Layout Fluid vs Sharpie: Which is preferable?

woodchucker said:
Really 1/10th. I would think that the scribe was the difference.
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Took me a second, wrong line.

I meant the actual thickness of the ink to surface. You can thin out dykem but it doesn't leave a good layer on the surface and is uneven..

Conversely, you can layer Dykem to whatever thickness you need. Say you have a finished surface and you want to mill an adjacent sidewall without touching the bottom of the part/pocket. you can put down dykem in a dribble or dot and when dry come down until you just touch that while staying off of the bottom. I actually just did this yesterday, two small dots of dykem on top of each other got me within .0005 of the surface.

Sharpie only goes down in one thickness, which is about 1/10th the thickness of an average dykem brush mark.

Found the video. I was off a bit, but the point stands. You also need to factor in your dykem will thicken over time in the bottle from evaporation of the solvent during the use of the brush. Ie, what you have left on the brush is thicker in consistency than it was when you drew it out.

We routinely chuck the last 1/4 of the bottle as it gets messier and harder to get good results from it.

 
Uglydog said:
I scribe everything and cut to the line. Old school operations, as I exclusively use handwheels.
Yes, I'm a luddite...

I interchange layout fluid and sharpie. Has depended on if the surface is horizontal or vertical.
Am getting really low on layout fluid and am thinking of moving to sharpie only.
Am curious about your thoughts on the topic.

Note: I value the thoughts of veteran machinists (both handwheel and DRO users) as well as those new to machining.
What are your thoughts and experiences.?

Daryl
MN
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Best of both worlds, I use these and fill them with Dykem blue layout fluid..... I have never had one fail or dry out.
 
benmychree said:
I find that using a felt pen makes for more precise scribe lines than layout dye, which sometimes tends to flake off when scribing, for large areas of layout, layout dye is clearly the best choice, I find that layout dye tends to take on water, which degrades it and makes it take longer to dry, I use Dykem blue, but prefer Starrett layout dye as it is not so strong smelling as Dykem.
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Due to it becoming thicker as described above.
 
benmychree said:
I find that using a felt pen makes for more precise scribe lines than layout dye, which sometimes tends to flake off when scribing, for large areas of layout, layout dye is clearly the best choice, I find that layout dye tends to take on water, which degrades it and makes it take longer to dry, I use Dykem blue, but prefer Starrett layout dye as it is not so strong smelling as Dykem.
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I like that smell. It smells like model airplane dope from when I was a kid and would use silk or silkspan. ahhh the memories.
 
Uglydog said:
I interchange layout fluid and sharpie. Has depended on if the surface is horizontal or vertical.
Am getting really low on layout fluid and am thinking of moving to sharpie only.
Click to expand...

Newish to machining. Always tinkering, building. A career in repair work that involves a lot of light fabrication and structural repair.

There is no substitute for proper layout fluid when you need it. It is "better" in almost every way. But 99 times out of 99 times, you don't :"need" layout fluid. Sharpies are not inaccurate, they're just not as durable when you handle stuff. The scribe mark still stays, so even if you do loose the color, you can still pick your line back up. And sharpies are lazy. Especially since somebody somewhere (Youtube probably) pointed out that the blue ones, the ink actually lays down better, it doesn't "erase" it's self as much on the second pass.... I wish I'd have known that a long time ago.....

I don't believe there's a right or wrong answer. What works is what works. If the sharpie is doing the job, well then, there you go. If you've got a use case where the heavier, more durable coat from proper layout fluid is beneficial to you, well then, there you go.
 
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Not trying to hijack the thread, but I wondered if anyone else got a little kick out of using layout fluid in the beginning. I remember sort of feeling like a “real machinist” the first few times I was painting on some Dykem.
I’ve been using markers in maintenance work forever. I’d consider a marker an actual tool of the trade. In machinist world it seems a “hack”.
 
They should make a marker with Dykem! Could you load it into a Sharpie???
 
There already is such a thing! I tried one a few years ago though and was disappointed. I don’t remember exactly what I didn’t like about it.

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