Anyone done acid washes?

[scamihorn]

Well it has been another productive weekend, and I have had a little direction in doing acid wash anodizing. Basically using bleach and a sponge to bleach away a darker color and then put in a lighter color where the dark color bleached out.

A few challenges along the way, first of al organic sponges melt almost immediately in bleach, synthetic sponges melt after one day of use, too runny of bleachh runs down in the cracks too much. But regardless of those challenges I feel I had some pretty good results.





If anyone has any tips or tricks on acid washes I would love to hear it, I have learned so much in the last month, I am going to be working with some guys to document it all soon. We have some other things we want to perfect soon, but I am optimistic.

[RedRiver]

That is fricken fantastic!! I'd really like to know what the entire process was. A few questions if I may :

1. How did you "thicken" the bleach in order to prevent it from running into the tiny cracks?

2. Do you have a specific bleach solution ratio that you were using or is it 100% bleach + thickening agent?

3. Is there a specific brand name of sponge that you used for this process?

4. How long were you holding the sponge in one spot while bleaching the darker color away (approx.)?

Thanks so much...This is wonderfull stuff! REALLY GOOD WORK!

I'd really like to learn your entire process. If you're not comfortable posting it here, I wouldn't mind a PM. Again, amazing work...WOW! Thanks for sharing!!

- Dan

[mcaswell]

My first impression of this finish was that it looked like a walnut dash on an old car. With a little tweaking, I think that finish could easily be achieved.

Amazing what you guys come up with!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RedRiver]

Scamihorn, I've been inspired. Here is some "acid washed" parts I did yesterday after reading your post.

The part on the left was done first. I wanted to see first hand how well the bleach leeched the dye out from the anodic layer. The part on the right was done as you have described above, however, finding a thickening agent for the bleach has proven difficult thus far. Its going to have to be something that won't clug the pores...Any ideas?

All in all for a first attempt I think it turned out rather well. The part on the left really doesn't count as I was using this part just as a sample for the bleach test. By the way, I found the black dye took MUCH longer to leech away...The red was nearly instant!

Thanks for the good work scamihorn. Keep us posted 'cuz I'm dyeing to see more!




Cheers!

[scamihorn]

I have not thickened the bleach, just let it run on very wet with a low bleach concentration. I think I had mine two strong. Some have suggested a 5:1 ratio Water:bleach.

I watch it pull the dye out of the annodonic layer, and then spray off with my distilled water quickly. it takes some time and patience, and i need to play more but I am really excited about it.

[acidrain]

Bleaching out the dye from a dry part is very defferent from a wet part... You can control the wash from your sponge to very specific areas/patterns when applying to a dry part, and get whispy, gradually bleached areas when applying to wet parts.
Also, try going back over the same areas with acid after bleach and rinse... the next dye passes will take much better on a acid washed part than a bleached part.
The green one is sponged dry, and the blue one is sponged wet:

[RedRiver]

Acidrain - VERY NICE!

Man, you people are incredible. You have given me some great ideas there!! I hope I can find the time (between production runs) to get a few trials in.

By using acid after the bleach, I assume you are using the sulfuric acid, acidrain? Roughly what concentration are you using for this approach? Is it straight acid or a portion taken from the electrolyte?

Thanks guys...Great thread! Keep the good stuff coming!

[yoyoboy]

1:3 same as in your tank, except not

[RedRiver]

Getting better? I'm relatively pleased thus far...

[acidrain]

Looks AWSOME!