One thing I forgot to mention is that when you want to dye more than one color in a batch, it's a lot more convienent with individual wires. It's difficult and risky to transfer parts from a rigid rack to various dyes tanks after they are anodized.
I haven't done the complete 2011 tests I mentioned before. I think it is something that may be attractive to certain people though, since 2011 is popular in automatic lathes for a couple of reasons, one major one being the chips break up better and don't foul the tools up with stringy chips like 6061 and other alloys do. I know for a fact that dying multiple pieces of 2011 on a rack causes dye quality problems, that much I have proven to myself. If the parts are anodized and dyed on a rack, they will get spotty before dying to a deep color. If a light to medium color is ok, then a short dye time will lessen the problem.
If they are removed and hung on individual wires, either Ti or aluminum, the problem goes away. The dark colors, especially black, is not as noticable. I have anodized a rack of 2011 parts (not just once, but numerous times), pulled half off and hung them individually to dye, and dyed the rest on the rack. The individually hung parts can then be dyed untill the color is deep and will stay spot free, the racked ones will get spots every single time if left in the dye too long.
Anyway, except that the 2011 anodizes to a duller finish than 6061, everything else being equal, you can get a pretty decent finish on it that way. The welded wire method could be the answer for select people who would like to improve certain high value 2011 parts. If you would like, I would sent a batch of small machined 2011 parts for you to test with.
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