Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Anodizing Tips: Silver

    Silver is very easy to anodize since there is no color added. The base finish, like all anodizing will have a large result on the finish. I like polished as much as possible. If you have a mirror finish the anodizing will tend to pull the grains out of the mirror finish but should reflect really well. Blasted or etched will look whiter. The photo isn't that great (hard to take pics of silver) but you can see the reflection of the black pipes in the part.
    A few little tricks: I do short anodizing time, about half needed for dye. To check the surface (Since bleach testing wont work), after sealant, use mother's aluminum polish. if anodized it will not blacken. On sealant I just use boiling water as most sealants have a tinge of green. Totally fresh water too as any residue dye can soak in and cause a cast of color.
    A few drops of blue is a little trick I have found. In person (camera make it look yellowish)  the above part has a blue tinge. The eye sees blue in the spectrum as silver and this helps offset yellow and grey casting in the part.

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