Engineers blue alternatives

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

Thanks for that information Gordon. I had a look on the Amazon site and easily found rollers but could not find the water based colour you mentioned. Could you give me any more information about what to search for on the Amazon site. I am looking on the Amazon-UK site by the way.

Doug

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

I've spent some time using the sharpie approach, for marking, but not found it very useful for other than simple tasks. As soon as cutting fluid hits it, it's gone.

At the last show I invested in some dychem marking blue and it's been great. The only drawback is that it takes longer to dry than the sharpie.

Iain

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I think the Sharpie and Dychem options are both useful but horses for courses applies. I find Sharpie very useful but its durability is poor, even handling the part wears the colour off but the scribed line does persist just not so easy to see.

Mike

[Cabinet EnforcerParticipant @cabinetenforcer]

Posted by Douglas Johnston on 16/07/2019 11:04:46:

I have been trying out some scraping lately and saw on youtube that some people use a roller on the surface plate to spread the blue indicator over the surface. I was thinking about trying that but can't find any reference for the type of roller needed. There seem to be hard rubber rollers and soft rubber ones and probably ones in between. Is there a scraping mastermind out there that can recommend a suitable type of roller?

Doug

I think you probably should have started a new thread Doug…

Try looking for the term "brayer" as that's the proper name for an ink roller, as the "ink" is quite thick and the surfaces hard, you will need a pretty firm roller to ensure an even spread.

[TrevorhParticipant @trevorh]

Doug

if you search for hand rollers for the printing industry – you will need something like a 60+ shore hardness

we use these to apply flexo printing plates to the cylinder's as well as the ink tech's use them when taking a draw down of the printing inks

cheers

Trevor

[Gordon Smith 1Participant @gordonsmith1]

Doug

The Prussian blue etching ink I got is manufactured by Cranfield and is oil based but washable with water. If you look at Tom Lipton's site on You tube he discusses the use of these type of spotting media.

Gordon

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

Thanks for the useful replies, a new thread would have been a good idea to separate the Sharpie type markers from the stuff for scraping. I have been spreading the blue I have with an applicator I found on the end of my hand and it seems to be OK if a bit messy, so I will check out a roller to stop leaving blue fingerprints everywhere.

Doug

[Michael Cox 1Participant @michaelcox1]

Posted by Lainchy on 16/07/2019 12:49:45:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 16/07/2019 12:18:43:

 

Not

In theory it should be possible to dissolve ball-point pen ink in the same way. In practice, more trouble than it's worth!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 16/07/2019 12:19:34

Cheers Dave will try some when I get a chance

It is easy to make a marking out blue as follows: Take 50 ml of French polish and add 50 ml of methylated spirit. Now take a cheap blue ball point pen and pull out the nib and ink tube. With a pair of sharp scissors chop the ink tube into pieces about 12mm long and let them drop into the mixture of French polish and alcohol. Shake the mixture and leave to stand for a day. The mix is easily applied by a small brush and it is quick drying. It marks easily with fine scribe. It is resistant to water based and oil based complaints and cutting fluids.

Mike

 

Edited By Michael Cox 1 on 19/07/2019 21:00:43

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

On rough surfaces such as hot-rolled steel or cast-iron, where I don't need a fine line for the first operation at least, I have sometimes degreased the metal then applied a spray primer (ordinary car paint) or strip of masking-tape and marked out with a sharp pencil.

For removing marking-out fluid or paste blue, use methylated spirits; ditto for cleaning the artist's paint-brush with which I apply the fluid.

[Author]

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