Welding Tips and Tricks

Firstly, NO THIS ISNT LIKE BLINKER FLUID. THIS IS AN ACTUAL PRODUCT. Lol, just felt like I had to get that out there.

I was watching a video on a website (just happened to be Adam Savage if you have heard of him) and was explaining how to fabricate a little holder for his leatherman. Basically he sprayed this stuff called layout fluid on his piece of aluminum so he could scribe super precise lines and stuff that would stick around and not fade. Guess its a machinists thing.

I thought I would share this here and ask if anyone has ever used it before, and if its safe for welding and cutting(i.e. fumes or contamination). It looks like a really neat tool to use if you have some real high-tolerance work to do.

http://www.amazon.com/Dykem-80300-Steel ... B0018ACR6G

Heres a link to prove its real. lol.

I've used it a bunch for layout, never welded or cut with it applied always cleaned it first. I always called it machinist blue

I use it all the time. The stuff I have, has a brush applicator in the bottle. You can see the bottle over to the upper left in the photo.



I also use it for laying out bevels and such that need to be accurate from one side to the other. This was marked with a wing divider and then filed to that very fine line.


Stuff I have is called Dykem-steel blue. I just wipe it off with acetone after I am done.

I also use this all the time works great and wipes off with Acetone like mentioned above...I prefer the spray version.

I prefer the spray too. Just not in the small shop in my home where I can have no over spray.

The blue will go through some kind of change and not work after some undetermined period of time, chemicals separate out or something. I use red 20 years old and n problems.

A blue sharpie works as an alternative - really helps scribe lines stand out. Black does not work so well (really streaky).

I usually have about a dozen or so on or around my workbench.

also, use gold and silver for some steels for good contrast

blue on alum can be welded over if appearance of no concern

I might look into this stuff for my metal art. It is a pain in the butt and a hazard having to cut paper templates all the time and use once before they tear up and or catch fire. When you cut a bunch of the same things out especially this thing I am attaching it is rough trying to draw it out by hand so much! If I just keep one of each of our items and spray this stuff it would probably work better.

Questions: Does this clean off easily when sprayed on painted metal?
Does it run when sprayed on like spray paint does?
How much does it cost?

What I have is lacquer(smells just like nail polish) based so it would likely lift most paints on metal. It's not cheap but I don't remember what I paid for it. The spray version may work better being you could probably fog it on a little at a time (dries fast) to keep it from eating other paint.

I tried a projector but that was a whole different pain in the butt can of worms so this looks like a better solution.

Dykem blue layout fluid.

Shannon