Marking tools?

[Tom Slick]

What tools do you use for marking/layout?
As a follow-up:
Do you prefer hard (HB) or soft (4B) lead?
Do you prefer fat or skinny lead?
are you particular or do you use whatever is laying around?


I prefer mechanical pencil, actually a drafting lead holder, with fat soft lead.

[pelligrini]

I quit using lead holders when my dogs ate my last good one. Finding the pointer was always a challenge too.

I use some cheap mechanical .5mm now with a medium weight lead. They've got a side feed mechanism which helps them from rolling and a retractable point. Pack of 5 at CVS was cheap.

I use the points of my dial claipers to score a line a lot of the time.

[LCHIEN]

i usually use a .5mm mech pencil.
second choice, esp if the pencil mark is not visible (due to dark wood, texture) - sometimes a scratch awl which was not listed.
Also frequently use the marking gauge, the one with a rod marked in inches and attached to a scribe wheel and a sliding edge guide.

[LarryG]

I mostly use regular #2 wooden pencils. The yellow ones, usually, but sometimes green or whatever else falls to hand. I dislike mechanical pencils because they're not sharp enough. For really precise work, I use an X-Acto knife with a standard #11 blade.

Another medium I use is ordinary white chalk, the kind you used in grade school. Not for precise cut-it-here purposes, obviously, but for keeping track of what part goes where, which is left and right or front and back, etc.

[shoottx]

I mostly use regular #2 wooden pencils, the free ones generally. Carpenters pencils for rough work. I even have a mechanical sharpener, which I use if I forget my pocket knife

I find the mechanical pencils always fail at the most in opportune times, usually late at night, out working on a project, or when there are no other good marking instruments available.

I have also picked up a package of metallic silver sharpies for work on dark color wood.

[BobSch]

I normally use a .5mm mechanical pencil. I like Larry's idea of chalk for marking pieces. Have to try that out.

[pelligrini]

For dark stuff (black laminate shelves) I have a couple of white bowling pencils that that many of the dart pubs use on their scoreboards around here. They're really just a #2 grease pencil. They get pretty soft in the Texas heat though. It's a lot easier with them than to try to locate the 'just right' reflection off a graphite mark.

[drumpriest]

I usually use a mechanical pencil, sometimes a marking knife, sometimes a gauge. I also selected blood, as I have had it happen where I knocked a knuckle or something and found blood on my nice projects, hard to sand out, darn it!

[Wood_workur]

real pencil, prefer the feeling. I have a really nice sharpener so the line is always crisp. more so that I usually can with a mechanical pencil, however I do have some 4H (hard) and 4B (soft) lead I could use if I wanted to.

[Mr__Bill]

Well, I mostly use a pencil -- usually one with someones advertising on it. I do have some left of the 10 gross of #2 that i bought some years ago but the erasers are hard. I also checked blood... that usually is for marking the face of the board, and marking knife it really just a Buck knife or, more often a nail.

I have been thinking.. what i really want is one of those laser levels that after you get it just where you want it there is a button labeled... MARK and you press it and bzzap it's marked! When bored it could be used for killing flies.

[Pappy]

For construction type work I use a flat sided carpenter's pencil. A .5mm mechanical pencil is favored in wood working and a sharpie for marking metal work.

[Uncle Cracker]

Pappy and I are of similar tastes... A carpenter's pencil is OK for rough work, but the point can have too much "slop" for work requiring a degree of precision, so I use a 0.5mm mechanical pencil for that. Work on metals or plastics gets a Sharpie (XF point).

[Warren]

Usually a scribe. Rough cutting, anything laying at hand.

[messmaker]

I use a pencil for the first mark then either forget where I laid it or I knock it to the floor where it falls and breaks the lead. I then go to the jar I keep pencils in, only to find out that it is empty or full of pencils with broken leads. It is a vicious circle.

[BobSch]

I use a pencil for the first mark then either forget where I laid it or I knock it to the floor where it falls and breaks the lead. I then go to the jar I keep pencils in, only to find out that it is empty or full of pencils with broken leads. It is a vicious circle.

Mount a pencil sharpener next to the jar.