The 1340gt mods begin

[JBowlin]

So while I'm waiting on new tooling for my new lathe I decided to make some new knobs like I had seen a few other members make. I made a couple this afternoon and since I have a anodizing line in my shop I decided to anodize one of them in gunmetal to see how it looked. Tell what you think.

 

[mikey]

Looks good! Are the edges as sharp as they look?

 

[JBowlin]

No sharp edges, soft as snow

I think they look sharp because after anodizing I went back and touched off on the grooves to give it a 2 toned look.

 

[mikey]

You done good! Always nice to dress up a new lathe - have fun!

 

[marcusp323]

Once it starts, ya never know where it'll end................
It's all fun with tools though, so I see nothing detrimental whatsoever myself
Mark

 

[Alan H.]

Nice job JB. Please tell us a bit more about your anodizing setup.

 

[JBowlin]

The anodizing line started several years ago when I got tired of being charged outrageous prices for small batches of RC car parts that I wanted anodized. So I read and studied and experimented and done my own parts. Then a few people saw them and wanted there's done and since no one really offered a reasonably priced 1off service the business began. I now have a 4 gallon dye line with a 10 gallon ano tank and all the proper chemicals and pumps and a 1HP chiller with secondary heat exchanger to keep the acid bath at 70* F during the process. You guys can check out my Facebook page under Carolina Custom Anodizing. This is not a plug just for those who are curious. I still work a full time day job as a Contractor, just wanted to be able to give back to the RC racing community by offering anodizing in small scale for very reasonable prices.

Here's some knife handles I did for a customer in hot pink, they were for his wife for Christmas

 

[petertha]

Wow, nice parts & power to you for starting this initiative! I'm not on FB so I had to keep de-clicking the big banner to see your nicely finished goodies. Just curious
- are you set up to de-anodize (remove a prior color) or is that customers responsibility?
- are you doing cnc machining too or are people sending you those parts? Some of them look like industrial batches.
I'm not into cars but dabbled in RC heli's. Love the bling!

 

[JBowlin]

I don't do any cnc...most everything I anodize is sent to me. I do remove old anodizing and desmut/deox the parts before anodizing. Freshly machined parts get cleaned in a 185deg non etching cleaner bath.

 

[JBowlin]

Does anyone have any suggestions for colors of the handles? As much as I love the gunmetal color I'm not sure I'm digging it on the lathe.