Tag you're it! How I spent labor day cleaning the shop

So anyone that has been to my shop (OK, Jen's shop) has seen what a disaster area we have behind the printers full of rolls and rolls of media that have no easy way to tell what they are. Jen has asked me many times to sort through it and figure out what we have and make an easier way to keep track of it all. I finally had a little free time and tackled the job and thought that I would share some of the ideas I came up with. 

First there were way too many partial rolls and sample rolls of media that were so old I feared that they would not work anymore. Some quick testing of the adhesive and I was able to chuck any that were too far gone to meet basic standards for jobs. The easy way to tell on sign vinyl is if it is calendared and you can see it retracting from the edges, it is probably bad and then there was the layer of dust that was all over them too. For heat applied medias, I tried a couple out and based the rest on how long I know we have had them. Anything over a year was suspect and got sent away. 

Once I had things cleared out a bit, then I had to come up with a way to label everything and make it easy to find for anyone in the shop. I had seen somewhere online that a vendor was selling cards that go into the tubes with a bigger area at the top that rests on the tube where you can write what the media is and when it was received etc. Not wanting to pay for a bunch of index cards that I was pretty sure I could make, I cut one by hand until I had some good dimensions that fit into the tube and still left a portion big enough to write the information I needed on it. Being a bit of an over engineer, I then went to Corel and created a template that I could run in my laser and cut a bunch of 3 x 5 index cards quickly. I know that not everyone has a laser engraver but I am a bit of a geek and if you have the toys, use them! 

Once I had a bunch of them cut and ready to go it was just a simple process of getting the rolls on the stand in some order of how they would be used and then placing the cards in the tubes to identify each one. I have added some photos so you can see the results along with the laser pictures and a cut file for those that have a laser so you can cut them also. If you have another way to cut the cards, let me know and I will be sure to post it here as well for everyone. Jen was much happier with the organized area and it was amazing to see how much more room we had. Hopefully it will stay clean and neat!