Marking or layout dye

[Bernd]

Ok this one is for you beginners that are baffled as what to use to mark a piece of metal for layout work, like marking the intersection of a hole or marking the length of a piece that needs to be trimmed.

I'm sure a lot have heard about layout dye in a spray can or with a can and a brush. Most of these dyes are purchased from one of the metal catalogs such as Enco, MSC, McMaster-Carr, etc. What do you do if you can't get any of this sent to or you just ran out and really need to mark that part? Well steel your kids or wife's marker, such as a "magic maker" or a "Sharpie" (trademark symbol here). Color really doesn't matter but black works the best. The following three pics show a piece of aluminum marked to be trimmed to proper length in the mill. The scribed line shows up much better under light than it would without a black background.

So here we have the two different markers, magic marker & sharpie and a piece of aluminum.

Here I've marked the piece with the marker.

And here is the part ready to be put in the mill to cut it to the length. A square and a sharp scriber was used to make the line.

This method can be used on numerous things that need marking out. Let your imagination wander to come up with new uses. Hope this has helped some on how to mark small pieces cheaply and easy.

Bernd

 

[BobWarfield]

Great tip!

Sharpies are indispensible in my shop. I bought a box of the kind that has 2 tips: fine at one end and the normal Sharpie coarse at the other. The box of Sharpies, a box of Steno pads, and a cheap calculator with trig functions radically improvement my productivity for very little cash expended.

Cheers,

BW

 

[Rog02]

The Sharpie Metallic markers are useful for laying out on steel.

The color contrast makes seeing the marked lines a lot easier and they also work well for plasma and torch cutting.

 

[1Kenny]

The markers are what I use too. Black for normal, red for exhaust parts and blue for intake parts. It color codes my mind so I don't get mixed up.

Kenny

 

[Jadecy]

I go through a lot of sharpies too. My daughter likes to draw on a block of whatever when she is in the shop with me. She is 6yrs so it gives her something to work on.

 

[shred]

My favorite dye for fitting parts is blue sharpie or marks-a-lot. For some reason the blue is just a little better than black at fine fits like on a hammer/sear engagement.

I use the red and blue spray dykem fluid for two colors of metal stock marking (a-la Frank Ford's system, which I like a lot) -- it's much thinner and brighter than paint, though the available colors are very limited.

In addition, I spray down my number- and letter-size drills with dye occasionally-- then when a loose drill turns up, it's easy to tell where it came from-- no marking = fractional-size, red=number-size and blue=letter-size. The dye doesn't add appreciable thickness and quickly wears off all the working surfaces anyway.

 

[Mcgyver]

i find the marker doesn't take a scribe line as well, i guess I'm a traditionalist with a the blue dykem die, the stuff that comes with the brush as part of the cap. one small bottle lasts a decade if you keep the cap on tight so probably a lot cheaper than markers. i do keep some markers around though, handy for to mark where to bandsaw or a quick and dirty layout.

 

[Tin Falcon]

When I was in USAF machinist school we all had to buy a jumbo marks-a-lot. they come in handy for laying out shoulders and part off lines on a lathe. In the USAF sheet metal school the favored marker was the fine line sharpie. I still keep both handy as well as a tin of dykem Yea I know it now comes in plastic bottles I have had this one around for a while.
Tin

 

[rake60]

At work I use spray blue Dykem.

At home I use this.

Rick

 

[DickDastardly40]

Some thing not maybe not all are aware of is how to remove unwanted permanent marker on a white board.

I use several magi boards often with different colours, often overwritten. Too prevent smudging I use permanent fine nib pens which means the ball of your hand doesn't rub out what was already there.

When I want to rub out what's been superceded, I scribble over the top of what I no longer want with a broad nib dry wipe marker, rub with a cloth and the permanent comes of with it.

Also works on a perspex board with a diagram or chart underneath.

Al