How to use a price gun: loading, ink rollers, daily use

A price gun does three jobs: it holds a roll of labels, prints your price on each one, and sticks the label down as you squeeze and roll. To use one, set the price on the dial wheels, squeeze the trigger to advance a printed label, and press the gun across the item with light, even pressure. Loading a new roll takes a minute once you've done it twice.

It's a simple tool, and like most simple tools, it works forever if you treat it right and infuriates you if you don't.

How do you load labels into a price gun?

Models differ in the details, but the sequence is the same on nearly all of them.

1. Open the gun. Most have a rear door or a release latch that swings the back open.
2. Drop the label roll into the cradle so the labels face outward, glossy printed side toward the platen at the front.
3. Feed the leading strip through the guide path shown inside the door. Most guns have a small diagram molded right into the plastic; trust it over your memory.
4. Close the door until it clicks, then squeeze the trigger a few times. The labels should advance one at a time and peel forward at the tip.

Fire the first few labels onto scrap cardboard, not product. You're checking that the print sits centered and the labels peel cleanly before you commit to a case of canned goods.

Setting the price wheels

The price is set with small dials or bands, one per character, turned with your thumb or a small knob until the right numbers line up in the window. Set it, then squeeze one test label and actually read it. It's a five-second check, and it beats finding out an hour later that the nine was an eight.

When you finish a pricing run, get in the habit of checking the wheels before the next one. The gun remembers whatever you set last week, and last week's price on this week's delivery is how mystery markdowns happen.

When should you change the ink roller?

The moment labels start printing faint or patchy, the ink roller is done. The roller is a small foam wheel that inks the print band as each label passes, and it's a consumable, same as the labels. Swapping it takes seconds: open the gun, pop the old roller out by its holder, click the new one in. Handle it by the plastic, not the foam, unless you enjoy inked fingertips.

There's no schedule worth memorizing; volume decides. A store labeling a few cases a week changes rollers rarely, and a store labeling every delivery changes them often. Keep a couple of spares in the drawer and the question answers itself.

Habits that keep a price gun working

Store the gun in a drawer or on a hook, not loose on a shelf where it dives to the concrete twice a week. Drops crack cradles and knock the print bands out of line, and a gun that's been used as a hammer starts printing like one.

Keep label rolls in their box until you load them, since dust on the adhesive edge gums the feed path. If labels start skipping or feeding crooked, open the gun, clear any label backing from the path, and reload square. That clears most feed problems without any tools.

Spare guns, rollers, and labels are all in the label guns category, and bin labels and other counter basics sit in store supplies.