less tape and that'd be a single or 2 fingers up at DYNO!!
