Notes on Anodizing

[JosephS]

Sealing
This step seals the dye in and as far as i know is optional. The sealing process stops the color from fading, but makes the coating weaker to abrasion. This is why the original world car chassis become purple after a few decades .

As far as I know, the sealing process is the critical last step that finalizes the entire process.
Anodized aluminum that is not sealed will be highly absorbent to all kinds of dirt, grease, oil and stains.
Either boiling in distilled water, or preferably, hot sealed with nickel acetate is very common. There several other sealing techniques as well.
This procedure is used to close the porous aluminum oxide layer after the anodizing step. Consequently it will seal in the dye and form a far superior finish.


Chuck

Pretty much you are correct for any RC application. It seems that unsealed anodizing will absorb grease an contaminates, while being harder, I can't see that being a something that would be acceptable.
https://aluminumsurface.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-sealing-process-is-so-important.html

[Coelacanth]

Has anybody tried to ceramic-coat anodized or raw-but-polished aluminum parts yet? I have some of that automotive stuff...CQuartz, leftover from using it on my 1:1 car's wheels, which are polished, coated aluminum. That should be a pretty beneficial protective layer, I'd assume.

[JosephS]

Has anybody tried to ceramic-coat anodized or raw-but-polished aluminum parts yet? I have some of that automotive stuff...CQuartz, leftover from using it on my 1:1 car's wheels, which are polished, coated aluminum. That should be a pretty beneficial protective layer, I'd assume.

I have seen a few users post up high shine chassis. I'd imagine any quality automotive sealant would add some protection to the chassis. There isn't a reason why ceramic coat auto sealant wouldn't work on anodized parts.

Unless you are talking about this kind of ceramic coating
https://www.cerakote.com/

[Rep732]

Prep work is key to having the desired finish. If you won't a shiny piece after anodizing then polish it to a mirror finish before anodizing. Also a super fine 000 steel wool is good to help polish as well as a metal compound and never dull will work as long as the anodized surface was done correctly. This piece was polished after I anodized

[JosephS]

The proper color dye for a Cadillac gold pan is Caswell Gold S

https://caswellplating.com/gold-s-anodizing-dye-4-oz.html

Thanks to Dave Geitner for the information.

[radioactivity]

You caught my attention.

Can you tell me any more?
I don't know of Dave Geitner , has he used and compared anodized samples?
I've ordered a couple of Caswell's dyes and so far haven't had any headway. Almost tried gold n.
I did look at there example of gold s, it appeared too bright and too yellow. But pics can be deceiving.

Chuck

[JosephS]

You caught my attention.

Can you tell me any more?
I don't know of Dave Geitner , has he used and compared anodized samples?
I've ordered a couple of Caswell's dyes and so far haven't had any headway. Almost tried gold n.
I did look at there example of gold s, it appeared too bright and too yellow. But pics can be deceiving.

Chuck

For a while Dave was anodizng all sorts of vintage rc10's on facebook. He is the one who started mass anodizing aluminum screws in the correct color for rc10's.