Question about prepping polished parts for ano

[Drcemento]

I've worked through how to get a great polish on aluminum. Whats concerning me is how to clean them for ano. Straight simple green heated up gets the polishing rouge out of the nooks and crannies OK - turning on the ultrasonic function does even better, but Its dulling the polish big time. De-smut /de oxidizer seems to also haze it out, as does the ano process. is this normal, and you buff it up after ano? the caswell manual does mention that, and it seems to work ok on the small test bits but wondering if i'm missing something....

[Melrosejedi]

I have yet to figure out the Answer you’re looking for. I polished all my parts once and the rouge wasn’t completely removed and ruined the finished state. the entire process needed to be redone. I believe the ultrasonic cleaner is ok but leave off the heat. The anno process is so top secret it’s ridiculous.

[Drcemento]

haha - yeah - I own a shop that specializes in decorative concrete. back in the early 2000's when I started, the industry was just like the ano industry - everyone had their secret sauce and would not talk to you at all. slowly that changed when we started getting together and getting to know each other, and many of us realized the secret sauce was not anything special. true innovation started happening after that through collaberation, and low and behold the market grew and there were plenty of customers to go around and we all produce a vastly superior product now - not to mention the money one could make by offering classes to others!

the pieces are in anno now and a bit longer in the de-ox bath actually had them looking pretty good. i'm thinking the secret is more in the post ano processing to get the mirror back.

[Melrosejedi]

Nice story, hope it catches on in our case. Careful after anno to stay away from the desmut tank. I beleive it strips the anno. I was trying to remove black dye on a barrel and bleach wasn’t working,so i tried the desmut and it worked but the barrel didn’t take the next color as deeply. Love hearing the progress, good luck.

[KMDPB]

Have you tried bright dip? Also having a cool acid tank has a big impact on final gloss.

[Melrosejedi]

Quick research on the bright dip but haven’t found anything. I have seen your video where you use aluma brite i beleive its called. Would this be the brightener? I believe i have seen this in lowes.

[KMDPB]

I didn't use it in the video but you can use aluminum brightener but better is to use 75% phosphoric acid 25% nitric. But I found that running a cold bath is most helpful.