racking screws

[kickn]

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?

[Fibergeek]

Glad to hear that you are making progress.

I still like the idea of threading the screws partially into a lead plate. The plate doesn't have to be thick, maybe 0.7 - 1 mm thick. Since they are screws, there has to be some portion of the thread that won't show. The plate is no larger than what you need for your batch of screws. Since the lead is so soft, just punching holes in the lead plate should work.

[kickn]

Okay - i'll give that a shot and also I'll try a small batch of the screws in the mesh.

cheers fibre!