Jetenginekyle's anodizing log/progress

[jetenginekyle]

just finish this one tonight. used to be a high gloss blue ano now its a matt blue/light blue/clear acid wash. According to my research afterwards the finish was dulled because it was anodized at to high of a temperature. It should have been around 70* but since I need to get to bed at a decent time tonight I didn't want to wait for the ice packs to cool the 12 galons of water from ~80-85* and incorrectly thought it would be fine.

[KMDPB]

Looks great! Good work! In my experience you lose the gloss whenever you remove the previous ano with lye etch. If I want gloss parts I remove ano with lye, polish, degrease, then ano. I'm not expert that's just how I do it

[jetenginekyle]

Looks great! Good work! In my experience you lose the gloss whenever you remove the previous ano with lye etch. If I want gloss parts I remove ano with lye, polish, degrease, then ano. I'm not expert that's just how I do it

thanks for the advice, any tips on polishing? i've never done aluminum before just steel on my motorcycle when i was like 12 so I don't remember much

what paste/compound do you use?

[KMDPB]

This is my secret weapon for polishing, I do a lot of polishing for work and was astonished when I discovered these.

Metal polishing Wheel 6" x 1" 7p Non Woven Abrasive Wheel Nylon Fiber polishing Wheel Abrasive disc https://a.co/d/f1Poa8e

I'll start with that wheel on a bench grinder/polisher, for any nooks and crannies I cant get to I'll use scotch brite wheels on a rotary tool. Then I use brown polishing compound on a cotton wheel for the last mirror finish. I am not a patient man so that is the technique I've developed for a decent finish in very minimal time.

[jetenginekyle]

Thanks for the help.

do you use the nylon wheel dry?

[KMDPB]

jetenginekyle yes

[NONOBLITUS]

Following along this thread. Excited to see what’s next.

[Trbo323]

Same here. That looks incredible. It's also in my color scheme so maybe I'm bias

Is it possible to do a 3 color acid wash?

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[jetenginekyle]

Is it possible to do a 3 color acid wash?

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

Yes but with limitations unless you want to have brown as one of the 3

I haven't tried it yet but I believe that the 'galaxy' anos are done by acid washing black then using two or more other colors.

If you want one of the 3 colors to be clear/"white" then the answer is always yes. Since you just do a normal two color acid wash then remove some of that with acid OR bleach (NEVER MIX ACID AND BLEACH YOU GET MUSTARD GAS AND COULD DIE!!)

Eventually I'll make a guide on how I do acid washes and what colors you can't use together if you don't want brown.

[KMDPB]

I'd love to see photos of your setup!

[XEMON]

Same here, I've been accumulating stuff to make an anodizing setup after some encouraging test, but never actually finish the setup ...
You guys make me want to finish the plunge 😅

[jetenginekyle]

I'd love to see photos of your setup!

Right now its not much a setup and more of a pile of stuff in the garage with the ano bath itself in the shed out in the backyard. I plan to do some major upgrades for organization and to get a dedicated workbench soon. I will post before and after shots once its done.

[jetenginekyle]

small update::
Threw together the gun and not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty excited about this one. The plan right now is to reano one of my black regs, ram, and 3 ways to clear so that they match the vasa and back block.


This will probably be the last update on this body since once finished I plan to sell it.

[James_Blond]

It’s a good anno to milling match. They don’t fight each other. You can appreciate the simple milling and the cool blue anno. I like the blue and silver you got going on. Wouldn’t mind something like that on one of my own guns.

[jetenginekyle]

James_Blond want me to add you to the list of people to message once I'm confident enough to work on other peoples markers?

[James_Blond]

jetenginekyle sure. Probably be a good ways off for me. If I ever get a cocker half blocked, I would be looking for anno at that point.

[jetenginekyle]

Is it possible to do a 3 color acid wash?

i was wrong, it is possible to get a three color acid wash with out getting brown. I found this example from a much more talented anodizer than I

If i were to guess this was done by:

1. dying it red

2. remove most of the red using the bleach, thorough rinse, reopen pores with diluted sulfuric acid, thorough rinse method to get acid wash (I skip the bleach part and just use sulf acid because its safer since there is no chance of the bleach and acid mixing if i don't use it. My method still works but using bleach to remove the dye works faster on some colors)

3. put part in amber dye until desired shade achieved, rinse excess dye off well

4. drip blue dye onto part and let it sit for a bit to get the green. I've heard that dye can be thickened with cornstarch to keep it from running so much during this step.

5. rinse then seal

[jetenginekyle]

Light blue splash with dark blue marble. Will post details later it's currently 1am and I need to get to bed

[jetenginekyle]

Light blue splash with dark blue marble. Will post details later it's currently 1am and I need to get to bed

For all steps wear appropriate ppe gloves, goggles, and respirator


I ran the ano @ 3.44 amps for 160 minutes, bath temp was about 65F at start of run.

Dyed it in caswell fast blue 2LWN, dye temp was about 70F ( i should have heated it, took forever to absorb)

Dry off part, then put applied splash mask. ( I use GE Siliconized Acrylic that I've thinned with acetone until it has paint like consistency)

Remove light blue not covered by the mask by dipping part in solution of ~10% sulfuric acid 90% distilled water. rinse part very well

Put about half a teaspoon of caswell blue 4A in a plastic grocery bag and shake it until dye droplets cover inside evenly, then put the parts in and wrap them in the bag. I put the body in its own bag and the vasa and blocks in their own separate bag. For the bag with the small parts I twisted the part around when wrapping it to keep them from touching each other.

wait 30 min, then rinse well

seal in caswell ano sealer for 30 min

clean off masking with plastic scraper and acetone

seal again since otherwise the parts that were under the mask wouldn't be sealed correctly

[jetenginekyle]

Been busy recently and haven't been able to make time to ano lately but today I had the day off school and was able to get this one done.

[redsquirrel]

Very impressive. Love the look.

[OpusX]

Very sexy. Thats my style

[Levi]

Whoa! I really like that one. There's a ton of detail in there. Great work!