Bad Anno jobs

[StygShore]

Based on some recent posts...

I would like to see pics of some of the bad anodize work that people have received back from anodizers.

To be fair to the companies, you don't even have to list their name, I just want to see what type of crap some of the anodizers in the paintball world are passing off as "good" work.



Styg

[don miguel]

this is a good thread im interested to see what happens

[Triangle]

this is a good thread im interested to see what happens

What defines a good thread?

[StygShore]

What defines a good thread?

One where you an Don don't clutter it up insulting one another

Styg

[robnix]

One where you an Don don't clutter it up insulting one another

Styg

What's the fun in that, Mr. SmellyPants!

[minimag03]

PrecisionPB top notch job...

The frame was very clean when I took the pics, however there was some specs of dust. In the time I have had it, it has been used maybe 3 times. None of the damage came from me. The rest of my mag doesn't even have a mark on it.



The scrapes on the edge of the frame came were on it from PrecisionPB.









I requested that the frame be anno'd very glossy black. When asked for an example I told them like CP's barrels. They said they completely understood. Above is a CP barrel compared to what they did to the frame. The anno is so thin that the trigger pin will not stay in. Coolhand designed the frames to a good anno would keep the pins in fairly tight. Sorry for the big pics.

[SCpoloRicker]

What defines a good thread?

[MoeMag]

I dont have pics but I have had 2 bad anno jobs that I have had come through my shop. To be annoed guns must be stripped to their basic componets, annoed, and reassembled. I usually dont come into the picture until the reassemblely part when kids bring their guns in to be put back together after they brutally tore them apart.

1. Shocker SFT. When annoed the gun still had the air guide rods (the two things that go in the back below and next to the bolt chamber which controll the airflow). They were corroded and beyond repair. Then parts were missing... mainly the bolt spacer. then on the ASA and reg... they spray painted the elbow fittings. As for the gun itself it was supposed to be a clear anno job and thats what they paid for. what they got was a bead blasted raw body.

2. late model timmy of some sort. When the gun was returned it was difficult to re assemble due to tolerance changes on all the threaded parts. It had been warped out of shape to the point that once it was assembled after hours of work the front block or what ever (not too knowledgeable with timmys) that it would not seal up and leaked. On top of that... the sticker emblem on the back... when it was peeled up, had the old anno still under it.

[SR_matt]

just as a reminder, anodizing is more so an art form than a science and also that the oxide layer forms perpendicular to the metal, so on points it is extreamly thin to non exsistant.

-matt

[Pneumagger]

just as a reminder, anodizing is more so an art form than a science and also that the oxide layer forms perpendicular to the metal, so on points it is extreamly thin to non exsistant.

-matt

I don't know if anybody would consider anodizing a piece of aluminum black an artform.

[Hexis]

The requirements of the surface finishing alone qualify it as an art form. It take skill.

The only bad anno I have is stuff I did myself. It ended up kinda like an acid wash, but it was supposed to be a solid color. Oh well, need to try it on more spare parts and get better.

[SR_matt]

I don't know if anybody would consider anodizing a piece of aluminum black an artform.

ask any good anodizer, it is, the amout of playing you have to do with a set up and guestimations to get stuff to come out how you want makes it an art form

and thats just before you try to dye it, the dye adds so many more variables to it

-matt

[Lenny]

PrecisionPB top notch job...

The frame was very clean when I took the pics, however there was some specs of dust. In the time I have had it, it has been used maybe 3 times. None of the damage came from me. The rest of my mag doesn't even have a mark on it.

(pictures)

I requested that the frame be anno'd very glossy black. When asked for an example I told them like CP's barrels. They said they completely understood. Above is a CP barrel compared to what they did to the frame. The anno is so thin that the trigger pin will not stay in. Coolhand designed the frames to a good anno would keep the pins in fairly tight. Sorry for the big pics.

Ouch! Especially on a UMF!

I would only trust Gruntbull to anno my stuff simply because he is the ONLY annodizer I've ever heard 100% good things about.

[CoolHand]

Ok, here we go.

We used to do everything in house, and we occasionally had a crap up, but anything I didn't like, never left the shop until it was right.

Then my ano guy moved to Detroit.

So I switched to MAX Ano in Texas. Things went crappily from the start, super long turn around times, lies upon lies upon lies, and their work wasn't great either.

I had been having trouble with them for months, and then I sent off a few parts of a Mag to be done gloss black. Here's what came back:









Those pics are what I sent to the owner to explain why I wasn't going to pay him. This marker came back just three weeks after they'd sent back a batch of 50 vert frames with half sort of polished, two or three crappily anodized, and the rest still raw, which they'd had for over three months. The guy took it like a man though, I'll give him that one.

Next I sent that marker to A+ Ano to have them redo the gloss black. This is how it looked when it was done:



All is well, for a while. After the first couple of batches, they too started to slip. First it was a shocker I sent in for dust silver that came back as a milky white satin/gloss. Then it was this Karta body that was supposed to be red. Body and rail anodized at the same time, body came out pink, rail came out red. Horrible match in person, but they shipped it anyway:



The last straw with them was a batch of parts that came back in all shades of disrepair. The most notable was this one:



That's an Armson barrel tip that was black to start with. Note the black ano still under the half polished off sticker. That was not the only part like that in that batch. After those parts came back, I stopped using them. All efforts to gain satisfaction failed.

So I moved on to a new anodizer. NICO Metal Finishers was a big industrial anodizer. They knew their crap, and they guaranteed a two week turn around. Riiiiiight.

Here's one of about 25 bad frames that came back in the first batch of 50 (which actually took over two months to come back):



They referred me to a smaller branch of their same company to make it right (since I refused to pay them) called AVTECH. They took another batch of 50 frames, plus all the buggered up ones from the first batch, and said they'd be done in no more than three weeks. Four months later they send me back about 15 frames with perfect ano on them (albeit a very thick ano, almost like a hard cote), four or five polished but raw, one utterly destroyed and mangled frame, and then the rest as I sent them. They told me not to pay for anything, and that they just couldn't handle them.

They did this marker's frame:



That brings me to the present. I am currently anodizer-less, but on the up side, I'm not having things destroyed on a daily basis anymore either.

The next stuff I send out I think will go to GruntBull. They seem to really have their crap wired straight. The guys in charge are straight shooters (as far as I can tell anyway) too, they want to be sure they can deliver what they promise, BEFORE they make the promise. That's a refreshing change of pace.

[Triangle]

Who's doing my Dallara big guy?
What did you decide as for color?