Okay - Thanks so far for everyone's help - i'm up and running with the anodising and getting some pretty good results.
My most recent challenge though is with racking some screws that I need to color. I need the best possible finish on this so I'm looking for the best option here. The screws are hex head counter sunk M3 x 6mm screws. I know - they are very small but I still need a good finish.
I was going to try and buy a small bit of aluminium mesh and wrap a small bundle up in that but I wasn't sure how a) the number of contact points with a 'bundle' of parts would effect the final finish? b) how the density of the bundle would effect the anodised layer? What I mean is that would the screws in the middle of the bundle get the same result?
I don't want to have to sput weld each one
and have tried tying them with small ali wire but that was very time consuming and given the softness of ali - proved inconsistent. I started trying to screw them in to a sheet of lead but I think the threads wouldn't get a very clean result.
Any thoughts for those up on a sunday night?