Marking Treated Lumber (framing)

[Adrien]

So is there a secret to this? My Grandfather and I have been framing walls in my shop, which doesn't have any lighting yet. I've been using a plain ol' carpenters pencil to mark my top and bottom plates, but it's hard for him to see the pencil line on the treated lumber (bottom plate) and honestly it's rather difficult for me to see it as well.

Any tricks?

Adrien

 

[mtwaterguy]

Extension cord and shop lights?

 

[p_mori7]

Black ball point pen.

 

[jdaallen]

Sharpie Markers. Available anywhere from Big Box to Sooper Market.
http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Pages/super-marker.aspx

 

[Stuart in MN]

A Sharpie should work, you can get your choice of colors.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Purple Sharpie.


hey, isn't there a Sharpie thread around here somewhere ?

 

[lotsoftools]

Lumber crayons?

 

[KenC]

Scribing with a sharp awl, nail or anything handy may work best.

 

[demographic]

I use a carpenters pencil for marking out the centres of the studs and the cuts (if it doesn't mark then a softer pencil helps) and a blue lumber crayon to mark the code which shows where the panels go.

 

[KnurledNut]

i understand your problem...that stuff is hard to mark when its wet.
ived used soapstone and a china marker with success.
those industrial chiselpoint sharpies work decent as well.

 

[Bluepine]

Look at your local office supply store for INDELIBLE pencils. Usually called a bottle of ink in a pencil. Thats what log home builders use to scribe green logs.

 

[Zeke]

Sharpies have a hard time on wet wood, but they should work fine on PT unless it's been rained on. Lumber crayons in colors are what we use. Blue for layout and red for notes or locations of elec boxes, etc.

 

[Adrien]

Thanks for all of the replies, I'll definitely check out some of the items recommended. I'm familiar enough with Sharpies, but I don't see them working very well. I guess the silver variety might. The aforementioned carpenters pencil I spoke of didn't have much trouble marking the wood, it was just difficult to actually see it. The PT douglas fir I'm using is very dark in color. Similar to this:

I'm going to try out the lumber crayons and indelible pencils.

Thanks!

Adrien

 

[Plump]

Yellow lumber crayon will show up fine on that lumber!

 

[demographic]

Thanks for all of the replies, I'll definitely check out some of the items recommended. I'm familiar enough with Sharpies, but I don't see them working very well. I guess the silver variety might. The aforementioned carpenters pencil I spoke of didn't have much trouble marking the wood, it was just difficult to actually see it. The PT douglas fir I'm using is very dark in color. Similar to this:

I'm going to try out the lumber crayons and indelible pencils.

Thanks!

Adrien

That timber is a lot darker than the stuff I usually work on but you can get white timber marking pencils
Can't say I've ever tried them but have just seen them in a catalogue and assume they are sold over in the US also.