Not Sure What Happend?

[SINNGENN]

Good Afternoon,
so let me start I'm new to the Process of Anodizing. So i set up my Anodizing System on Friday 13 and ran a test on Saturday afternoon.
1. my anodizing bath is a 50/50 mix sulfuric acid to distilled water i have two 8 x 12 anodes on each side.
2. I have bought the sealant and the de greaser from Caswell

So this how i ran the tests
i didn't heat the Anodizing Bath my first test i had the parts in the bath for 50min @ 4amps and in the dye for 10min and sealant for 15min See Pictures named First Test they tow of them didn't take dye and two didn't take a lot of dye the two that took dye i sandblasted the other two i just polished. i thought they didn't stay in the dye long enough.

second test
i did the second test this morning and didn't go well so i sandblasted all the parts with aluminum oxide. in the bath 1hr 20min in the dye for 30min and sealant for 30min some of the parts had a dark color and the others look bright aluminum. see the pictures named second test, when i put them in the dye and pulled them out after the 30min the darker ones didn't take any dye and the other ones took dye great.

we are trying to get a Type III hard coat and read the cooler the Bath the better just extra info.

not sure what i did wrong any help would be great
Thanks
Chris

[Caswellplating_Jason]

What values are you using ? Amps per sq inch ? mil thickness ? What prep are you using ?

[SINNGENN]

Good Morning Jason,
i'm using .3/sq in

I'm not sure on that one

on the the first and second test i used simple green due to the fact the parts are really oil free. when i did the water break test without cleaning the water break test failed when. i cleaned the parts with simple green the water break test worked. and the parts came out great on the first test but doing the second test the same way you can see how the second test turned out.

i have a couple of questions that might help diagnose the problem
1. can you screw up the anodizing bath and how not including baking soda?
2. looking at the the titanium wire it looks a lot of heat? see attached picture
3. how do you tell if you are using the right lead sheet? see attached picture
4. at the start of the anodizing bath the DC power supply amp meter jumps around a bit at some point it stops doing that and stays where i set it. when i look at the parts before i turn on the air pump the parts stat forming bubbles on the surface of the part like they should. there are a lot more bubbles coming off the lead is that normal?

Thanks
Chris

[SINNGENN]

Now I'm even more confused i just checked the OHMS on the parts i did in test 1 and all of them don't do not move the needle on the multi meter and the parts that i did in test 2 the parts that dyed black don't register on the anything on the multi meter and the parts that didn't dye are not anodized and register OHMS on the multi Meter how would that happen when some anodized and some didn't anodize when they where processed at the same time?
Thanks
Chris

[KevinB]

The anodic coat is very resistive electrically speaking. Those parts that took dye anodized and it would be normal that the multimeter would read an open circuit (i.e. the meter needle did not move). Those parts that did not take dye did not anodize and would measure electrical conductivity (i.e. the meter needle moved).

If you anodized all of these parts at the same, then the problem is most likely your racking. Make sure you have good solid contacts between each part to the rack and from the rack to you power supply bussing.