Thread: Mark-out dye

For large jobs, I use DyMark layout ink, but for small bits and pieces, I just scribble on the metal to be scribed with a permanent felt tip pen.

It is a usefull marking solution to use,very good infact,although a lot of people on this site will either be able to possably give you a recipe for making your own or suggest to just use a marking pen.
I am told that you maybe able to get it in a spray can,I use it in the 1 litre bottle.
You should be able to get it from any good industrial supply outlet.It is a little expensive but in my opinion worth the money.
You dont use very much of it at all (this will depend on what your marking out) either apply the liquid with a brush or soft cloth/rag.
It will stain the skin if it gets on you.
The product is DY-Mark LOS Blue that I use.
You can contact them on 1300 360 336 they might be able to tell you of your nearest distributor.
If you arent going to use much of it,it would be better to share the costs with others,I think its about $40.00 a litre,but it will lasts you a very long time as long as you dont forget to keep the lid on the container when not being used.

copper sulphate dissolved in a weak acid solution works well..

Its important not to get bearing blue (Engineers blue ) and markout ink confused.
The markout ink dries and the bearing blue does not dry .

Thanks, gents, never thought of making a home made solution, may just check Bunnies for the copper sulphate. Don't mind buying commercial stuff but would only use it sparingly.

Adding to retroand pipeclays replies , make sure you get the los (layout stain ) as dye mark make a number of marking products .
Also they make LOS in other colours than blue .Ive seen red and white , but bought the blue as I'm a traditionalist.
I got mine from Atom supply (formerly Nortrade in Darwin) at 40.00 for a litre bottle.It goes along way if you don't swamp your work with it .Blackwoods also stock it.
I have a foam brush I use , made from a piece of 1/2 dowel with a piece of foam rubber super glued onto it. Once you charge the brush with layout fluid you hardly ever need to add more , just dip it in metho when it dries out and apply it to the work.I find a rag soaks up too much and it gets wasted.
When I was an apprentice ,we used to buy the blue powder and mix our own in 5 gallon flagons.
It was also used for apprentice initiation ceremonies I remember going home with blue stained wedding tackle on a few occasions.
Of course these days you are not permitted to carry such ceremonies.

Kev.

Originally Posted by pipeclay

although a lot of people on this site will either be able to possably give you a recipe for making your own

Just following up from Pipeclay, I have done a search with Google but cannot find any formulae/recipes for home made dye. I would like to see if I can make some up from household ingredients and see how that works before I go out and spend the $40 on the proper stuff.

Originally Posted by .RC.

copper sulphate dissolved in a weak acid solution works well..

Wouldn't the acid permanently etch the surface, especially on aluminium?

I thought marking out dye was supposed to be a temporary thing?

Here is a reference I found to both dye solution and copper sulphate type:

http://books.google.com/books?id=rUa...age&q=&f=false

or this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marking_blue

all found by googling "marking out fluid copper sulfate"

I agree with Woodlee, hell I bough my bottle back in 2003 and apply it the same way the TAFE school used it, with a brush, a little bit goes such a long way, the brush may go a bit hard but a splash of metho in the can brings it back to softness, release's the markout dye held in the brush and away we go again. Have used bugger all from that bottle since purchase date. Have also read in Model Engineering that some blokes use shoe dye with the same result, its cheaper still then buying a bottle.

DD

Tiger................if you aren't able to get any from a tool place as they tend to sell in "pint" tins which will last for decades - you could always drop into any chemist and get a small bottle of Gentian Violet for a few bucks which I have used in the past - it works OK as a quick fix layout dye in the short term - doesn't dry as quick so can add some metho to it......... but as Bluey said these things do stain pretty bad (on a cellular level) so take care with fingers......also works better on tender apprentices so you don't have to worry about chemical burns for OH&S claims ...........only from what I've heard of course...............Lee

Another recipe that's worth a try is Prussian Blue and alcohol/metho.

Prussian blue is available from an artists supply place and is quite cheap. I don't have any info on just what ratios are required.

(If gentian violet works then mercurochrome should work as well.)

Well scratch mercurochrome as a markout solution.

What's available from the chemist is a water based solution, they don't make it with an alcohol base any more - according to Joe my friendly chemist.

When I was an apprentice, one of my jobs was to make up the copper sulphate solution for marking out. This stuff was far better than anything else for laying out lines. It was semi-permanent and the lines showed up very nicely. The mixture consisted of about 250 cc of tap water and copper sulphate crystals/powder. I simply dissolved as much copper sulphate as I could or untill the solution was a good solid blue colour. A tissue was then dabbed with the solution and rubbed onto the steel where the layout lines were scribed. More solution was rubbed on until the desired copper film was applied. There was a catch to this (there is alwasys a catch somewhere). the work we did was with toolsteels that had a high chrome content. To make the copper work, about 2 or 3 cc of nitric acid was added and this then helped clean the steels and make the copper stick. This added acid worked really great. On mild steels, the copper film was instant when the solution was applied. All our layout lines were very narrow and very accurate. When the tool/part was finished, the copper was removed with a few rubs with emery tape. I have never tried it on any other metal apart from steel. I don't think you could make this mixture today as Nitric Acid is on the dangerous goods list and highly restricted in sales. This is because nitric acid is a prime ingredient for explosives. I wouldn't touch sulphuric acid as an alternative (too dangerous) but hydrochloric acid might work if you are using alloy steels. Otherwise, just make the copper sulplate solution a good looking blue and add more crystals if needed.

Kody

Snowy,
I bought some prussian blue from an artists shop and tried the metho mix , It dosen't work very well as the blue powder seems to be too coarse and rubs off after the metho has evaporated,even though it's probably finer than talcum powder .
I tried a few different recipes and gave up .I finally found a supplier of the Dymark stuff in Darwin ,I had been looking for ages .Blackwoods only had the spray cans and I had used that before and was not happy with the results it tends to tear off the surface when you scrbe on it.

Kev.