OT: Writing on Plastic Film

Have you tried a grease pencil?

Sharpie? Erases easily with denatured alcohol (learned after 6 year-old son wrote on my white board ;-) ...Jim Thompson

We used to dip the corner of our rag into the (dry) ashes in the ash tray. Worked like a champ! (of course, that's proably not too convenient these days, since they made antismokerism the national religion.)

Good Luck! Rich

Whiteboard marker pen. Available in standard and fine point versions.

I always assumed a grease pencil was a China Marker?? Are they different?

The China Markers I'm talking about have this little string you pull, that takes off the paper spiral wraps, and that sharpens it. I've seen China Markers in pencil form that you could sharpen in a standard pencil sharpener. Is that what you're talking about?

And if not the same thing, then I should get one to try it out. I hadn't previously, because I thought they were the same thing.

Thanks.

-mpm

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Thanks for the suggestion. Whiteboard markers never actually stick. They just stay on the polypropylene film as a wet streak, and very (too) easily wipe off. They never dry.

I tried several brands, including Sanford & Expo 2

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Thanks Jim! Sharpies do the trick!!

I really thought I had tried Sharpies previously and they didn't stick. (?) I must have tried a dozen markers. Guess I got my markers mixed up. But I just tried several Sharpie colors. All work well.

And as you say, a little alcohol (isopropyl was all I had handy), does indeed wipe clean.

FYI - Dark blue seems to dry the fastest, though all dry acceptably fast enough. I'm going to let some test samples "cure" overnight and see if they still come clean in the morning without scrubbing.

The permanant Staedtler can be easily removed with methel hydrate or rubbing alcohol. I do that a lot when etching PC boards.

- Tim -

Make a rubber stamp, and use printing ink, thick.

Or a painter's tubes. Mix your own color.

Freeze, then flex the bag later, and it flakes off

Idiot. READ the above AGAIN.

You obviously haven't been around a manufacturing realm in many years.

Huh...

Methyl hydrate would be the acid conjugate CH3-OH2+.

The alcohol is actually a hydroxide, of course. :^)

Tim

You're obviously not getting any sex lately. What is your problem?

It's an innocent question about finding a cheap marker for polypropylene film. No need to get nasty about it.

And as for your cryptic replies, please explain the difference to me between a "Whiteboard" and a "Dry Erase" because I guess I'm just too stupid to get it. Thanks

-mpm

Curiously, the Staedtler Lumocolor permanent markers also come up easily with Isopropyl. They're too expensive anyway - so they're out on that count alone.

Interestingly, we were previously using polyethylene film (not polypropylene), and on that film, the Staedtler's were quite difficult to erase. Especially if you let it sit for long periods of time.

That said, Lumocolor markers are downright fantastic pens - they'll even write on glass and dry almost instantly. And, they'll also write on the aqueous glossy coatings applied by some commercial print shops.

s.

Oops -- my apologies. I thought that comment was directed at me. Now I see it was directed at PeterD.

He was just trying to help......

Anyway, sorry to lash out at you when you weren't even pushing my buttons... :)

Maybe if I had a better Newsgroup reader than this P.O.S. Google interface (complete with Chinese spam!), I could keep better track of who's responding to what.!!!

Much egg on face.

-mpm

Interesting idea. Thanks. But not practical for this situation.

Jim's Sharpie suggestion (earlier) seems to be the right approach. I had neglected to test it properly, and that's why I had incorrectly ditched the idea.

They may take a bit of soak time, but I've taken years-old sharpie marker marks off with isopropyl.

A good coat of 'Turtle Wax Paste Wax' will seal the surface and make it a lot easier to clean. I made some custom 4' * 8' dispatch & schedule boards for a company and the wax lasted over a year of daily changes.

Which is why I said the Mfg remark, because they are so widely used there.