Engineers (marking) blue?

Never seen it in a high street chain.

Almost any engineers merchant will have it. Yell for "engineers' supplies" in Herts then give 'em a ring. Won't be cheap judging by RS price.

You could diy it by watering down nail varnish with acetone or cellulose thinners.

Cromwell in Luton might be worth looking at

Simbles in Watford might 01923 21 20 22

Ok thanks. You never know etc.

No, the spray was about £15 but I assume it would last a while (I mean, not dry up / go off rather than because of usage etc).

Sir, what kind of lady would do such a thing! ;-)

On the 'alternatives' though I was thinking maybe some spray grey primer might be a reasonable substitute. Red oxide would be better because of the dark colour but would probably be too thick and stick too well. I think I noted that some acid etch grey primer I used washed off with water! ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Chronos in Dunsatble stock both layout blue and marking blue (which are not at all the same thing!). I think it's layout blue you are looking for?

Book marked, ta.

Can't see anything in their online catalogue so might give em a ring.

Cheers. T i m

Ah, that could be handy as I've gotta go over that way sometime soon.

Their web site seems to be broken though?

If you choose any sub heading you get an Easyspace page?

I'll give em a ring in a bit though.

Cheers, T i m

Rocol do a aerosol

Another handy site bookmarked ta.

Ah, yes, I meant 'marking out / layout' as opposed to what you might use in preference for final fitting / scraping and I thought that was just called 'Engineers blue' (but I could well be wrong).

I dare say you can use both for either role though. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Funnily enough, I thought of matt primer after I pressed send. If you shake well and spray lightly from 300-400mm you can get a very thin layer which will be bone dry in 10 minutes. Not so good coverage on first pass, but it should scratch off very nicely. If it doesn't stick, though it will come off in flakes.

I have to say, I tend to CAD, print, cut out and glue a template to the offending material, so I've not a great deal of use for marking blue.

If it's a steel item to be marked out, the old trick was to brush on a dilute solution of copper suphate. This will lightly copper plate the steel - rinse off the copper suphate, dry the item and mark by scratching through to the steel. It does work.

AWEM

Not so. Layout blue is like quick-setting varnish and dries hard.

Hi-spot blue is a sort of coloured grease and doesn't set.

Only thing they have in common is the colour...

Handy as I know quite a few Rocol stockists locally (although none engineers suppliers as such but may be able to get it in if I can't find any today).

Strange how these things work, following the Rocol trail I ended up at Tooled-Up and gave them a ring. I think they only stocked the 'engineers blue' (paste?) and the liquid component of their stock (meths) had all evaporated! ;-(

Cheers, T i m

Understood.

And there is no instance where you could use either to good effect? (I'm not saying there is, I'm just asking).

Cheers, T i m

Nice trick.

OOI, is copper sulphate readily available on the high street ... from some other use possibly?

Cheers, T i m

Often the way.

Ok.

Another good idea / reminder thanks.

T i m

Well, You wouldn't really use hi-spot blue for anything other that the most cursory "hacksaw it off just beyond the scratch mark" because as soon as you handled the piece, any marks would likely be smeared away.

Using layout blue as hi-spot blue is more of an option. The down-side is in some circumstances you would need to keep re-applying it.

Bit like chalk then. ;-)

Understood (that was my prediction).

Yup, and I'm pretty sure we used it like that at college (even though it may not have been the ideal use).

Cheers, T i m

They don't stock the layout / marking out type but offered to get some in for tomorrow (which was nice).

Cheers, T i m

p.s. And they are moving their host hence the site errors.