anodizing techniques

[july_favre New User Find all posts View Profile Close july_favre]

I want to do some different anodizing effects but they are only mentioned briefly in the manual-is there any place online that has some walk throughs?
I also have some specefic questions-
How do some splashes and "sponge" effects and others that have an opaque color on top? I thought all the dyes were transparent, how would I go about recreating this.

Ive seen white in splashes on top of other colors- I thought you couldnt anodize white.

When dipping in dye it needs to stay there for several minutes and if I airbrush with the typical method the dye is aplied for a second and then it sees no more dye-does the airbrushing require mutiple passes for the dye to reach a dark rich color?

Thanks

[erogers New User Find all posts View Profile Close erogers]

My anodizer told me that they use a sponge with some acid. Where you place the sponge, the color comes off. Rinse, then re-dye with the color you want on the bare spots. You may have to experiment with different colors, to get the effect you want. Also, keep in mind, that the longer the time you leave in dye, the deeper/darker the color.

To reiterate,

1) Primary dye.

2) apply battery acid solution (or possibly bleach)

3) rinse (really well if you used bleach)

4) redye

5) seal. (final step)

WARNING! Never mix bleach with acid, It is extremely poisonus!

Hope this helps. Roger

P.S. There is white dye. What you saw was bare aluminum. Probably polished. Also, laser engraved aluminum looks white.