I've just written a tutorial on fade anodizing. It's much simpler and cheaper to implement than you'll expect (AKA free if you already anodize).:) I know this has been a subject that many people have wanted to know about for some time now. It's located at:

http://www.bryanpryor.com/fade_anodizing.pdf

enjoy!

COOOLLLLLL
AND a very nice HOW-TO document too!
I suppose the largest you dare try and anodize is limited by the timing of the process and handling the object you're plating?
Now -- something else I gotta try!
:cheers: Jim

What.. no pictures??? :D

Great idea!

'Rekd

They're (the pictures) are in the file.
Nice!

Aha! So there are! TY.

Very trick, Neo

'Rekd teh searching for coffee

Bryan, thanks for posting the information. Very informative.

Would it be possible to hook up a stepper motor to make some kind of automated dipping system? Or do you need an operator to make judgement calls as to the depth of color?

T

Originally posted by buscht
Bryan, thanks for posting the information. Very informative.

Would it be possible to hook up a stepper motor to make some kind of automated dipping system? Or do you need an operator to make judgement calls as to the depth of color?

T

Yes and Yes. It is possible to hook up a stepper or servo driven linear slide to do this once you know how long you want the darkest part to be in the dye. For example, let's say I want to fade from blue to silver, and it takes 10 minutes to fully absorb blue dye. Also, let's say that my part is 10 inches long. So... we should dip the part, with the darkest end being submerged first, traversing 10 inches in 10 minutes, or 1 IPM - an ideal situation for CNC.

However, let's say you want a slate blue, and you don't know how long it takes to absorb the dye to achieve that color. NC wouldn't work very well here. Or, take the case where the part is an odd geometry and you can't get it to hang correctly for the fade you want, but you can hold it by hand.

Basically, both CNC and hand-operated methods will work, and each has it pros and cons. Choose whichever works best for you.

This is fantastic but how do you do it. From the start. it would be great to do regular anodizing and hard type 3. What is the process.

thank you
TC