I've never used the readouts on the Lab power supply for calculations because they are analog gages, and voltage is displayed 0-30V in 1V increments... pretty coarse. I've ordered another multimeter that I can dedicate to anodizing, so hopefully I'll have a little better idea of my voltage profile.
Interesting thought about native oxide... I usually prefer a gloss finish over a matte, so I don't do much bead blasting. I think I'll give that a try and check my results. I just noticed that my pieces that have a simple geometry (AKA the red,flat waterblock tops) turn out well, while the more complex geometries have a higher chance of messing up... It's likely due to the fact that I sand all flat stuff on a surface plate, and the entire surface ends up being flat. Most curvy stuff is just sanded by hand, and could easily have spots that aren't sanded as much as others.
About the Lye/DeSmut... I'm gonna order some Desmut from caswell, but it'll likely take 'til Wed. or Thurs. to get here. I've got some Red Devil Lye here. What concentration of lye should I use? I'm assuming something pretty weak, because I've seen strong Lye concentrations start to pit aluminum. Also, how long should I leave the parts in the warm lye? Should I just use the same amount of time as is called for in the desmut part of the LCD instructions?
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