Has anyone ever anodized their retro valve?

[Panzerr]

The aluminum part, of course. Has anyone here done this before?

[Aliens-8-MyDad]

wow, that sounds kewl, definately something new, why doesnt agd do it? hmmm it could really ad a personal look to your mag...

[gimp]

It might change the tolerances of the metal to much. It would look cool though. I'd just get black, and get an all black marker.

[Panzerr]

That's what I was thinking. I haven't heard of anyone doing it before. The only concern I have is the tolerences. I've heard of a coat of anodization messing up tolerences on screw-in things. Anyone know if this will affect the tolerence of where the aluminum part screws in to the rest of the valve?

[Panzerr]

Lapco doesn't, or at least didn't in the past, anodize the threads on their barrels. I think I'll try it, and just have them leave the threads as they are.

[rudy]

but i wanted to do some engraving or milling on it first who are you gonna have anodize it?
I wanted them to seal off all the internals so it wouldnt change any tolerances.

[Panzerr]

I'm going to talk to PK and see what they think.

[BlackVCG]

The Retro Valve regulator body is hard anodized to withstand the wear from the stainless velocity adjuster. If you get it anodized, the entire surface area will have to be anodized so the inside will get coated changing the tolerances and covering the hard anodizing.

[FeelTheRT]

BTW, hard ano only comes in black and green.

[Hexis]

I would take green! That would rule.

BTW gimp, the silver part on the valve is SS. Kinda funny that you said you would take it in black, since it's already black.

[Panzerr]

Yeah, they come in a boring flat black. Glossy black would contrast the stainless valve body real nice. I polished up my valve body and am itching to get rid of the boring flat black.

[cphilip]

Originally posted by FeelTheRT
BTW, hard ano only comes in black and green.


Feel...then how come all of them are Brown? :confused:

[Potatoboy]

I was thinking that myself when I veiwed this phil...

Mayhaps it's a mixture of black and green?? :confused:

[cphilip]

I dunno but if its possible I will go on record of requesting AGD change to Black for sure. Goes with everything.

[Hexis]

Not that I have it in front of me, but I remember mine being black, and not brown.

Looking at a pic of my stuff it looks slightly grey if anything, but not brown. I would love green or chrome/nickle/shiny. Trying to ge rid of black on my gun.

AGD please sell me (for a reasonable price) a ReTro Valve back. I won't mess up my original that way, but I could play with one. And if I ever have problems I'll try my original valve back before I ask for an ounce of support. ;)

[Potatoboy]

Mine's pretty brownish..

It definately isn't black, that's for sure.

[cphilip]

Well then yours is an odd one because I have never seen any RT, RT-Pro, Retro or E-Mag valve that was not Dark Brown.

[steveg]

A few minutes of research, (go to www.google.com type hard anodize) has revealed that the natural colour for
hard anodize is light tan to black depending on the ano's
thickness. Brown is surely in that range somewere

[cphilip]

Good stuff! thanks Steve. We need to get all the way to black though if it can be done. Don't you think?

Just another thing for Tom to place on the to do list right? We have to keep him on his toes...right? :D

[Hexis]

Maybe mine is just a thicker ano, it can't be totally consistant from batch to batch.

In this pic Full Mag Kit (http://www.visi.com/~mjb/Paintball/FullMagKit.jpg) it looks pretty black. I'll take a closer look and a couple pics if I can get a clear pic of the color.

[cphilip]

Well they are certainly dark but in the light they are brown. Here is one pict from the AGD store. You can see how they look black in the right lighting but when illuminated right in certain areas they are Brown. And in good daylight they are Deep dark Brown. Perhaps because of some metalurgical things we do not know or understand right now that is as close as they can get to Black?

http://store.airgun.com/agdprod/images/accessorie/retrovavle_lg.jpg

[Muzikman]

My original RT is totaly black. The back of the valve is the same color as the flat black Benchmark frame I had on it then I bought it.

[cphilip]

Interesting...Hey Tom whajado? Switch to low bid on the ano? :D

[BlackVCG]

I was going to say it, but Muzikman got to it before I did. The original RT valves are black, not brownish/black like the Retro Valve. Maybe a different process, I'm not sure. Perhaps Tom can chime in.

[FatMan]

First off, hard annodizing is NOT limited to black and green. Like all annodizing you use a dye to produce color. The Hard Type III process will produce a thicker film and it is much darker in color, so bright colors are not realistic. For that reason black, gray, brown, green, etc. are the typical colors.

Second. annodizing produces a film IN the metal, not on top of it, thus you cannot cover anything with annodizing. Further, once you have annodized a surface, you cannot annodize it any further. Thus, if you have a piece that is already annodized and polish off the annodized layer (which WILL change tolerances) then annodize, ONLY the exposed metal will annodize. This feature is actually exploited in making splash finishes.

I don't know if the threads on the body of the RT valve body are annodized (I think someone said they were). If, so in THEORY you could polish the OUTSIDE of the body back to bare AL and then annodize to a color without affecting the rest of the part. That assumes there are no unannodized surfaces on the part. If there are, you could cover those surfaces to protect them - again in THEORY.

Overall, its doable, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you 1) know what your're doing and 2) can afford to trash a valve body or two until you get it right.

FatMan

[nutz]

the retro valve i got is darker grey.... and its a newer one... so is my emag valve... maybe it was a bad coat er something....

[PaInTbALL zAcH]

here i a hurrican valve that was anodized yellow. cool i guess

[Panzerr]

FatMan

Thanks for the input. I'm going to try it. I'll get back to you all.

[gimp]

Originally posted by Hexis
I would take green! That would rule.

BTW gimp, the silver part on the valve is SS. Kinda funny that you said you would take it in black, since it's already black.


Whoops! I was thinking of my AIR valve. Maybe I need to think a little more before I post stuff.

[FatMan]

Originally posted by Panzerr
FatMan

Thanks for the input. I'm going to try it. I'll get back to you all.

OK, did some filter remove the all caps in my post? I thought it was DIS-couraging! :confused:

Dude, you are a wild man! Let us know how it works out.

FatMan

[cphilip]

Originally posted by FatMan
OK, did some filter remove the all caps in my post?

None that I know of. There is no such thing here to do that. And I still see Caps on some words.

[Panzerr]

I talked to a guy at PK. He said they can seal off the inside of the valve. I'm still checking around. I would love some imput from TK as to why they anodize the aluminum part exclusively in hard anno.

[Hexis]

I wonder if AGD would honor the warranty if the serial and internals were un molested. That shouldn't change the specs of anything that matters.

[Panzerr]

I wouldn't think so, but you never know, AGD is pretty cool.

[Hexis]

I did ask a while ago if they would sell me just that part. They said no. I'm not quite sure why. I think they would encourage customiziation if it didn't add to the support headache. If I customize a part I swap it before I look for help with my gun.

[mykroft]

My early Retro is very definitely Dark Grey, not brown.

[BlackVCG]

It's hard anodized because of the wear from the reg. piston and the threads for the velocity adjuster.

[MikeCouves]

Tom let's hear what you have to say on this? You always know!

[iisp0tii]

my guns gonna go black & blue, so i wouldnt mind havin a blue valve & black charger. although i am going to have to get a retro valve first, nest on my list besides a superbolt...