gloss

[starns]

been polishing parts and anoing them. they come out dust. have to repolish them after the final ano stage is this normal.

[blackcote]

Anodizing will dull the finish from original slightly, So will leaving it in the cleaner too long, but the finished piece should still be satisfactory with no final touchup being needed if everything's done right. It's likely something wrong with one of the many parameter's that are involved with anodizing. I'd venture a guess that you ano'd too long... and you getting some dissolution... but that's just a guess based on what we've had issue with. In our case what actually happened was we got so much acid drag out that we started to get this film after sealing that really didn't rub off with fingers. We noticed that we didn't get it with the other colors that we were anodizing less than the black, so we tried less time on the black part an viola no need to wipe 'em down or buff 'em off. We continued that way for quite some time until I did a current density check with a 1 sq ft pc. and noticed the volts were starting out way too high. Added acid to bring it back down and the times, amps, and volts were back in check.

[starns]

so leaving it in desmut will dull it or leaving it in degreaser will dull it?

[blackcote]

degreaser. Depending on the alloy, it you leave it in there too long... it will pretty much turn black with smut. then using the desmut to get it all back off, you'll notice a dulled finish.

[starns]

when i use the degreaser ive been trying to do it for a minute or less...any suggestions on another good degreaser? i cant seem to find the SP degreaser on caswells site...

[blackcote]

A quick search turned up this...
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/sp.htm

We've only used caswells so far. No complaints yet, but we heat it a bit higher than recommended as many others do. Any where above 180 and it works really good. We have it in much longer than a minute though. We leave it in till we get a slight bit of grey color from smut and every once in a while dipping it in an out to help get the grime away from the parts and get fresh cleaner at it.