Hey everyone, welcome back to My Weird Prompts. I am Corn, and I am joined as always by my brother.
Herman Poppleberry at your service. And man, Corn, before we even get into the prompt today, can we just talk about the air outside our window right now?
It is unbelievable. Our housemate Daniel mentioned it in the prompt he sent over, and he was not kidding. For those of you not in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv right now, we are basically living inside a giant orange cloud of dust.
It is a massive sandstorm mixed with high pollution levels. I was looking at the air quality index earlier today and Tel Aviv was ranking number three in the world for worst air quality. Jerusalem was not far behind at number thirteen. When Daniel said you could feel the grit in your throat, he was being literal. I had to seal the windows with painters tape this morning just to keep the fine dust out of my office.
It is definitely a stay-inside-and-record-a-podcast kind of day. Speaking of Daniel, he sent us a really interesting challenge. He is deep into this home inventory project using a system called Homebox. He is trying to assign unique four-digit asset IDs to all his tech gear, but he is running into a physical limitation.
Right, the tiny stuff. It is easy to slap a near field communication tag or a large high definition quick response code on a computer tower or a monitor. But what do you do with a headset, a mounting bracket, or a specialized cable?
Exactly. He is looking for a way to mark these small items with those four-digit IDs in a way that looks professional, stays permanent, and—this is the crucial part for him—is safe for someone with asthma to use indoors. He wants to avoid nasty fumes or fine particulates that could trigger a reaction.
This is such a classic organization nerd problem, and I love it. I have actually been researching marking technologies for my own lab equipment recently, so I have a few ideas that range from low-tech precision to some pretty serious hardware.
Well, let us start with the most accessible option. If he is just trying to write four digits on a small surface, why not just use a really high-quality pen? Most people think of a standard permanent marker, but those are usually too blunt, right?
Exactly. Your standard Sharpie has a tip that is way too thick for a four-digit number on, say, the connector of a lightning cable. If you want that professional look, you need to look at industrial-grade micro-tip markers. There is a brand called Sakura that makes the Pigma Micron pens. They use archival-quality pigment ink that is incredibly fade-resistant and chemically stable.
Are those permanent on plastic and metal, though? I thought those were mostly for paper and drafting.
That is the catch. On non-porous surfaces like smooth plastic or metal, the standard Micron ink can smudge if it is handled a lot. However, they make a version called the Identipen which has a dual tip—one tough fiber tip for everyday use and an extra-fine plastic tip for detail work. The ink is specifically formulated to stick to metal and glass.
And what about the asthma concern? Does that ink off-gas anything significant?
That is the beauty of pigment-based pens versus solvent-based markers. Standard permanent markers use alcohols or xylenes to keep the ink liquid, and those are exactly what you want to avoid if you have sensitive lungs. The Sakura pens are labeled as non-toxic and generally have almost zero noticeable odor. For Daniel, this would be the safest entry point.
Okay, but let us say he wants it to look a bit more permanent. Like, etched into the material. Because ink, even good ink, can eventually wear off if it is on a pair of headphones that he is putting on and taking off every day.
You are moving into the realm of physical marking, which is where it gets fun but also where we have to be careful with the asthma requirements. The most common tool for this is a vibrating electric engraver. You have probably seen the ones made by Dremel, like the Model two hundred and ninety. They have a tungsten carbide or diamond tip that basically hammers into the surface.
I have used those. They are loud, and they tend to jump around. It is really hard to make a four-digit number look professional with one of those unless you have the hands of a surgeon. Plus, do they not create a lot of fine plastic or metal dust?
They absolutely do. If you are engraving plastic, you are creating micro-particulates. For someone with asthma, that is a big red flag. You would need a vacuum hose right next to the tip to catch that dust, and even then, it is not ideal for indoor use in a small apartment.
So what is the alternative for physical etching? Is there a way to do it without the dust?
There is a very old-school tool called a diamond-tipped scriber. It looks like a heavy-duty mechanical pencil, but the tip is a tiny, sharp industrial diamond. Instead of vibrating or spinning, you just use it like a pen to scratch the surface. Because you are just displacing a tiny amount of material rather than grinding it away, there is almost zero airborne dust.
That sounds much better for the asthma side of things. But can you actually make it look good? I feel like my handwriting with a scratchy needle would look like a kindergartner's drawing.
The secret to professional hand-etching is using a stencil. You can buy small brass or stainless steel stencils with numbers that are only three or four millimeters tall. You tape the stencil down to the asset, use the diamond scriber to trace the number, and then—here is the pro tip—you ink the engraving.
Explain that. How do you ink an engraving?
You take a high-contrast paint pen, like a white or silver oil-based marker, and you slather it over the scratched-in numbers. Then, before the paint dries, you quickly wipe the surface with a lint-free cloth. The paint stays inside the deep scratches of the engraving but is wiped off the smooth surface around it. It makes the numbers pop and look like they were factory-printed.
That is a great technique. It gives you the permanence of the etch with the legibility of the ink. And since you are only using a tiny bit of paint and not spraying anything, it should be fine for Daniel's lungs.
Exactly. And if he wants to go even more high-tech, we have to talk about the elephant in the room for modern makers: the portable laser engraver.
I was waiting for you to bring that up. I know you have been eyeing those. But is a laser not basically a fume factory? You are literally vaporizing plastic.
You are, and that is why we have to be extremely specific about the setup. There are these new consumer-grade lasers like the LaserPecker four or the xTool units. They are small enough to sit on a desk. They can engrave four-digit codes onto plastic, leather, and even some metals with incredible precision. The numbers would look absolutely perfect, like they were meant to be there.
But for an asthmatic? That sounds like a disaster if you are doing it in a Jerusalem apartment with the windows closed because of a sandstorm.
It would be a disaster if you did it open air. But the industry has responded to this. Most of these companies now sell what they call smoke purifiers or fume extractors. It is basically a sealed box that the laser sits inside, connected by a hose to a multi-stage high efficiency particulate air and charcoal filter.
How effective are those? Because mostly filtered is not good enough when your lungs are reactive.
The high-end ones are actually quite impressive. They are designed for jewelry shops and dental labs where they cannot have fumes. But here is the catch: a good laser plus a truly effective medical-grade fume extractor is going to cost you anywhere from five hundred to a thousand dollars. That is a lot of money to spend just to put IDs on your cables.
Yeah, that might be overkill for a home inventory system, even one as thorough as Daniel's. Plus, there is the risk of damaging the tech. If you are lasering a thin cable, you might just cut right through the insulation if you do not have the power settings dialed in perfectly.
That is a very real danger. Lasers and thin wires do not mix well without a lot of testing. Honestly, for the professional look on a budget, I have another suggestion that is a bit of a hybrid. Have you ever heard of a heat-stamping pen?
Is that like a wood-burning tool?
Similar, but much more refined. It is often called a foil quill. It is a heated tip that you use with a special heat-activated metallic foil. You place the foil over the item, write your four digits with the heated pen, and the heat bonds the gold or silver foil into the surface of the plastic.
Oh, I have seen those used for leather-working and book-binding. Would that work on a plastic headset or a camera mount?
It works surprisingly well on most hard plastics. It actually indents the plastic slightly while depositing the foil, so it is very durable. And because you are not vaporizing the material—just softening it—the fume level is incredibly low. It is much safer than a laser and much more pro looking than just a Sharpie.
That sounds like a really solid middle ground. But let us go back to the professional aspect. Daniel mentioned that a lot of these items are black, which most tech gear is. Writing with a black pen is useless. What is the best way to get a clean, white or silver mark that will not look like a messy scrawl?
For black tech gear, I have a very specific recommendation: the Molotow Liquid Chrome marker. It is a pump-action marker from Germany that uses a special pigment that actually levels out as it dries to create a mirror-like finish.
I have seen those! They look like actual liquid metal.
They are stunning. If Daniel uses a zero point five millimeter Liquid Chrome marker to write his four digits, it looks like the numbers were inlaid with silver. It is much more legible than white paint on black plastic. And again, once it is dry, it is very robust. If he wants to make it extra permanent, he can let the chrome dry for twenty-four hours and then put a tiny dab of clear ultraviolet-cure resin over the top.
Wait, let us talk about that. UV resin. That is another thing that can have a strong smell. Is that safe for him?
Most standard hobby resins do have an odor. But there are specifically formulated low-odor or volatile organic compound-free versions used in fly-tying for fishing, like the ones from Solarez. You just put a tiny drop on the number, hit it with an ultraviolet flashlight for ten seconds, and it turns into a hard, clear plastic dome. It protects the number forever, and because it is such a tiny amount, the exposure is negligible.
So, if we are looking at this from a systemic perspective, Daniel has hundreds of items. He is using Homebox. He needs to do this efficiently. If you were in his shoes, Herman, what would be your workflow for an inventory Sunday?
Okay, here is the Herman Poppleberry Gold Standard workflow for home asset tagging. Step one: clean the surface with a quick wipe of isopropyl alcohol. This is vital because tech gear accumulates skin oils that prevent ink or foil from sticking.
Just a small amount of alcohol though, right? Do not want those fumes hanging around.
Right, just a pre-moistened tech wipe is fine. Step two: I would go with the diamond scriber and a small metal stencil. I would lightly etch the four digits. This gives you that property of permanence that cannot be rubbed off. Step three: I would use the Molotow Liquid Chrome to fill in the etching. Step four: wipe away the excess.
That sounds like it would look incredibly sharp. Like a high-end piece of industrial equipment.
It really does. And the best part is, you can do this for about thirty dollars worth of tools. A diamond scribe is ten bucks, a stencil set is ten bucks, and the marker is ten bucks. No fumes, no dust, no asthma triggers, and it works on everything from a tiny universal serial bus adapter to a large monitor arm.
What about cables, though? You cannot really etch a flexible cable jacket. The diamond tip would just tear the rubber or silicone.
Cables are the final boss of home inventory. For those, etching is out. For cables, I actually recommend a different approach. Instead of trying to write on the cable itself, you use heat shrink tubing.
Oh, I love heat shrink. It is so satisfying to watch it contract.
It is! You can buy white or yellow heat shrink tubing. You write the asset ID on the tube while it is flat, using that Pigma Micron pen we talked about. Then you slide it over the end of the cable and shrink it down with a heat gun.
But wait—asthma check. Heat guns and burning plastic.
Good catch. You do not want to burn the plastic. If you use a proper heat gun on a low setting, or even a high-powered hair dryer, you are not reaching the combustion point. You are just shrinking the polyolefin. However, if Daniel is very sensitive, he can actually buy shrink-free cable ID tags that just clip on. But they are bulkier and do not look as pro.
I actually think the heat shrink idea is the most professional-looking for cables. It looks like a factory-made strain relief. If he does it near an open window—well, maybe not today with the sandstorm—but on a normal day, the off-gassing from shrinking a tiny piece of tubing is very minimal.
Another option for cables, if he wants to avoid heat entirely, is self-laminating cable labels. You can buy them in sheets. You write the number on a white part, and then a clear tail wraps around and covers the writing. It protects the ink from your fingers.
That is practical, but does it fit the My Weird Prompts aesthetic of being a bit more... elegant?
Probably not. It looks a bit like an office supply closet. If he wants elegant, he goes with the chrome ink and the UV resin dome. Even on a cable connector, that would look like a little jewel.
I like that. It turns a chore into a bit of a craft. Now, let us think about the second-order effects here. Daniel is putting these IDs on everything. What happens when he wants to sell something? If I go to buy a used headset and it has Asset five thousand one hundred and one etched into the side, I might think twice.
That is a very important point. Permanence is a double-edged sword. If you etch into the plastic, you are technically damaging the item. For high-value items like a nice pair of headphones or a camera, I would suggest etching in a hidden place. Inside the headband, or behind a removable faceplate.
Or stick to the chrome marker without the etching. Most permanent markers can actually be removed from smooth plastic using a bit of high-concentration isopropyl alcohol or a magic eraser sponge.
Exactly. So if he wants to preserve resale value, he should stick to the high-quality pigment pens or the chrome markers. Save the diamond etching for the stuff that is never leaving the house—the mounting brackets, the power bricks, the internal components.
It is funny how we have gone from how do I write a number to what is the long-term value of a marked asset. But that is the level of detail Daniel is looking for. He is building a system that is supposed to last for years.
And that is the key. A system is only as good as its weakest link. If the numbers rub off in six months, the whole database in Homebox becomes useless because you cannot link the physical object back to the digital entry. That is why I am so adamant about the ink and etch or the ink and resin approach.
You know, we should probably mention that for the really, really tiny stuff—like those tiny micro-secure digital card cases or specialized adapters—there is actually another old-school tool that might be the best fit. Have you ever seen a jewelry tag or a micro-dot?
I know what you are talking about. It is basically a tiny, tiny adhesive dot, sometimes only a few millimeters wide. You can actually get them pre-printed with numbers.
Right! Instead of trying to write on the object, you buy a sheet of pre-printed numbers from zero zero zero one to one thousand. They are made of polyester or polyimide, which is very tough. You just peel one off with tweezers, stick it on, and then maybe put a tiny bit of that UV resin over it.
That is actually incredibly efficient. It removes the bad handwriting variable entirely. And since the labels are pre-printed, there are zero fumes, zero ink, and zero dust. It is the most asthma-friendly version of this entire project.
Where do you even find those? Are they specialized for labs?
You can find them on sites that sell supplies for electronics manufacturing or pharmacy inventory. They are often called component labels or high-temperature asset tags. They are designed to survive the heat of a soldering oven, so they will definitely survive sitting in a drawer in Jerusalem.
I think we have given him a pretty good menu of options here. From the low-cost Pigma Micron pens to the pro diamond-etched chrome look, and finally the pre-printed micro-labels.
I really hope this helps him out. There is something so satisfying about a well-organized home. Especially when you live in a place where the outside world can feel a bit chaotic—like today with the orange sky and the grit in the air. Having your internal world, your tech ecosystem, perfectly labeled and accounted for... it is a nice feeling of control.
I totally agree. And hey, for everyone else listening, if you are feeling inspired to start your own home inventory, or if you have a better way to mark tiny items, we would love to hear about it. This is exactly the kind of niche but deep topic we love exploring.
Absolutely. And if you have been enjoying the show, we would really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your podcast app or over on Spotify. It genuinely helps other people find us, and it keeps the show growing.
It really does make a difference. We are at episode six hundred and thirty-one now, and it is the community feedback that keeps us going.
Totally. So, Daniel, good luck with the Homebox system. Let us know which method you pick. I am personally rooting for the diamond scribe and chrome ink—it just sounds so cool.
Of course you are. You just want an excuse to play with a diamond-tipped tool.
Can you blame me? It is a diamond on a stick, Corn. It is objectively cool.
Fair point. Alright, I think that wraps up our discussion on the art and science of asset marking.
Stay safe out there, everyone. Keep your windows closed if you are in the Middle East today, and keep your tech labeled.
Thanks for listening to My Weird Prompts. You can find all our past episodes and a way to get in touch at myweirdprompts.com. We are also on Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
Until next time, I am Herman Poppleberry.
And I am Corn. We will see you in the next one. Goodbye!
Bye!
