My little 7x14 is now ready to be cleaned, fettled and the rest

[Jim F]

I have some traditional honest-to-goodness, made in England, engineers blue (and God forbid you get that stuff on your hands, it never seems to quite dry, so you can leave blue fingerprints wherever you go if you're not careful but it takes serious cleaning power to get the stain out of skin!) but for parts that are already 'blued' or have some other dark surface, that won't show up.

I've got sharpies (especially blue and silver) coming out of my posterior! but I find that sharpie ink tends dry too quickly to take 'prints'. I wonder if there's a version of Dyechem or the like in silver though; that would do the trick with dark ('blued' or anodized) parts (not from the company that makes the engineers blue I've got though; they'd not have any truck with any colour other than blue: "Why'd tha need tuh have anuuther culah than blew? It were good enoof fer me dad and me grandad...'appen it'll be good enoof fer tha" )

You have what we call Prussian Blue.

 

[pontiac428]

I have some traditional honest-to-goodness, made in England, engineers blue (and God forbid you get that stuff on your hands, it never seems to quite dry, so you can leave blue fingerprints wherever you go if you're not careful but it takes serious cleaning power to get the stain out of skin!) but for parts that are already 'blued' or have some other dark surface, that won't show up.

Try borax. Simple, cheap, works!

 

[SouthernChap]

Try borax. Simple, cheap, works!

Oh as a powder, like chalk powder?

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I have some traditional honest-to-goodness, made in England, engineers blue (and God forbid you get that stuff on your hands, it never seems to quite dry, so you can leave blue fingerprints wherever you go if you're not careful but it takes serious cleaning power to get the stain out of skin!) but for parts that are already 'blued' or have some other dark surface, that won't show up.

I've got sharpies (especially blue and silver) coming out of my posterior! but I find that sharpie ink tends dry too quickly to take 'prints'. I wonder if there's a version of Dyechem or the like in silver though; that would do the trick with dark ('blued' or anodized) parts (not from the company that makes the engineers blue I've got though; they'd not have any truck with any colour other than blue: "Why'd tha need tuh have anuuther culah than blew? It were good enoof fer me dad and me grandad...'appen it'll be good enoof fer tha" )

Prussian blue is de debbil!

I've seen guys prank each other to the point the whole shop was ready to to choke them.

One guy thinks it would be funny to put a dab under the handle of another's tool box and he gets pranked, but then there is revenge taking place and next thing you know that crap is everywhere.

 

[pontiac428]

Oh as a powder, like chalk powder?

Not chalk, that's different. Borax is a mineral also, but it is an ionic detergent that is widely available for household purposes, such as getting blue off your fingers. Remember powder soap dispensers from the toilets in grade school? That was borax. Also good for laundry and poisoning colony insects like ants.

 

[SouthernChap]

Not chalk, that's different. Borax is a mineral also, but it is an ionic detergent that is widely available for household purposes, such as getting blue off your fingers. Remember powder soap dispensers from the toilets in grade school? That was borax. Also good for laundry and poisoning colony insects like ants.

Oh, for getting the engineer's blue off.

Right, I thought you were talking about marking or getting a print of the engagement between dark surfaces. Doh!

 

[pontiac428]

Oh, for getting the engineer's blue off.

Right, I thought you were talking about marking or getting a print of the engagement between dark surfaces. Doh!

I think gear marking compound is what you are after for printing contact on darkened parts. Or maybe art store canode yellow pigment mixed with oil, if you are going to make a business out of it. Gear compound should be easy to find, though.

 

[SouthernChap]

I think gear marking compound is what you are after for printing contact on darkened parts. Or maybe art store canode yellow pigment mixed with oil, if you are going to make a business out of it. Gear compound should be easy to find, though.

Ah, apparently the makers of my engineer's blue (Stuarts) have lobbied the UK government and fancy foreign stuff like gear marking compound (even if it's blue!) is not allowed to be manufactured in the UK or indeed sold to consumers by UK businesses!

However Dyekem do a whole bunch of different colours (and some rather natty pens too) so I've just ordered a bunch. I'm a sucker for marking out solutions.

 

[SouthernChap]

@pontiac428

I was being silly for the purposes of humour.

Gear marking compound hasn't been banned in the UK, but for some reason it's just not easily available over here.

There's a (fairly innacurate) caricature of old, traditional English companies being stick-in-the-mud and resistant to change, especially northern UK companies.

My joke was that one such company, like the one making the engineer's marking blue that I have, might lobby to stop foreign 'fancy' products that competed with their offerings.

I think the joke is probably easy to spot if one is a Brit (or possibly an Aussie or a Kiwi) but since the US generally has always had a strong cultural aversion to, or even horror of, the stifling of technical innovation, the joke may not work as well for you chaps.

Kinda regret making the joke now.

Anyway, I have a load of Dyekem marker pens heading my way in lots of colours, so, when I need to check the mating of parts of whatever surface colour, I'll hopefully be reasonably well equipped.

 

[pontiac428]

Well, you live in a country where the law requires lights in the bathroom to be switched with a pull-chain out of fear of touching a wall switch with wet hands, so call me gullible!