Review – Casio Label-it KL-60

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.

Comparison – Simply Tacky vs. Scotch Mounting Putty

When looking for some sticky tack to put that poster up on the wall without using push-pins, one usually looks for the Scotch brand. After all, they do know how to make things sticky. But one may also find Simply Tacky a (terribly named) product that does the same thing. Is it worth it to search for the right brand?

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To start off with, both items come with very close to the same amount of product. The Scotch packaging is slightly smaller, and more packed with use information and diagrams. Both are cut into four similarly-sized bars. The Scotch is the only one with a weight limit (of 1lb). Both are quite white, and are easy to pull apart and shape to stick onto a surface. Both are very grippy, with the simply tacky being a little more malleable and aggressive. It breaks into pieces more easily, though.

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As for what they can hold I’d say it’s about equal. The Scotch says it’s up to a pound, but they don’t tell you how much product to use. With a tiny, equally-sized bit of each product (weighing less than a gram) I was able to hold 70 grams (2.4 oz) easily, and I’ve held up to half a pound products stably up with enough (It will do up to a pound, but only in certain configurations of putty and object). Putting that same small piece of product up with a 7oz (198g) item, both failed fairly quickly with the Scotch maybe a little faster, but I’d chalk that up to my tests being not completely scientific.

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Overall, I’d say both products are really the same on the user’s end. Their uses are the same, price can be more or less in favor of each brand depending on where one shops, and they hold almost equally well. If you’ve got a choice in the aisle, then I’d say take the cheaper one, but it’s not worth another trip to get the right brand.

Review – Scotch Plastic Tape

Sometimes you don’t want clear tape, whether it’s to obscure, or to label by color, or the transparency just doesn’t matter to you. Scotch has also got you covered in that area with its plastic tapes, so called because they are made out of plastic. The roll I have happens to be red, but they come in all sorts of colors.

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Really this can just be rated by its stickiness, and as such this review will be short. It is suitably sticky, if you have something that needs to be stuck temporarily or is quite light it will get the job done. It is as strong, but less adhesive than, the average electrical tape, though it’s possible it could serve that purpose. What it’s really great for is labeling things. It sticks quite nicely by itself and can be used as a color code or is easily written on with most writing utensils, though it could smear easily. When it comes off it leaves little to no residue, and can potentially be reused, though only a few times.

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It’s a good tape, not a life-depending tape. It does the job of the regular transparent tapes while being less see-through and easier to pull off.

Review – Up&Up Double-Sided Tape

Well, you can call me out of ideas again (but not Shirley). I’m going to be looking at tape. This time it’s the type of tape you never realize how much you need until you get some, and that’s double-sided tape. Specifically, from the brand Up&Up.

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The container is nothing special, it’s thin and plastic-y, but still flexible. The teeth are solid, and do a good job of cutting the tape. Everything is cheap but everything works on it. The tape can also be taken out and used in a different dispenser, though it is slightly thinner than regular Scotch tape and one must be careful to have it not stick to the inside of the dispenser.

The tape itself is good. The sides both stick strongly, and equally so. The tape itself is stronger than the adhesive, so it will come off before breaking. It is fairly pliable but it loses its adherence fast, so nothing that moves a lot, or will be handled, will be stuck for very long with the stuff. But really it’s for posters and scrapbooking, and for that it works superbly. It is quite transparent, but that only really matters if the things you’ll be sticking on both sides are transparent as well.

In the end, it’s good tape. It might be slightly below Scotch tape (in my opinion), but really not enough to tell. For any of its main uses it will serve well, and double-stick tape is really useful.

Review – Scotch Transparent Tape

If reviewing Scotch Tape means I’m out of ideas, then call me out of ideas (I do have plenty more things to look at, though). But really, who doesn’t have a use for tape? And when buying that tape, couldn’t shaving off several pennies save quite a bit of money over time? Is the brand name really worth it (It’s pretty generic-sounding, now, isn’t it)? Let’s see.

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First thing, the container: Scotch Tape comes with a clear plastic, simple, but quite durable dispenser. The roll of tape is clicked into place on the wheel and at the front are several teeth for separating the tape into strips. Is any of this the best quality? No, but it gets the job done, and very cheaply. If one has a tape dispenser that they like, individual rolls can be bought, so I’d say that this works quite well.

Now onto the tape itself, which certainly isn’t “magic” or “invisible”. The stuff I’m looking at is just labeled “transparent”, and that it is. The tape is easy to see through and sufficiently sticky that it will hold most documents together without a problem in either holding or reading. In fact, the tape itself is very strong, and the adhesive is more likely to break than the tape itself (or perhaps what it’s taped to). Given that it does have a certain rigidness to it, though, it isn’t a tape for repairing any item that, like a tool, will be used, or will move. It is surprisingly strong, but really only good for paper products.

Now, is it worth it to buy Scotch Tape and not some other tape? Given how inexpensive Scotch Tape is already, I’d say yes. And if it isn’t right where you’re shopping, I’d even hunt around for it. The two rolls that come in a pack for around a dollar will last for quite some time. And I’ve seen other brands for around the same price that cease to be sticky once they came off the roll. In short, there’s a reason we say “Scotch Tape” and not “transparent adhesive tape”.