ANODIZING EQUIPMENTS

Hey y’all I was wondering if its possible to put multiple colors on a single piece of metal without them mixing. I have a 3 foot sawmill blade i want to pc a texas flag on and then use as a tabletop. I got discouraged at first and tried to paint it with oil-based paint but i’m not happy with the result. soo is this possible? Don’t know much about this system but the way i had it figured out was to spray the whole thing white bake it, mask it off for the blue then bake it, then mask off for the red bake it, then put a thick clear on top. can this be done or will it screw up the previous colors as you precede??? help!!!

I’m getting tired of this!

I have a client interested in my work but suddenly I have that color erasure problem mentioned in another thread (will just ano for thicker layer = longer time) and I can’t get a clear, shiny finish after sealing and drying. So why bother polishing? I want to buy a tumbler but there’s no point if everything comes out so dusty anyway.

This is really important because until the economy improves, art is my only living. Ironic huh? Also time is a concern now, client wants several pieces in September, then maybe a lot more. So I appreciate your help now and before immensely; next round’s on me.

My first few ano runs resulted in beautiful, shiny pieces that colored nicely with tough layers. Now I look at those pieces nostalgically

I’ve read all the threads on this topic I could find, so let’s see if I can summarize and maybe someone can respond with something I missed.

1) Bath’s too hot: So I iced it to probably 60. Only 95 worst this summer anyway.
2) **** in bath: Just changed it. It WAS full of bugs, leaves and contaminating alloys from when i was stupid(er)
3) Not using distilled: Now run filtered in bath, dyes and sealer. Rinse with tap. I know that could be the problem BUT my first few runs were in tap electrolyte even. Here in NYC our water’s not so minerally.
4) Old sealer: changed it. Still same problem.
5) Oil the pieces w/ WD40: yes that works, but I didn’t used to have to do that. Now I have to soak them in it and let it sit a day, then wipe off – but results still aren’t as shiny. I need maximum shine and spend 1/2 hr polishing each piece & cleaning off polish for nothing.
6) Too high CD: not using 720 or LCD but my Astron power supply always seems to pick amperage for me. When i get to 15 volts I can’t raise amps past 12/14 for larger pieces or 2-4 for very small ones. And anyway, my guess-settings were working before.

COULD IT BE:
1) Old dye. Considering a second hand bar fridge to deal w/ mold in darker colors. My black never leaves fridge except to dye, is immaculate. Admittedly some colors have molded beyond skimming – got some nutty blotches on a test piece in violet last night.
2) I should use LCD or 720. My pieces are very irregular shapes, I think you’d need a PhD to correctly calculate their surface area. How does one get round that?
3) ???

Thanks for reading all that, and ideas!

Proper anodizing is supposed to be pretty hard; I’ve dropped it or taken steel wirewheels to it and seen little effect. This surprised me.

here are two anodized + dyed pieces that tapped against each other repeatedly. one is rounded, the other is somewhat sharp at the edge. both weigh very little because they’re about 4" long.

the rounded one tapped the sharp edge of the other one for a day or so, and developed this colorless area where the contact happened. there’s no scratch you can feel in the finish, but the color looks erased.

this is bad, because this was part of a gift. did i do something wrong, and if so any ideas how to prevent?

thanks all!

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Ok, here is a question I can’t seem to find an answer for. Is there a way to color or dye brass with out plating?. I have brass pieces that I want a bright color (green, red etc) not just nickel. Any thoughts?

I´ve just got some bike pieces that im pretty sure are cast aluminum, but i have my doubts, i´ve made the alloy test using caustic soda, but the color wasnt really showing, so i couldnt tell the alloy of the pieces, is there any way to know is a piece is a cast aluminium, and to know the alloy?

My first attempt at electroless cobalt plating went quite well – except for the final color. It can best be described as a cross between nickel silver and aluminum bronze. Certainly not the near chrome that I was expecting. It appears even more yellowish than a nickel plating.

I am plating a pistol frame with approximately 50 square inches using the "mini" kit. The gun was previously blued, but between the surface prep and the glass bead blasting, no bluing remained. One small area was filled with 4% silver 96% tin solder – way less than 0.1 square inches.

I degreased in 160 degree TSP for 6 minutes, rinsed well in tap water then sprayed off with distilled (RO) water. Water break free.

30 second dip in muratic acid, sprayed down completely with RO water. Straight into the plating solution at 195-200 deg F. Replenished the solution every 7 minutes, total plating time 30 minutes. Rinsed in tap water.

Surface finish is a nice satin like I wanted, a couple of places I could have done better with the surface prep, abut all in all success! ….except for the color.

I knew not to expect a true satin chrome, but I certainly hoped for better than this. The satin chrome parts that I have to go onto the frame to complete it make the frame color look terrible.

So, any suggestions? What did I do wrong and more importantly, what can I do to recover?

Cobalt plating the chrome pieces is not the way I want to go, but is it a possibility to get a color match? I’d much rather fix the color of the frame.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

So I have used my new gun a few times and am new to the scene here. Are there more steps to cleaning the gun then just shooting air through it? If you are going from a black to white or a red to white and want to avoid any and all color specs from your white any recommendations?

Currently using the Caswell 50kv cup gun.

Wondering if anyone can help ID this metal finish on an old J Stevens Shotgun. I’ve never seen a copper colored receiver. One fellow on another gun forum suggested that the old platers used copper base coats for nickel plating. The finish is very even and shows little signs of wear. The base metal is magnetic.

Plz help, its the first time it happened to me. I first sanded the rough cast aluminum with 180,220,320,400. Now at 400 girt i can see it coming better.But at a certain spot there is like a birth mark that is a darker looking color like it just came out from under the aluminum when i was sanding. Anybody got a clue what this would be and how to fix it. I keep on sanding it but it stays the same color not like the rest of the surrounded area help.Thank u i’ll show u a pic ,but if anybody ran through this before can u tell me what i should do.

I just started working on an old, nickel plated revolver, and I’m in the process of stripping and polishing the parts right now. I’m using the MetalX B-9 stripper, but I’m not sure about how to detemine if all the nickel is gone. I have noticed that the nickel turns black when you dip the parts, so can I safely assume that all nickel is gone when no more traces of black show up? I have soaked, wiped and brushed the parts a couple of times and it seems like nothing is turning black anymore, but the reason I’m asking is that some areas still seem to have that slightly yellowish nickel tint to them.

A related question is how you determine the remaining life of the stripper. It has some discoloration to it, but I don’t know if the absence of black residue on the gun parts is because there’s no nickel left, or if it could simply be because the stripper is used up.

Any tips will be appreciated!