I am trying to do a fade. One of the colors involved is teal, the other is pink. I know, I know, but that is what was requested.

The problem I am having is this: when I do the pink side of the piece, the color seems to take without any trouble. When I do the teal side, the dye doesn’t take, or it takes very unevenly. It looks like there is a film of some sort on the part. Some areas saturate with color quickly, while other areas do not take the dye.

My setup has a pump to provide agitation, with the electrolyte routed through a temperature control device. I use a 30 gallon tank at about 11% acid to distilled water. I use an aluminum cathode that is almost 8 sq feet. I typically do runs with up to 2 1/2 sq feet of surface at 6 amps per sq ft using a 25 amp rectifier. I use titanium .125" wire attached to an aluminum frame that rests across the tank’s rim. I use a multimeter to test for conductivity before running parts, to ensure that there is a solid connection between the part and the socket in the frame where I connect the lead from the PS.

Before anodizing, I did a water break test.

I tested the ph of the dye, and it conforms to the 5.5 listed for teal in the dye ph sticky here on this forum. After having trouble getting teal dye to take, I tried another dye and had similar results, poor color uptake.

I am heating the dyes to 140 degrees F before submersing the part.

Has anyone seen this sort of thing? I haven’t had trouble like this before, and I have run other parts without complication immediately before this piece.