Paint pen

[Castle Rock]

Pulled apart my CTR today for a thorough clean because it was full of dust.
Trigger screw was paint penned with heaps a couple of years ago, can’t remember the brand or details but the screw was definitely less tight than when I did it up , there was a fair bit of paint residue but it was as soft as shit and was in no way helping.

 

[BLJ]

Others will comment I’m sure.

But, my understanding is that the paint pen is to be used as a witness mark to see if the fasteners were moving. Not to keep them from moving.

That’s how I’ve used a paint pen in the past for a lot of applications.

 

[Timplant]

Try a product called Cross Check, by Dykem, I use it at work alot and it has become my go to for guns or anything else... works for thread locker AND witness marks. works extremely well for me.

It's job is being a torque check.

 

[flyfisher117]

Others will comment I’m sure.

But, my understanding is that the paint pen is to be used as a witness mark to see if the fasteners were moving. Not to keep them from moving.

That’s how I’ve used a paint pen in the past for a lot of applications.

There’s definitely a few posts on here where people discuss the pros and cons to paint pen as a thread lock agent.

 

[The Harbor Master]

Pulled apart my CTR today for a thorough clean because it was full of dust.
Trigger screw was paint penned with heaps a couple of years ago, can’t remember the brand or details but the screw was definitely less tight than when I did it up , there was a fair bit of paint residue but it was as soft as shit and was in no way helping.

Last year I switched to nail polish, over blue loctite or paint pen... Great results. When removing nail polished screws you can even hear/feel an audible "crack" as it releases. Very obvious that it is doing its job and helping hold things. I do still use the paint pens for witness marking the screw heads like @BLJ said.

 

[Escalante11]

Last year I switched to nail polish, over blue loctite or paint pen... Great results. When removing nail polished screws you can even hear/feel an audible "crack" as it releases. Very obvious that it is doing its job and helping hold things. I do still use the paint pens for witness marking the screw heads like @BLJ said.

Sorry for the naive question but are you putting a drop of nail polish on the threads? Then paint pen on screw head for witness mark?

 

[The Harbor Master]

Sorry for the naive question but are you putting a drop of nail polish on the threads? Then paint pen on screw head for witness mark?

Yep, correct. I did a lot of reading the different threads on here about loctite, paint pen, nail polish, wet vs dry torque, and on... saw Form mention nail polish a couple times and thought I'd give it a whirl and it's been great for me.

I degrease everything, apply the nail polish to the threads just like you would with loctite, then torque appropriately. Then a small line with paint pen on the fastener/the surface it is threaded into so a quick visual check is all you need to see if everything is still good to go.

I honestly was going to try nail polish for awhile and then try paint pen to see what I prefer, but the polish works just fine so I never bothered with the paint.