Aloha peeps. It's kind of a long story, sorry. As a lot of you know, I started anodizing in my garage (mid 2020). And just when it seems I'm getting the hang of things, and fine tuning what I'm doing, I get devastating news that puts a big damper on my anodizing efforts as a whole. Explanation coming up.
The big lull between my two projects was because I wasn't getting the results I was looking for with the purple (project #2). At first, I was getting dull uneven colors. So I ended up changing my etch and ano solutions twice, in trying to repeat the colors/brightness I got with the lower voltages (project #1). The purple parts I used in my last pair was the most bright and even finish I managed to get up to that point. And once again, I let my impatience get to me, and put together a pair I wasn't 100% satisfied with. That is the main reason why I left the eye sockets as is. I lost count how many times I had to strip and redo bad ano results with the bridge and ear stems. But putting out the photos of project #2 inadvertently led to me discovering an anodizing "Road-block". With some reluctance, I put out photos of project #2. Then @SouLFuLFroG made an extremely eye-opening comment about changing my etch solution. BINGO. It took about a half a second to register that comment as one big "DUHHHHH". Up to that point, I had used only used one type of etch, and was only changing how much water to dilute it with. So now for the devestating news part.
My search for a new etch solution began immediately, with one product that was being endorsed by a lot of people as "the best". Multi-etch. And now that I found that info, all I have to do is order the thing and I'm rockin' again. So I call. Then was asked where I live. Then was immediately told they don't ship to Hawaii. With a little more research, I found there are other etch products out there that may be similar chemically, because there are heavy transport restrictions (no plane or ocean deliveries), and I can't get them either. So I'm guessing it's because of whatever chemicals these products have in them. So basically, I'm dead in the water. DAMN. I can't get a good etch product to Hawaii, which explains why no one in Hawaii does commercial anodizing. Yes you heard right. There is 'NO' anodizing done here in Hawaii at all.
So I'm bringing this up here on the Forum. To see if anyone has any ideas for an etch I can try. I'm in Hawaii, so shipping is the biggest issue I face. Hopefully if anyone has a suggestion, it's already on the islands and available. I've been using Whink rust remover for everything I've done.
The big lull between my two projects was because I wasn't getting the results I was looking for with the purple (project #2). At first, I was getting dull uneven colors. So I ended up changing my etch and ano solutions twice, in trying to repeat the colors/brightness I got with the lower voltages (project #1). The purple parts I used in my last pair was the most bright and even finish I managed to get up to that point. And once again, I let my impatience get to me, and put together a pair I wasn't 100% satisfied with. That is the main reason why I left the eye sockets as is. I lost count how many times I had to strip and redo bad ano results with the bridge and ear stems. But putting out the photos of project #2 inadvertently led to me discovering an anodizing "Road-block". With some reluctance, I put out photos of project #2. Then @SouLFuLFroG made an extremely eye-opening comment about changing my etch solution. BINGO. It took about a half a second to register that comment as one big "DUHHHHH". Up to that point, I had used only used one type of etch, and was only changing how much water to dilute it with. So now for the devestating news part.
My search for a new etch solution began immediately, with one product that was being endorsed by a lot of people as "the best". Multi-etch. And now that I found that info, all I have to do is order the thing and I'm rockin' again. So I call. Then was asked where I live. Then was immediately told they don't ship to Hawaii. With a little more research, I found there are other etch products out there that may be similar chemically, because there are heavy transport restrictions (no plane or ocean deliveries), and I can't get them either. So I'm guessing it's because of whatever chemicals these products have in them. So basically, I'm dead in the water. DAMN. I can't get a good etch product to Hawaii, which explains why no one in Hawaii does commercial anodizing. Yes you heard right. There is 'NO' anodizing done here in Hawaii at all.
So I'm bringing this up here on the Forum. To see if anyone has any ideas for an etch I can try. I'm in Hawaii, so shipping is the biggest issue I face. Hopefully if anyone has a suggestion, it's already on the islands and available. I've been using Whink rust remover for everything I've done.