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Review – Casio Label-it KL-60

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What? How can I review a label maker? It makes labels. If it doesn’t, it’s not a good one, right? Pretty much. And with that being said, let’s take a quick look at the Casio Label-It KL-60 label maker.

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The device itself is a relatively small, but certainly not pocket-sized, boxy shape. But it’s that rounded off type of boxy that makes it hard to store in many places. The keyboard is scrunched in the center of the device with a lot of room around it that I think would have been better used by a larger keyboard. The screen also has conspicuously little space. It’s one of the tiny, split-pixel LCD screens that aren’t very good but will generally last forever. It only displays about 4 characters at a time but it gets the job done. The very prominent cutter button is easy to find and depress, as well.

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Batteries and tapes go in the back. The batteries last for a while, but not too long, and the tapes are fairly easy to install, though I would recommend using the instructions. The keyboard is hard to use because of its size, but everything is clearly labeled. And the UI, while confusing on first use, gets easier to understand when one understands the limits of the hardware. The character selection is nice and the screen is easy to read. Printing and peeling the labels takes longer than I would like it to, but I think that’s just larger printers giving me unrealistic expectations. The device comes with a black-on-clear tape, which sticks to a lot of things but not nearly as many things as the black-on-white tape, for some reason, and that’s the style I would recommend. The letters are blocky but readable and small enough that at average reading distance they don’t look unattractive.

Is it a good labeler? Yes. It works. It has a few quirks but it gets the job done and if one wants an easy way to label many (not slick) items I’d recommend one over a printer. It has the same limitation most other labelmakers do, with maybe a bit more restrictions in the font category, but it’s much quicker and more fun to use. If you have a lot of things to label I’d look into this or a similar model to get it done. They’re less gimmicky than they look.

Review – Velcro One-Wrap Ties

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Velcro makes useful products. Well, variations on the same useful products. And it being so popular that its name has become the word for hook-and-loop attachment systems is a testament to this. And I’m glad that they have many different products to meet many differing needs. When I was looking to secure something to my backpack shoulder strap I found the Velcro One-Wrap Ties and thought “That’s what I need”.

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Now I know that a cut-up regular strip of Velcro could do the same thing, but with the simple attachment system built right, in these strips are very handy in a variety of situations with no customization needed. They are the non-industrial Velcro variety, so they aren’t the absolute best at holding together, but they do a pretty good job. The attachment system is essentially a wider end with a slot that you feed a smaller end through. This is the same principle that a lot of cable ties use, but these are reusable, and more comfortable to use than those are.

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They come mainly in multi-colored packs, which I’m not a fan of but can deal with, and for most people that will aid in the organization of the cords they’re storing organizing with them. But I have a bit of a different use. I use mine to secure a pouch holding a canister of pepper spray to my backpack, and one looped through a belt-loop and onto itself to hold a flashlight to a waist-pack camera bag. Both of these tasks are much more difficult than the pen- and cable-corralling the packaging suggests the use is. And the strips have held up quite well. They are more secure than my previous Velcro cut-to-size straps, and only loosen after fiddling around with them for quite some time. I have yet to have one fall off, and have only had to adjust them once in several months of use.

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So there’s one more use to add to an already useful and “fairly” inexpensive product. For their intended purpose they work well, and can even take on a few more difficult tasks along the way.