Replies

1. 
   dgreen | Aug 05, 2007 12:13am | #1

   These folks may be able to help you, they specialize in brush plating.

   http://www.finishing.com/Equipment/brooktronics.shtml

   These folks offer similar stuff.

   http://www.finishing.com/Equipment/ldc.shtml

   From a little experience in an anodizing shop, I would say the best you can probably achieve is making it less noticeable.

   Good luck

   ------------------------------------

   It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump. ~David Ormsby Gore

1. 
   Rich07 | Aug 05, 2007 12:33am | #2

   how to make it less noticeable? Is there some kind of toner I can put on it?

2. 
   Kevin | Aug 05, 2007 01:15am | #3

   It depends on the color and even then it's nearly impossible to make a perfect repair to anodized. But... if it's a color anodized I would use either an alcohol-soluable or a universal dye (reduced with acetone, a glycol or alcohol) in a clear very low sheen Acrylic clear. Keep the color weak. It's much easier to sneak up on it then to remove color once you've put too much on. If it's a silver tone anodize then just the very low sheen clear might work.

   If you're just looking for something to mute the bright aluminum then one of the above will certainly help. Fortunately, solvents don't faze anodize so if you mess up you can just wipe it off and try again.

   What I would not try would be some kind of metallic paint. It probably seems counter-intuitive but metallic paint is nearly impossible to lay down in a way that actually matches well with metal. The problem is that the tiny particals of aluminum (typically what the metallic particles are made of) are like tiny mirrors and won't reflect light from all angles in the same way that the anodized surface will. At any one particular angle you could probably get it to match perfectly, provided it's a perfect match colorwise, but it will only look right if viewed from just that one angle... every other angle will look very different and will most likely be more noticible than the bright aluminun knick is right now. So stick with the dye in a flattened clear.

   In my experience, and I've color matched anodized a number of times, the flatting agent in a very low sheen clear actually helps a great deal to make the repair look right. The way it interfers with light reflection seems to be very similar to how the anodized surface has a sorta dull reflective quality... or at least it produces a very similar effect. Which I suppose is all that really matters.

   
   

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   Edited 8/4/2007 6:18 pm by Kevin

3. 
   JohnWW | Aug 05, 2007 01:34am | #4

   If it has to be an invisble repair it probably isn't possible.

   John White