DOES ANYONE HAVE A 'DYE FADE' MACHINE????

[mcaswell]

I know some of our customers have rigged up a small motor above their dye tanks to produce 'fades'. If you have any pictures of this setup, I'd like a copy for our new anodizing video, please.

mike@caswellplating.com

[jtsuttle]

I've got a cheaper and easier way that I do fades. All you need is two tanks (buckets) and some flexible tubing (clear pcv is cheap, very flexible, and works great).

I heat my dye in one tank and then hang the part to be faded in an empty tank. Once the dye is heated I use the tubing to siphon the dye to the empty tank. The fade is produced as the dye level slowly rises over the part. Speed can be controlled by size of tubing or diameter of bucket.

Make sure the empty tank is lower than the dye tank to siphon properly. To get the dye to start flowing just completely submerge the tubing in the dye and move it around till its full of dye. Then hold your finger over one end of the tubing, lift it from the dye tank and move it to the empty tank, move your finger away and the dye will start to flow. Make sure the other end of the tubing stays submerged in the dye or the flow will stop and you'll have to start all over. When you're done just lift the hose from the dye and the flow will stop. Its not as messy as it may sound, with a little practice you should be able to do it and only get dye on a couple of fingers. A very small fountain pump would also work and keep you from having to put your fingers in the dye. There is also a siphon hose available at Lowes and other places that works good but there is only one size available so you would have to control speed with a valve or something. I'll try to find a picture or link for the siphon hose so you guys can see what I'm talking about.

Hope this wins me the 20 amp power supply!

[jtsuttle]

Here is one of the self priming hoses on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

[Fibergeek]

Jtsuttle,

That's slick, I like it.

[M_D]

That does sound like a real good idea, and would be cheap and easy to implement. If two containers were connected with fittings at the bottom, and used an inline valve it would make it easy to adjust the rate of flow. I am going to have to try this sometime, it sounds like a fun project.

[mcaswell]

Very slick indeed. Well worth a 20 amp power supply. Please provide your address to mike@caswellplating.com

[jtsuttle]

WOW! I'm so stuned I can't even think what to say. Thanks a million Mike! I have emailed my address to you.

[mcaswell]

BTW I didn't get your email. Please send address to "removed to stop spam robots" - I'm having SPAM problems right now.

Perhaps someone could take this a stage further, and give some specifics on the degree of fade depending on the pipe size etc.

Lets propose that a Caswell 2 gal or 3.5 gal bucket are used for the dye base tanks.

That would give a specific depth of dye in each tank.
Now,lets assume the part is immersed to the bottom of the tank.
Thyen lets change the syphon pipe size and see the depth of color and log the changes. I'm sure with some jiggery pokery we can come up with some specifics here.

[jtsuttle]

Hi Mike,
I resent my address; let me know if you got it. If you can post diameters and depths of the buckets I will try to do some calculations and determine inches per minute of rise in the dye level through a couple different hose sizes or small pumps.

[jtsuttle]

A big THANK YOU! to Caswell. I received the power supply yesterday and am very pleased with it.