marking metal

[outofthefire]

Usually sharpies, french chalk, and scribes, but yesterday I found out that a good replacement for a scribe for marking longer lines is a worn down thin cutting disk. You can also extend the life of sharpies a lot by pulling them apart and dipping the ink bit in gunwash, I've got one that i've done this to at least 5 times and its still working great

 

[chunkolini]

That is complete cheapskatism!
Nice one. Now tell us that gunwash costs £25.00 per half litre.

 

[rtbcomp]

Meths is good for cleaning/diluting ink.

 

[Robotstar5]

I've a pozidrive screwdriver that's tip broke as it was too brittle. I've sharpened it to a fine point. Has the advantage of a comfortable handle if you have a lot to do, or need extra pressure to go through mill scale.

I've done the same

 

[rtbcomp]

At a slight tangent.

After blasting scooter parts I marked the bits I missed with marker pen and re-blasted, only to find that when they were powder coated the (removed) marks showed through.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Freaky, i stood on my last piece of jumbo kids chalk yesterday(which was worse than useless anyway) while tidying up the garage. Was intending to search for a thread i saw on the same subject a while back. Looking for a non-gouging way to mark, french/engineers chalk it is...might get a few markers but they've usually dried out by the time i need them.

Try the blocks of hard chalk used by dressmakers & tailors.

Paul H

 

[Hitch]

At a slight tangent.

After blasting scooter parts I marked the bits I missed with marker pen and re-blasted, only to find that when they were powder coated the (removed) marks showed through.

A place i worked at for a while stopped us using permanent pens, had a batch of parts rumbled and powder coated, but the pen showed up through the white powder coat

 

[gav0994]

generally use a good sharp scribe and for lots of marking out I use a tipex pen (has a nice fine point and is easily seen) as its nice and quick!

 

[shed or dead]

Marker pens also manifest if the piece is later galvanized, so I'm told.

Remember also that scribing where a fold is to be made will weaken the part. How important depends on what you're making.

 

[Seano]

For me it's either a scribe and blue for fine work, or soapstone and one of THESEhttp://www.markal.com/silver-streak-metal-marker-silver/. for general work.