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metal work

Ti doesn't anodize black tho. I've tried lol. There is a process a company called russamer labs offers that will blacken titanium but it only works on certain grades of ti and its also a proprietary process they developed in house.
 
There was a guy that worked at Oakley that said 1st Gen. Plasma was A PVD coating... I know when I blast it off it peels away. That stuff is unholy strong. At the Oakley museum in California they have a bag of aluminum oxide media on display. So I'm pretty sure that's what they used on the X metal finish.
 
There was a guy that worked at Oakley that said 1st Gen. Plasma was A PVD coating... I know when I blast it off it peels away. That stuff is unholy strong. At the Oakley museum in California they have a bag of aluminum oxide media on display. So I'm pretty sure that's what they used on the X metal finish.

They have a few different samples of of blasting media on display there now with the x metals.

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I didnt see those.....I guess plasma is a bead blasted finish.... I've been working with 300 grit glass bead and I still can't obtain that finish.
 
The coarser you go with glass bead the shiner the finish gets. 300 grit is probably a bit on the dull side. Around 180 to 200 grit glass bead gets a pretty similar look. Although the earlier gen stuff 2nd and 3rd there's still a coating that took away the grayish look ti has and gave the plasma a slightly brighter silver look.
 
Carbon is an anodized finish. Whether or not the later generations of plasma are Sandblasted is debatable.....

i thought about saying it was anodized, but black anodizing on TI is a difficult task. also the lower gloss look that the carbons tend to have made me question if it is really an anodize process. it very well may be, but it was not an obvious conclusion.

yeah, actually the carbon and all of the 'coated' X-metal OEM frames are done in a PVD style. think of it as a metalized powder coat layer. it is thinner than powder coat but attaches similarly and has similar durability to a baked powder.

that said, i still think i can get close to some of the finishes with DIY configurations. at least close enough to hide some blemishes.
 
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Bare X-Metal looks very similar to the X-Metal finish when not sanded and to Plasma when sanded or wire wheeled, this is a XX before the actual Black coating...unfortunately I do not have a blaster...
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Finally getting around to posting some at home finishes. The x-metal juliets are OEM shown as a color reference. The polished orbitals, and colored nose bridge and ear stems are the ones i have been working on most recently. I can do a 'x-metal clone' color also. Details when i am not on my phone.

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