Junkyard yellow marking pen?

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NCBurb

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Howdy. I am trying to find one of those yellow markers like they use in junkyards. You know, they mark the part just right over the dirt and grime and yet nothing in the universe will clean it off? I thought they were grease pencils, or china markers, but I picked up a couple of those and they are just like trying to write with a crayon on metal, so not so good. I'm just looking for something tough, bright, writes smooth, and easy to see, I've got to take some things apart and want to mark parts before i start removing them. Thanks.
 

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A regular metal paint pen will work.And pipe chalk is even better,but not near as clean.
 

bucket

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You mean like this?

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78C10BigTen

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Tractor supply is where i but my paint markers, they dont wear off.
 

PrairieDrifter

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Paint markers. Farm and fleet stores or some auto parts stores carry them. Not sure about this website, but these are the ones we've always used, I like the yellow ones.

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Tractor Supply and Harbor Freight both have them in stock. If you want to order online, any industrial supplier (Grainger etc) will sell any type of paint marker you could possibly want
 

bucket

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Paint markers. Farm and fleet stores or some auto parts stores carry them. Not sure about this website, but these are the ones we've always used, I like the yellow ones.

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Those ones are usually found in the welding isle at most any farm store.
 

bucket

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Fwiw, I find the ball-point bottles to work better at marking greasy, oily or rusty parts. Which is probably why junkyards have always used them.
 

PrairieDrifter

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Fwiw, I find the ball-point bottles to work better at marking greasy, oily or rusty parts. Which is probably why junkyards have always used them.
I've never seen this option, I'll have to pick some up for sure! The pens definitely prefer a cleaner surface but they stick well, especially if left a long time.

Does the metal tip basically cut through all the grease? Then the ball point hits the item and releases paint?
 
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Ricko1966

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When I'm making reference marks for disassembly/reassembly I use automotive touch up paintsbthe kind in the little bottle mutiple colors so I can red dot ,red dot. the. blue dot, blue dot etc. If I run out of colors then I can go red dot blue dot, red dot blue dot etc. So I can just look and see match red to red,blue to blue red/blue to red/blue makes reassembly fast and accurate. On clean parts I use white out stripes with colored sharpie stripes like capacitors.
 
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SirRobyn0

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At work we have the ball point type like bucket was talking about and the paint markers Prairie Drifter was talking about and good old fashion white out. Personally I prefer the ball point markers for general marking and white out for marking fine stuff, like linkage settings or timing gears. At home / the farm I just use a little latex paint and a brush to mark whatever, it works just fine it's just not as convenient as the other options.
 

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I use a sharpie mean streak marker. U can get them at lowes. They r in the tool section
 

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Fwiw, I find the ball-point bottles to work better at marking greasy, oily or rusty parts. Which is probably why junkyards have always used them.
when I worked at salvage yards we used ballpoint paint markers, though not the bottle type. They still looked like regular paint markers but didn't have a felt tip, and actually had a little primer ball on the other end. I have a couple that still haven't dried out and they're t least 10-12 years old. I use them for marking distributors and any other part I want to remember where it goes. Orange writing all over everything I own, that stuff doesn't come off unless you really want it to. Hah pretty sure one of my datsuns that has habitually slippery valves still has the valve numbers and gap size written on the strut tower so I can adhust them on the side of the road and not have to look it up.
 

bucket

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I've never seen this option, I'll have to pick some up for sure! The pens definitely prefer a cleaner surface but they stick well, especially if left a long time.

Does the metal tip basically cut through all the grease? Then the ball point hits the item and releases paint?

The ball in the tip depresses rather easily, so you can basically just paint right onto the grime. But if you push hard, yes will kinda cut through the grime and get the paint stuck better. It has it's limits doing that though as it may temporarily clog the tip.

when I worked at salvage yards we used ballpoint paint markers, though not the bottle type. They still looked like regular paint markers but didn't have a felt tip, and actually had a little primer ball on the other end. I have a couple that still haven't dried out and they're t least 10-12 years old. I use them for marking distributors and any other part I want to remember where it goes. Orange writing all over everything I own, that stuff doesn't come off unless you really want it to. Hah pretty sure one of my datsuns that has habitually slippery valves still has the valve numbers and gap size written on the strut tower so I can adhust them on the side of the road and not have to look it up.

I forgot all about the ones with the primer bulb! We had a few of those at the little junkyard I worked at too.
 

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