{"id":22540,"date":"2017-08-15T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T12:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=22540"},"modified":"2019-11-26T07:24:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:24:42","slug":"dymo-mite-tapewriter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2017\/08\/15\/dymo-mite-tapewriter\/","title":{"rendered":"Dymo-Mite Tapewriter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sometimes the old way of doing things is the best way.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was a sad day when my old Dymo<\/em> label maker broke. For those who don’t know, a Dymo<\/em> label maker is a hand held, hand powered device that makes embossed labels on a small, adhesive backed strip of tape. 30 to 50 years ago the little embossed labels were everywhere in a variety of colors. It seemed that everybody had one and the labels could be found in libraries, garages, retail, the military, you name it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The great thing about these label makers was that you could throw it in a drawer and forget about it for a couple of years only to have it ready to go when needed. No dead batteries to contend with. No egregiously expensive ink to purchase. It was like a screwdriver or hammer in that it was there waiting patiently until there was a need for it. If you had a spool or two of labeling tape, you were set for years. I resisted buying a new Dymo label maker because they don’t make them like they used to, and I had one of those electronic label makers that a friend gave me. The problem with the new-fangled labeller<\/em> is that it takes six AAA batteries — SIX<\/em> — and the labels don’t have the tactile pleasure of the old Dymo labels. Who wants to hunt down batteries for a little label that should take two minutes?<\/p>\n

\"\"Then Brian Bubonic<\/em> mailed me one of his estate sale finds. My guess is that this DYMO-MITE TAPEWRITER<\/em> outlived it’s former owner, and from the look and feel of it’s sturdy build some future descendant of mine will be gleefully punching out beautifully embossed labels as long as he or she can get their hands on the tape.<\/p>\n

\"\"The company that sold this particular device probably when Eisenhower was in the White House still exists. Menke Marking Devices<\/em><\/a> has been in business since 1945 and they specialize in signage and labeling equipment for industry. I doubt if they can be reached by this old exchange though.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thanks, Brian!<\/em> I don’t think I’ll need another label maker, but keep your eye out for half-inch label tape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the old way of doing things is the best way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120],"tags":[208,4190,4192,4191,336],"class_list":["post-22540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curious-clutter","tag-1950s","tag-dymo","tag-label","tag-menke-marking-devices","tag-vintage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-5Ry","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45372,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/07\/24\/keeping-good-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":0},"title":"Keeping Good Habits","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the thin 3-ring binder I bought from a dollar store near work and filled it with 97\u00a2 worth of looseleaf paper in order to work out the story of The Teenage Beast. I am writing an outline for what will probably be a novella and have done a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Design"","block_context":{"text":"Book Design","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/book-design\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22052,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2017\/04\/07\/exhuming-dead-buried-while-drawing\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":1},"title":"Exhuming Dead & Buried while Drawing","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I returned to my Roku's Amazon Video channel in order to bask in trash that I can halfway ignore while sketching. The great thing about Amazon's Prime besides the expedited shipping is the addition of Prime video which is promoted as having a lot of original series and big Hollywood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Looming-Shadow.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Looming-Shadow.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Looming-Shadow.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2231,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/01\/26\/behind-the-scenes-with-the-talented-and-terrific-tina-g\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":2},"title":"Behind the Scenes with The Talented and Terrific Tina G.","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"January 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In the latest installment of Monkey & Bird, the talented Tina G worked some of her raster and vector magic in both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I needed a label for our baboon's bottle of booze so she did a little research on liquor labels and cooked up the image\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monkey & Bird"","block_context":{"text":"Monkey & Bird","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/monkey-bird\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/revolve.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7192,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/03\/23\/friday-number-twelve\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":3},"title":"Friday Five – Number Twelve","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"March 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The twelfth in a series creating a collage using five elements.","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/FridayFive12final.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/FridayFive12final.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/FridayFive12final.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7893,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/05\/18\/happy-birthday-perry\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":4},"title":"Happy Birthday Mr.C!","author":"Mrs. Crankipants","date":"May 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We interrupt today's regularly scheduled program - today would have been Perry Como's 100th birthday! He was best known for his smooth as silk crooning and gave us treasures such as \"Dream Along With Me\", \"Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes\" and my favorite - \"If I'm Lucky\".\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/PerryFamilyCircle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/PerryFamilyCircle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/PerryFamilyCircle.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13396,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/06\/14\/diy-shaving-cream\/","url_meta":{"origin":22540,"position":5},"title":"DIY Shaving Cream","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"June 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Father's Day is right around the corner, and I thought making homemade shaving cream would be a fun project for the kids in my son's class. We split up the duties - they measured the ingredients, took turns with the hand mixer, and\u00a0got utterly carried away with the essential oils!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crafts"","block_context":{"text":"Crafts","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/crafts-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/MixingSC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/MixingSC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/MixingSC.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}