Need some help with the finish on 6061, I'm having a part made overseas (due to cost unfortunately), the finish I'm trying to achieve is as per this pic, am I right in thinking it's just natural/clear anodize? What's throwing me is there's very little machining marks, do you think it's been tumbled/polished or just very good machining? Very few overseas offer polishing it seems they just sandblast and then anodize which gives an almost matt finish that I'm trying to avoid :/
- Thread starter t3gav
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hotponyshoes
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You can machine aluminium to a polished finish or, as its quite soft, its easy to remove machine marks with various methods of polishing.
Clear anodizing will dull the finish, the thicker/more protective the coating the duller it gets.
So you need to get the part more shiny before anno than you want the final finish to be.
The anodizing can be closely controlled/monitored so that process is very repeatable.
The hard part will be judging the starting level of shiny when you polish if you want product consistency.
I never had much success measuring visual appearance throughout any part of the process so I would run my parts through in mixed batches then group parts together by eye afterwards.
Clear anodizing will dull the finish, the thicker/more protective the coating the duller it gets.
So you need to get the part more shiny before anno than you want the final finish to be.
The anodizing can be closely controlled/monitored so that process is very repeatable.
The hard part will be judging the starting level of shiny when you polish if you want product consistency.
I never had much success measuring visual appearance throughout any part of the process so I would run my parts through in mixed batches then group parts together by eye afterwards.
It's an automotive part and quite expensive, it's also been on the car for years and never oxidized over time.
Misterg
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It doesn't look anodised or polished to me (not to any significant extent, anyway).
Although it looks nicely machined, you can see some machining marks in the flat area bottom centre and some chatter marks on the main rounded part. I think it's straight off a well run machine.
Although it looks nicely machined, you can see some machining marks in the flat area bottom centre and some chatter marks on the main rounded part. I think it's straight off a well run machine.
What's the OEM spec? If it's aftermarket 'billet aloominum' it might just have had a quick decorative anodising, or maybe nothing at all. I find it hard to believe that the part in the picture has ever been fitted to anything!
BrokenBiker
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That finish just looks like the result of a cnc machine with well set speeds and feeds. There are signs of machining on it but I wouldn't say it was anodized
Thanks for the comments guys, the pic was just for reference so unfitted but I have a similar mount fitted to my car the last 5 years (albeit track car so very few road miles) and it still looks the same, I was expecting a non anodised part to oxidise a lot quicker. Judging by your comments I can simply get it machined and leave it raw 
Fingers crossed the machining goes well.
Fingers crossed the machining goes well. 