Need Ideas On How To Label Binder Spines

One other tip here is that for either the Pledge floor finish or Mod Podge products, if you mess up or don't like the result, spraying warm water on the label to saturate it will re-soften the adhesive after a minute, allowing it to be removed so you can start over. Mod Podge is easier in this respect. Both products have been used for decades in the model railroading hobby.

These are very nice. I use green Scott Specialty labels for my green Scott Specialty binders. There are also maroon Minkus specialty (country) labels which can be used on any album of your choosing, Scott or otherwise. Each of these costs $3 or so.

To get labels to stay put for years, I generally add some of my own glue to the back of the labels -- Gorilla glue, white glue, it's all likely to be better than what's on the label. If a corner starts peeling up, I add a few drops of glue, wipe it clean, and add scotch tape over the offending part to hold it down for a day or two while the glue cures. It's always firmly glued down. There also must be other ways to adhere labels.

An alternative is the Brother P-Touch labeling machine which I think produces very attractive labels on a white background -- with a border, if you want. They may sell colored label tape, as well.

Many vinyl binders have petroleum in the vinyl since that's how it's made. Over time, the oil softens the glue on most labels and they fall off. But I've found the P-Touch labels stay on my vinyl binders (for new stamps and duplicates). I've had some of these labels on the same binder for ten years now with not a single one falling off.

There's always the alternative you sometimes see on albums from ebay and auctions: Grab a big black marker and handwrite something on the spine of the album. Not subtle or elegant, but "STAMPS" tells you what it is, I suppose. I wish some countries had shorter names, though.

Lots of experiments, I hope folks are watchful for ill effects of any out gassing from chemicals which are not archival safe. I certainly hope that anyone who is using vinyl binders is not using polyvinyl chloride plastic (typical referred to as vinyl) binders since these will absolutely damage your stamps by outgassing hydrochloric acid over time.
Paper (like stamps) do not have come into direct contact with something to be damaged from it; pumping acids and other chemicals into atmosphere surrounding the stamps is more than enough to cause damage. (Anyone who has ever tried to remove smoke or other bad smells from an album or stamps is well aware how paper can absorb surrounding atmospheric contaminants.)
Don

I've pretty much gone back to taping paper labels on spines, chiefly because I've found that most albums and their labels are provisional - the binder and its contents change so much over time (sometimes in a short space of time) that my previous efforts on labelling were largely wasted.

Lots of good ideas here, I'll have to experiment with some of them and see which takes my fancy.

This.

I purchased a Brother PT-1880 system for $20 a few years back; no longer made. Works incredibly well and the adhesive holds up.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...abeling.html





The recommended replacement Brother model for the PT-1880 is the PT-D400:

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/PTD400





For tape, I went with the TZ344, which is 18mm wide, reflective gold on black background:

https://www.ptouchdirect.com/ptouch/tze344.html




Example from one of my Palo albums:

revenuecollector, I'm convinced, just ordered one :)

Nice.

"For tape, I went with the TZ344, which is 18mm wide."

Or "0.7 inches"which isn't really 3/4" as they claim, but sort of close. Why oh why do we not just use the metric system in this country? I think it's only us and Burma now. We're such idiots sometimes.