Sharpies (the marker) ain't cutting it -- or marking it....

Do not use regular pencils on aluminum if you should ever get an aerospace job -- however likely or unlikely that may be. It starts a corrosion point.

What kind of "stuff"? Clean or dirty? If soiled, what's it soiled with?

Why doesn't a Sharpie work for you?

I have used one of these from time to time. Kinda like a grease pencil.

We use these, and sharpies..

I've never had a problem with sharpies on reasonably clean metal -- they cut right through the film of oil that you get when you work on something then swipe it with a rag, and they certainly work on dry metal.

Nor should you Dykem and scribe.

Nail polish seems to cut through oil too. I paint a white patch on and then write the type of steel with a fine Sharpie. Red and black can fix chipped pointers and index lines. Have a good retort ready for when the clerk questions why a man needs it.

jsw

Sharpies, Soapstone, Dykem, correction fluid all get used around here.

They've come out with a silver-gray Sharpie lately that I use a lot, good for marking on dark surfaces. Some wally worlds have them. Great for marking wall warts and black cables, also mill scale on hot- rolled steel. There are white and yellow paint markers that are like Sharpies, also ball-bearing versions of same that are harder to use. I tend to take a swipe with a Magnum Marker, then scribe my cut line into that. Magnum Markers have about a 1" square tip. They also have welding markers in red and silver along with rod and flat soapstones. Each has their place, no one marker is going to do it all.

Stan

Maybe you should notify someone at Boeing beings this is the first time I've heard such a thing and since I spent 15 years as a machinist there and scribing lines onto parts painted with dykem was a common everyday occurance.

These suck bigtime:

Nissen brand of this style is much better.

MikeB

I hope you didn't scribe lines for bending structural parts. If you did, please tell me what aircraft you worked on, so I can avoid flying on them.

I think that Jim was talking about bends, right? Because if you're marking an edge for cutting, it doesn't matter.

Pencil is a little bit different. At one time it was part of a maintenance regulation, and, IIRC, a military regulation. Bends are the big issue, again, but there is a corrosion potential with something in lead pencils. I assume it's the graphite but I don't know for sure.

It's been around for a long time, back to the Duralumin days.

What you want is a paint marker. Google Dykem Paint Marker for an example.

There are also oil-based sharpies:

On aluminum?

For cut lines, ok, but for anything else it's verbotten.

Come to think of it, I do recall RED Dykem as perhaps having been a restricted item for some reason.

Basically everybody that worked the shop floor routinely scribed lines on parts...some, on a daily basis.

Occasionally, we straightened....

Sorry, I worked on all of them but you're probably safe if it was made after

Most of the time I was assigned to work Dept A45xx which makes flight control hardware, everything from cockpit systems such as throttle and rudder controls to control surface and landing gear actuators.

After deburr, shot blast and paint I'm pretty sure there's not going to be much left in the way of a scribed mark.

Commonly, a set of crosshair were scribed some distance from the primary datums, for hole rough verification of locations, etc and also to be subsequently used as a reference point when staging on a sine plate for further layout or inspection.

Pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to find even a small patch of bare aluminum on a commercial jet these days.

What is forbidden, is specifically documented.

What are you trying to say, PM.

There was nothing about scribing aluminum in there.

Are you trying to say that makes it allowed?

"Pencil lines may be made at any point since they do not damage the surface of the sheet."

That was written in 1942, before the extended carrier ops in hot, humid climates. Perhaps they discovered this later:

jsw