Before I get started.... what does high sulfur content in tap water do to the acid solution?
So I gave distilled water a try last night. No luck same results. Here's how I went about things. I've been pondering on this process for some 2 weeks now and decided that I was sure it wasn't being anodized long enough (what is causing it is anyones guess or investigation). So I decided I was going to try something.
dip part in ano stripper for a minute or two.
rinse w/ tap water
dip part in de-ox de smut for a few seconds
rinse w/ tap water
anodize part (.06 SF) in 1:2 acid to tap water for 45 min at 30A/SF
(I was guessing that it needed to be anodized twice as long but didn't want to wait that long) Part came out looking similar to what it should (not silver or light grey)
rins w/ tap water
soak in dye for 20 min at 140F
hmmmm looks better but still not good nice dark grey color
now here's the kicker.
I stuck it back in the anodize at 60A/SF
for 15 min
went through the same process and got a beautiful jet black color
sealed it for 15 min... minimal dye came off the part and it stayed black
wohooo one good part in 2 weeks... too bad it was a sample.
next test....
sample piece w/ .03125 SF of SA.
go through the same prep steps
put in 1:2 ratio acid to "DISTILLED WATER" at 15 ASF (.5 amps) for 45 min temp right around 70
hmmm this don't look good... still silver... what the heck am I doing wrong... voltage never dropped or wet up drastically like a lost connection... voltage slowly rose was around 16ish and rose to 18 ish
so I rinsed it and dyed it anyway for 40 min and it was light grey.
i give up at this point and decide to do some other parts. mat'l was unknown. I was told either 6000 series or 7000 series... gee thanks for the help on that one. So I put 4 pieces in totalling .66SF set amps at 11 for a little fudge factor over 15ASF since I'm getting crappy results anyway. Consistent... but crappy. Well it started at 73ish degrees... till I got to my 45 min It was at 85 degrees
Didn't even cross my mind about heating the solution too fast. They were med to dark grey coming out of the acid. i rinsed and died anyway and they were then dark grey and the dye really didn't take all that well. Is this what typically happens when you get past the 78 deg mark?
for additional information on my original acid make up I stuck a part in it and hooked up a battery charger to it and it worked out to 28 ASF to start with and then in a new known 1:2 tap water solution and it worked out to 15ASF. Just thought it was something I found that was interesting. Don't know if it means anything though
My next attempt will involve getting multiple small pieces and start removing them every couple minutes and placing them in the dye to see how long I really have to anodize for. I also read something about anodizing with the connection out of the solution to rule out a bad connection. I might try that too. Only thing I can figure is I have really bad tap water and have to buy new sealer, dye, deox, and stripper. Sometimes I hate being stubborn and keep at a challenge till I get it.