markings

Tipex.

Aaaaahhh Tippex, wonderful stuff, especially useful for preventing brazing rod from wetting hot metal (it's mostly titanium dioxide) - but it tends to brush off a bit easily?

Look for Rejafix Geem marking ink, it's what we used to use to mark panels for MOD equipment and is available in black and white, possibly others. Martin

Thanks - but I was really thinking more about shineyness.

You get your shiny new machine, and first thing you drop something on the ways or run the cutting bit into a non-cutting bit, causing a ding. Then you try using milk as a lubricant for cutting copper, and that causes some dark spots. You could polish them out, but what for?

Then you drop some more stuff and cause more dings, then more dings just appear from nowhere, and all the time it's getting less shiny-white. In fact it's turning a fairly dark colour.

This is is many ways a good thing - at least it's not going red, and maybe the dark colour might be protecting the metal from the rust. But it ain't shiney any more.

It's dark. It doesn't work any worse, in fact it almost certainly works better than it did, all that fettling has achieved something - but it isn't shiny.

What would be good? For new machines not to be shiny. They should be dark and mottled, with grungy bits of ancient grease falling off from time to time. And the markings on the dials should be white, or at least very visible.

Shinyness doesn't mean it works better - it just means it looks better. Looks better to those who don't have a clue ...

-- Peter Fairbrother

:¬

In my experience Tippex is an absolute b****r to shift once it's dried.

John B

All of my "new" machines fit your ideal exactly, except for the white or visible dial markings. The markings usually become somewhat visible after a bit of work. :>)

Don Young (USA)