Keeping polished parts shiny?

[rjelliott]

Am I ever going to be able to keep my polished parts shiny? Every time I anodize them they turn cloudy. I have tried shorter run times but still no luck. Any ideas. My whole purpose of doing this was to ano clear over polished parts so I would not have to polish the aluminum all the time.

[ddrink]

I've never used it, but Zoopseal is supposed to do just that for you. I think Caswell sells it?

[spankey666]

the main issue i found with trying to ano mirror polished ali was the cleaning off every last trace of polishing wax. almost every type of degreaser i used dulled the surface. i eventually discovered that boiling the part in distilled water (to soften any wax ) and then soaking them in brake cleaner worked best, but only 98% of the time. small nooks and crannies were still susceptable to wax harbouring. but you only found out after dying as those areas were still silver.

i did some samples recently to distribute around some local engineering companies, polished bar, 10cm x 20cm he30 grade (6*** something ) that was just rinsed in a bath of brake cleaner over night, and lightly scrubbed with an old toothbrush, they lost very very little of their shine after anoing and dyed all colours inc black. no lye dip or de-smut, just brake cleaner, blow dried with some compresed air and straight in the ano tank

[rjelliott]

Thanks. I will give it a try.

[FigureLLC]

yeah, i've used zoop seal with good results. it's kind of a pita to apply, but i suppose less of a pain than polishing it all the time.

[saintrich]

I make surgical instruments.
We had a instrument that we highly polished. We would dip them in a altrasonic with Alumabrite. And it worked good.
We sent them out to be type II anodized.
I don't know if the anodizer did any thing to the parts but they came back looking like crome blue and red.

[spankey666]

alubrite (if its the same as what is for sale in the uk ) is a strong acid cleaner that fizzes when you put bits in. my experience is it dulls the surface, also the thicker the ano , the duller the finish. you could try a light polish after dying, i believe i read something about doing this on this forum a while back.

[BobFrapples]

You only really really notice the polish and shine of a product on light colours, or vibrant colours such as red and light green, aqua blue, etc.
Light colours such only be ano'ed to about 0.7mm, which would reduce the dulling of a full 1mm.

Heres my suggestion:
Strip
Deox (if necessary)
Polish/Buff (if cut necessary, use dark, if clean enough, use light to bring more polish)
Degrease
Ano to ~0.7mm
Dye
Seal
Polish with light compound for vibrant pull