How many times have you worked on a project with strip styrene, only to find a pile of random pieces left when you’re done? Is that .015″ or .020″? You’re not sure… and rather than try to figure it out, the pieces wind up in a “left over” strip drawer. Or, maybe you just toss them altogether. Sound familiar?

How about when you’re working on something that requires .040″, .060″ and .080″ strip. How do you tell them apart? Do you compare them each time? Sort of a waste of time, isn’t it? Want an easier way?

To remedy these situations, I’ve devised a system for marking styrene. It’s not novel, but it’s quite simple, works incredibly well and best of all, it’s free.

Dashes and Dots

Is that Morse code on my styrene? 

To make my styrene easily identifiable, I use a permanent marker to add small dashes and dots to one end of the strip. Do this right when you remove the styrene from its package and you’ll never forget to do it.

I use dashes to indicate the thickness of the strip and dots to indicate for the width. In each case, I add one dash or dot for each .010″. For example, .020″ x .080″ strip would be marked with two dashes and eight dots. Similarly, .010″ x .100″ strip would be one dash and ten dots.

Honestly, you can use whatever form of marking you like — including the actual dimensions. I find that simple symbols, like the dashes and dots, take up less room on the styrene (in most cases) and you never have to worry about the legibility of your writing.

If you often work with larger sizes of styrene, like .250″, you may consider devising a third mark, like a vertical line. You could decide on what the third mark represents. Maybe .050″ or .100″ each — whatever works for you.

If you decide to start marking your styrene strip, make sure to stay consistent. Don’t change symbols after you’ve already marked dozens of strips or things will start getting confusing.

Note that I have not had any issues covering permanent marker with any type of paint, but you may want to be mindful if you’re using especially light colors.

Other Ways to Identify Styrene?

Do you do something to keep track of different sizes of styrene once the strips are out of the packaging?