Machinist's Dye?

I would stop by a machine shop and ask the machinist where to get it.

It might help a whole bunch to tell us where you live. I purchase it at K&P Industrial Supply that specializes in machine tool bits and supplies. Look in your yellow pages for machine shop, make a cold call and ask them where they get it. Grainger has it:

"Layout fluid" is how Grainger indexes it.

"

What bq340 said. Won't chip or flake. A nice crisp line. Red or blue. MSC also has it.

Thanks guys!

Get this...

In last night's mail (yeah, my mail comes at night, 'nuther thread!) I got the latest Highland Woodworking catalog. Highland carries Starrett dye! This might be new, as I don't remember seeing it there before.

Thanks again for the replies.

Highland Woodworking does, too, if you don't mind spending a little extra for the Starrett name on the bottle.

I've seen it in the store for a long time, but it might not hvae been in the catalog until recently.

I use both red and blue layout dye, but you can use a felt tip marker just as well. If you are going to use the dye for scribing lines, etc., then that is what you need. But, if you are using it to test a fit or to test flatness, you need "High Spot Blue" which is a blue paste that comes in a little tube, like toothpaste. MSC has that. I have often wondered why one couldn't just get a tube of prussian blue oil paint, instead.

Not a pro mach> I know we have a few pro machinists here.

Looks like Bombay, India

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But, seriously folks:

Try these links, too

We use a big chisel-point sharpie for casual layout scribing all the time in the shop -- it's handier, neater and dries faster than the layout blue. But the official stuff is tougher, stays visible even as it gets hot while grinding to the line and so is still used quite often.

And yes, artist's oil Prussian blue is not only usable for high-spot marking but is often preferred by machinists claiming that some brands have more pigment.

That's even easier to find.

I want it to mark high spots, and there's an artist's supply store right down the street.

Thanks again, all!

Just a comment but dentists get it on prepared plastic film, used to check bite when they're doing fillings. Don't know what it costs or where they get it, but next time you go it might be worthwhile asking.

I've been a machinist for 38 years and never heard of using artist's Prussian blue. Not that it wouldn't work, but it will dry. Just never heard of it. And always had 'regular" PB. I guess it depends on what part of the country your from.

Substitute.

Grease = artist's oil. Blue scribing "lacquer" = thinned shellac with alcohol-soluble dye.

Uh, I didn't write any of that.

Try looking for DYKEM rather than DYEKEM and you'll have a lot more success.

John Martin