Good call. And thank you TK so much for confirming it with Neal.
Not sure why doing a nice anodise should be proving so tricky, isn’t that what anodisers should just know how to do, it’s their job after all ? Perhaps it’s to do with the alloy used. ISTR that it also took Convoy a while to develop their clear anodise to their satisfaction.
A clear anodise on a “raw” machined finish is also merciless in exposing the slightest defects in workmanship, when the machining marks are to be a design feature, not something to be covered up. Just handling the pieces, moving them around, keeping them almost surgically clean before processing, etc. needs care, individual bubble wrap etc. if you don’t want them dinged up, then a good hard anodise to then protect them. Unlikely to be real mil-spec HA3 stuff, but still something good, semi-hard.
It was probably unrealistic to hope for anything like that at this price-point.
Bead blast, a quick dunk in the tanks, then just chuck them all in a bin together is the production-engineering easy way out.
The solo artisan perfectionist, toiling at their lathe, can make things much more beautiful, and go from concept to execution in a few hours, but that doesn’t easily scale, as I think we are discovering.
Sitting behind a CAD screen, rendering, then perhaps coding for CNC (that’s usually a different, more practical, and dare I say more skilled discipline), is not quite the same thing as making swarf, and sometimes pieces don’t turn out quite the way it was hoped, or are simply un-manufacturable, and another iteration is required, and things can become delayed interminably. The skill is not to let that happen. And to use a team to review, accept constructive criticism, involve the production people as early as possible, and not just live in an ivory tower.
It looks as if they have got a nice looking bland result.
For those interested, you could take a look at e.g http://www.metroplating.co.uk and study their “services” options. Each provides a succinct summary of each process. Specialist finishers like these are crucial to the UK’s manufacturing competitiveness, particularly in motorsport, aerospace and defence, and metroplating one of the best and most nimble IME. There are hundreds more though to choose from, just Google e.g. “anodising uk”.
Or have a go yourself. It’s not difficult. Research it, or just buy a kit from e.g. http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/index.php?route=common/home or https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/Anodising_Kits.html
Something for modders to experiment with, and a bit more creative than e.g. just baking your torches.
Start with something cheap, strip off the old with sodium hydroxide (e.g. some drain cleaners), maybe buff it up a bit, and get practicing. Some battery acid, inkjet printer ink, some sort of DC power supply, a cathode, some Al wire, and you’r good to go. Perhaps in time for the 2019 Old-Lumens challenge. Use titanium instead, and apply by brush, use masking, and you could make a really unique work of art.