- Location
- In a strange land
I don't know about the rest of you all, but the markings on my sockets have been getting harder and harder to find. It seems I spend as much time turning them over and over in my hands, trying to find their markings, as I do actually using them.
Being forced by Covid to slow down a bit a few weeks back I had to find something to do that didn't require quite so much effort. This was the result:
The yellow is a hands-down winner for impact sockets. Red seemed to work well on chrome sockets. Green or blue might be other options.
The process was pretty simple: Clean the grease and grime out of the stamped numbers using brake cleaner and an acid brush, then apply just a bit of paint using a paint marker. Immediately wipe off the paint with a piece of newspaper. I initially tried using paper towels, but they took off too much of the paint. Newspaper seemed to work better.
Light stamping won't hold much paint, so the gain is only minimal on the sockets that were already the hardest to read. Now, I can at least look for the tinge of a bit of paint and I know where to focus my efforts.
Time will tell how long the paint lasts.
Being forced by Covid to slow down a bit a few weeks back I had to find something to do that didn't require quite so much effort. This was the result:
The yellow is a hands-down winner for impact sockets. Red seemed to work well on chrome sockets. Green or blue might be other options.
The process was pretty simple: Clean the grease and grime out of the stamped numbers using brake cleaner and an acid brush, then apply just a bit of paint using a paint marker. Immediately wipe off the paint with a piece of newspaper. I initially tried using paper towels, but they took off too much of the paint. Newspaper seemed to work better.
Light stamping won't hold much paint, so the gain is only minimal on the sockets that were already the hardest to read. Now, I can at least look for the tinge of a bit of paint and I know where to focus my efforts.
Time will tell how long the paint lasts.
