ANODIZING for aluminum poker cases

[DanGWanG]

what in the hell did boost cover that with? looks neat-o

The blood and sweat of a 100 Chinese factory workers.

But in all seriousness, I think he referred to it as a textured [strike]anodize[/strike] powder-coated process?

[boost]

what in the hell did boost cover that with? looks neat-o

Powder coated Honda textured red

This is the same paint that are on the Honda viable covers. Honda head know what I'm talking about, I was once Honda head(good ole days)

[KyesaRRi]

No word back from the anodizing place yet. They had told me 2-3 weeks 16 days ago, so they're still within their time frame. If I don't hear from them by then I'll go visit them to see how things are going.

Cool cool thanks man oh and very nice keyboard there boost =D

[alaricljs]

Powder coated Honda textured red

This is the same paint that are on the Honda viable covers. Honda head know what I'm talking about, I was once Honda head(good ole days)

You mean valve cover?    I don't think I've had a Honda w/ red.  (2 CRXs (90/91), Civic Si (02))

[mkawa]

all the type r motors have had red valve covers (b18c-r, k20a-r, etc)

[alaricljs]

Oh yeah, that would be all those models I never had the opportunity to own for one reason or another.    Would have lurved an SiR.

[mkawa]

also all f-series s2000 motors have red valve covers and i believe all nsx valve covers are red (but the latter i'm really not sure about).

fun honda fact: before the mortgage bubble crashed, honda was designing an s2000 type r to close out the s2000's production run. instead, we got the CR (type-S in japan).  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

(note that all type Rs have motors hand-built to higher tolerances with uprated internals. basically every type R comes with another design pass for the motor. hence, the f2xc motors never got a significant design change after 2000 because of the housing bubble :/)

[oneproduct]

The anodizing place called me today to let me know they're getting started on it now (they had been working on things from earlier customers). I asked them how long but they said they didn't know. Sorry this is taking so long guys, not much I can really do.

[mkawa]

eh, stuff happens. thanks for the update man!

[boost]

I really wanna see how this comes out..

[oneproduct]

The finishing/anodizing place called me again this morning. They brushed one case and polished another one for testing purposes. Apparently the brushed one looks great but the polishing was a little bit pitted (I presume he means where they polish over the welded corners). I'm going to go over and visit them in about two hours to check for myself and I'll take some pictures or videos to show you guys. If the polishing really looks bad, I'm going to just have them all brushed instead.

[oneproduct]

The first case is polished, the second is brushed. Sorry it's so blurry, it's just a cellphone camera.

You may want to mute the audio or lower your volume a little, there's some buzzing from machinery in the background.
[video=youtube_share;Y8UPsmHZ31c]http://youtu.be/Y8UPsmHZ31c[/video]

You can see a bit better in the pictures I took (first three are of the polished case's pits, last is the brushed case):

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You can see that there are little "pits" visible in the polished one which become visible when you polish off some of the surface of the aluminum. I'll send a PM to those who wanted it polished to see if they'd want to get it brushed instead.

edit: It's hard to tell from these video and pictures, but they look very nice in person and the finishing hid all the signs of welding on the outside corners (you can still see a tiny bit along the top edge though). Sorry I couldn't take more, they were in a hurry and didn't want to babysit me in the shop while I was taking pictures. I have to let them know what to go with as soon as possible, so I'm going to be calling them tomorrow morning. I personally don't think that the little pits are too bad, so if I don't hear back from people I'm going to assume that it's okay to go ahead with polishing.

[emptythecache]

eeee those pits look a little rough. Hard to tell about the scale of them though. And did he say anything about whether or not the anodizing would fill them in or hide them?

[oneproduct]

The second picture lets you see them at a better scale (about the size of a pinprick), in the first picture I'm pretty zoomed in on them. The anodizing won't hide them since it's more like changing the color of the aluminum rather than applying a layer of paint over it.

[boost]

I don't think it will fill the deeper ones..but the brushed looks great

[mkawa]

that's unfortunate. i'll think about it and decide tonight when i can look at the images on my computer

if i don't get back to this, just make my polished case brushed. the pits look pretty visible on the polished unit on my phone

[J-P]

Lookin' good dude - happy to stick with the brushed decision

[ekw808]

Since it is only brushed will it be more prone to scratches and knicks?? I get the feeling that if the brushed on were on my desk the bottom of the case that is not elevated and resting on my desk could get scratched by some dirt or dust on my desk (not that my desk is dirty but it seems like a possible issue), but the polished looks like the clear outer coat could protect it from what I mentioned. Are the pits guaranteed to show up on polished cases?? and is it going to be a polished vs brushed decision as a whole??

[oneproduct]

For the finishing you choose polished or brushed, then whichever you choose, it will also be anodized, and the anodizing protects it from scratches and such.

The pits would be random for each piece of aluminum.

It won't be polished vs brushed as a whole. You can choose the finish you want individually.

[ekw808]

Ok, in that case I'll take mine brushed then I dont want to see those pits

[Elrobo]

Sticking with polished because hey it's a slight gamble, might turn out perfect, plus I won't see it too often unless the front is mangled or something.

[mkawa]

oneproduct: how noticeable would you say the pits were when viewed from a reasonable distance? also, were they big enough to feel if you brushed your hand over them? i love the mirror finish, but i don't want gaping holes anodized into it. if they're pretty minor imperfections that's fine, and i'll keep the polishing on my blue (although i wouldn't object if they wanted to put a tiny bit of filler material in and polish and anodize over more noticeable pitting...). if you think they're pretty noticeable, i'll go with the safer option.

[oneproduct]

Ok, in that case I'll take mine brushed then I dont want to see those pits

Confirmed.

Sticking with polished because hey it's a slight gamble, might turn out perfect, plus I won't see it too often unless the front is mangled or something.

Yea, I'm sticking with polished too. Also I'll be taking the ones that come out the worst for myself so that you guys get the nicer ones.

oneproduct: how noticeable would you say the pits were when viewed from a reasonable distance? also, were they big enough to feel if you brushed your hand over them? i love the mirror finish, but i don't want gaping holes anodized into it. if they're pretty minor imperfections that's fine, and i'll keep the polishing on my blue (although i wouldn't object if they wanted to put a tiny bit of filler material in and polish and anodize over more noticeable pitting...). if you think they're pretty noticeable, i'll go with the safer option.

I only really looked at it from pretty close up, but from far away (i.e. maybe a person sitting one seat to your side) I doubt you'd really notice. Unless you're really scrutinizing it, I think the second picture I put up is probably already closer than most people would look at the case from (the camera is close enough that the case fills its entire vision) and from that distance you can see that the holes are already pretty small. The other two pictures I took of it are super zoomed in. Also keep in mind that these pits were on the bottom so it's not like you'll be seeing them anyways. I don't think there were any on the walls, though that doesn't guarantee that there couldn't be any.

I didn't try to run my fingers over them, but I doubt you'd feel them. They're pretty small, when he mentioned it over the phone I thought it would be something really bad but when I got there my first reaction was like "oh, that's it?" It's also a question of how picky you are, and I know a lot of us are pretty picky. I'm not bothered by it personally. But again, my first concern is that people are happy, so if you have doubts, going with the safer option might be good.

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For anybody else who would like to change, you have to let me know before around 7am EST tomorrow, May 17 (12pm GMT). I'll be calling first thing in the morning to tell them to make the appropriate number changes and go ahead.

[oneproduct]

Also, the pits would probably be less noticeable on blue because there would be less contrast between them and the case.

[Gawkbasher]

Surprisingly (to myself, even), I still want to go polished.

[mkawa]

ok i'm sticking to polished. will also pm you oneproduct.

[WRXChris]

I'm going to stick with polished.  It's what convinced me to join this GB in the first place

[oneproduct]

Alright, I'm going to be calling them now with the changed polishing/brushing quantities. If you haven't already chimed in I'm keeping it how you already had it.

[jonnybastard]

Shouldn't be too noticeable I don't think, still keen4polish!

[Blackhawk19]

Let's be honest, who is really going to be turning over the keyboard and looking at the underside to complain about the pits on a regular basis...