On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Mike Harrison wrote:

> Remember that pencils write pretty well on ceramic!

Yes ! That is a golden idea. I suppose that one can help a little with
diamond paper before writing. Graphite withstands most washing and spray
liquids, but not rubbing.

I was thinking along the lines of a capilar dunked in HF + indicator (red)
to write with on ceramic and glass packages. The HF will etch and the
indicator will remain in the etched out area, hopefully. I think that
someone is selling glass markers that work along the same lines (perhaps
not HF). I'll ask the chemist this week.

Beware: HF is an evil substance. Observe precautions when using.

I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread so far, I've
actually tried out quite a few 'permanent' markers, with the result, that
the alcohool and other undetermined solvents in a certain laquer that I
apply after assembly gets at the writing even underneath, turning it into
illegible splotches of ink.

My method of scratching the numbers into the brass bezel with a steel
needle was the best imho, until the pencil idea that is.

Actually imho Microchip could save us the labor by programming the
packaging inscriptor machine to put the relevant constant at the end of
the serial number f.ex. imho

Peter