Has anyone ever anodized their retro valve?

[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?

[Hexis]

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

In this pic Full Mag Kit 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?

[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?

[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]

Annodizing

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!

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

FatMan