Tip - Marking out metal prior to machining.

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

Can't find "engineer's blue" metal dye to apply to metal before you mark out where to machine? (so the scratches from the scriber or dividers show up really well)

Tried felt tip pen or permenant marker but it doesn't work too well?

Go to your local branch of Staples.

Buy a pack of their own brand chisel-tip black permenant marker pens.

They're cheap, and on brass and aluminium I've found they give a really really good solid black against which the marks from the dividers show up really well.

Downside is they rub off pretty easily, so they'd probably not be as good as proper "engineer's blue" if you're marking out a large piece for machining, but for marking out the measurements for the bolts I'm making for JingleJoe this method is working a treat!!!

Hope this helps someone.

[fciron]

Funny, I saw the topic and was going to advise cheap chisel-tipped markers.

You are assuming that people already know about scribers.

[Dr cornelius quack]

It shouldn't be too hard to make your own version of marking blue. A thin solution of shellac varish with a suitable added dye will do the trick. A bit of experimentation to find a soluble dye sounds like just the sort of thing to while away the long winter evenings.

A quick zip through Wiki-world reveals lots of usable stuff on the subject of marking out and a nice reference to Mr Joseph Whitworth, Engineer, Mancunian, Patron of the arts, Innovator and Curmudgeonly/grudge bearing Victorian gent.

Not to mention Father of modern machine tools and the very best screw thread form ever.

What a guy!!

Dr. Q.

[Hektor Plasm]

I use a monster size permanent marker as an Engineering Blue Substitute - it's black though.
the great thing is that the tip is nearly 1cm wide, so it goes on in a few sweeps.
I'll have a look later as to the make etc.
Pity it's not blue- but I'm sure they are available...just does not  seem right somehow! ( but I did find it under a desk   dead sky kraken! 

HP

[Professor Damien Tremens]

It shouldn't be too hard to make your own version of marking blue. A thin solution of shellac varish with a suitable added dye will do the trick. A bit of experimentation to find a soluble dye sounds like just the sort of thing to while away the long winter evenings.

A quick zip through Wiki-world reveals lots of usable stuff on the subject of marking out and a nice reference to Mr Joseph Whitworth, Engineer, Mancunian, Patron of the arts, Innovator and Curmudgeonly/grudge bearing Victorian gent.

Not to mention Father of modern machine tools and the very best screw thread form ever.

What a guy!!

Dr. Q.

We regularly use a colorant that dissolves in alcohol for tinting shellac at work for use on wood and metal leafed finishes.
It comes in a powder form, typically in small (very small) paint cans.

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

t my shop we use a commecial product called "Dykem" it  comes in both a red and a blue  form and acetone removes/thins it . miles

[Mr. Boltneck]

Annoyingly, Dykem is hard to get here in California.  I am given to understand that due to some weird farrago of regulatory interpretation, I can only buy it if I can prove that I work for a business (i.e. have a business license and resale number), but not as a private citizen. Last I checked, though, Amazon Industrial will ship it to me regardless. Supposedly it's to do with the carrier solvent. Do they think I want to huff Dykem Blue?
In the old days, according to my reading, it was fairly common to apply a copper sulfate solution to clean iron or steel surfaces. Copper plates onto the surface, and oxidizes to form a robust and markable surface. I suspect that a sulfur-based blackening solution would do something similar for brass and bronze, and commercial aluminum-blackeners exist as well. What's still really hard to mark out is PTFE.

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

Yes teflon is the devils own child to get marking to take on fo layout. totally a pain in the a$$$
             miles

[Mr. Boltneck]

If I'm honest, I suspect that I would avoid any substance that could mark PTFE like Dykem Blue on steel. It would have to be something fairly dreadful, I would think, to break fluorinated bonds and adhere to the surface.

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

actualy Dykem will coat teflon in the same manner it coats steel,in nither case does it actually adhear to the material it is a skin/dye on the very surface. i have used Majic Markers for layout as well, but for the pupouse of scribing lines dykem or spray paint, or best yet "spray Dykem ". it is  avalable in spray cans after all.       MSC Supply co                                           Miles