Summary
Manufactured by Sato, this price gun is light and well made, but don’t let the low cost trick you into thinking it’s low quality.
As far as we’re concerned, this is the price gun which all budget label gun manufacturers try to beat, but none ever really do.
Here’s why.
Build Quality
The Kendo is a model which has been created building on 50 years of experience in making hand labellers. It’s light plastic design makes it easy to use, but resilient to being knocked around in normal use.
It features a label feed system using cuts in the backing paper between each label. The label feed rarely fails once loaded correctly.
With a wide open channel to feed the labels through, loading the machine is relatively easy. There’s a clever plastic flap that prevents the labels from being fed into the wrong part of the gun when opened, that secures them in place when closed.
There’s also an intuitive plastic tab that prevents the reel from dropping off the spool when you tip the gun whilst loading.
The ink replacement system is quick and clean, requiring a single lever to be pressed and the ink drops out without needing to handle. This is very fast and clean, unlike handling other label gun inks and staining your fingers.
The print heads are simple to adjust, just two screws on the side. There’s even handy markers to help you align the print head accurately without having to guess.
Band Layouts
This model features two popular layouts, a six digit version or an eight digit version. The six digit band characters are larger, but can only show prices up to £99.99 or dates in short format 010416. The eight digit layout allows for prices up to £999.99p and can show either full dates 01042016 or easier to read short dates 01 04 16.
As this is a Sato machine, customised layouts are available, though they will incur a higher price they can be as many as ten digits long. This allows for long batch numbers or other information. There’s far more customisation in the bands than can be easily shown here, so contact a merchant for more advice on customising the bands.
Alternate Layout
An alternate model is specifically made for dating, and prints the month in three letters along with the day and year. An attractive alternative if you are only going to be printing dates. You can see an example of this below.
Print Examples
To the right you can see an example of the 8 digit gun printing a price on the popular “wavy edge” 26x12mm label.
The text is clear and easy to read without being too sharp.
The next label is the same as the above, but using the 6 digit gun instead.
The third image is the alternate layout date gun as mentioned above, printed on a rectangular 26x12mm label instead.
Summary
What we like
- Light yet resilient polycarbonate body.
- Easy to adjust printhead.
- Quick and clean ink replacement.
- Clever quality of life features for simple everyday use
- Uses the popular 26x12mm label, either rectangular or “wavy”.
- Lots of alternative band layouts available on request.
What we didn’t like
- You can’t see the label poking out the front of the label gun so it’s hard to place correctly without practice.