Aluminum blackening solutions?

[rubes]

I have a couple small aluminum parts I would like to blacken. Anyone have a recommendation on something they have used that worked well? Or what didn't work? I saw ThisOldTony's experience with the Birchwood casey stuff  that wasn't very successful.

   

[EdK]

Powder coating, maybe.

Ed

[Highpower]

(04-10-2024, 09:21 AM)rubes Wrote: I have a couple small aluminum parts I would like to blacken. Anyone have a recommendation on something they have used that worked well? Or what didn't work? I saw ThisOldTony's experience with the Birchwood casey stuff  that wasn't very successful.

Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black is a waste of time in my experience. I had poor results using Brownells Aluma-Hyde as well. I have had the best results using bake-on paint finishes such as Brownells baking lacquer - although it looks like they have discontinued it now.    

Personally I would go with one of the other oven-cure paint finishes available these days such as Brownells Gun Kote or one of the Duracoat products for example but they are not quick and easy to apply and cure. Depends on how much effort you want to put into getting the finish you want I suppose.  

[rleete]

The only way to get a decent finish on aluminum is going to be anodizing.

Paints and other coatings are going to be, for the most part, fairly fragile and subject to flaking and chipping. The oven cured ones like powder coat will be worlds better than paint, but you aren't going to get great results for your first few parts, as there is a bit of a learning curve to the application.

[rubes]

Thanx for the input.
One of the few things I miss about "working" was the opportunity to have suppliers throw a couple small pieces like this in with our production runs.
Anodizing would be the finish of choice, but I am not ready to delve into yet another hobby of DIY anodizing though.
I used to run a powder coating shop over 40 years ago. Never got too interested in the DIY version here at home.

For this project, I think I'll just leave them plain blasted aluminum. The rest of the parts are painted and will be abused as this is a set of "turn plates" for doing car alignments. so it won't look brand new for too long after driving on and off them a few times. It was supposed to be a quick distraction project that got way out of hand...as usual with me!!!

Rubes