Polished VS Blasted finish

[GBD]

Im trying to decide weather or not to stick with a sandblasted finish or go for a mirror polish finish.

After talking with a few people, I figure I would like to get the input of the forum in a form of a pole, so your inputs on this are appreciated.

This is my latest build, right now it has the blasted finish.. but Im still unsure weather or not to polish it.

Thanks.

 

[daguin]

Why not go with both?

Peace,
dave

 

[GBD]

I have done so before:

I kinda wanted to deside between a full polish/blast
(mostly just personal preferance)

 

[Ash]

My preference is for a fully polished host. But why not offer both?

 

[dyethor]

Bead blasted then bright dip anodizing.

 

[daguin]

My preference is for a fully polished host. But why not offer both?

Based on his signature, I'd say this was for his personal use only

Peace,
dave

 

[GBD]

I guess we should make a third option for both..

I have no idea how to edit the poll though.

EDIT:

@Dave

Right now that applies... maybe later I might do more of them for sale.. but now I just don't have time.

DOUBLE EDIT:

Thanks for editting the poll

 

[daguin]

I guess we should make a third option for both..

I have no idea how to edit the poll though.

EDIT:

@Dave

Right now that applies... maybe later I might do more of them for sale.. but now I just don't have time.

DOUBLE EDIT:

Thanks for editting the poll

:bday:

Peace,
dave

 

[Pilgor]

grrrrr now I can't vote for both, I originally voted for mirror but both is really nice.

 

[Benm]

Looking at it from a performance perspective, there is little or no need to polish the exterior at all - heatsinking capability won't suffer if you omit the polishing process.

Adding some polished part may be attractive cosmetically, but give the effort that goes into it, you should consider if its worth it. Another option would be to anodize the rough version black, so it looks a bit less like it just survived a desert storm, yet retain and possibly improve overall heatsinking.

 

[GBD]

Well, the heatsinking part im not too concerned with, I figure either way I go on about it will not change the performance too much (this is ment as a point and have a bit of fun for a few seconds, not a lab laser that will need to run for hours)

This is strictly for aesthetic and cosmetic purposes.

I might consider the anodization black, again for looks, anodization does help for heat dissapation with aluminum, but if you are looking at it from that perspective, I really doubt it will help to a noticable extent.

Regarding the poll: wow, everything really is tied up, and at the time I post this the polished option looks to be winning by one vote, either way, its really not that complicated or labor intesive to polish such a small host IMO.

 

[Pontiacg5]

Be warned though, sandblasting and then anodizing aluminum does not work too well. The sand contaminates the anodization.Glass bead blasting, however, is another story.

I prefer blasting just because it is so much easier to get a nice even finish plus it's a lot harder to mess it up. Polished aluminum scratches if you look at it funny. It's pretty hard to keep polished aluminum looking nice for long.

I bead blasted one of these hosts to strip the cheap anodization off and really liked the finish. It was really bad at showing fingerprints though, it seems like the very fine mesh finish it leaves absorbs oil from your hands pretty quickly.

Then I polished it!

I also like taking a scotchbrite pad (like the green side of a sponge) and "polishing" the aluminum part while it's spinning in the lathe. It knocks tooling marks down and leaves a cool brushed finish that hides the little spiderweb like scratches aluminum gets rather well. These Kryton barrels received that treatment. It's not as quick to show fingerprints and is just about the best raw aluminum finish in my experience, it wears rather well.

If you are anodizing, I'd just dip the raw parts in a caustic soda solution for a while. It'll clean the part real nice and leave a nice matte finish. You might want to be careful with parts with fine threads though (that aixiz thread, for example) since caustic soda actually eats away at aluminum.

And that is my little experience with finishing aluminum

 

[Benm]

I might consider the anodization black, again for looks, anodization does help for heat dissapation with aluminum, but if you are looking at it from that perspective, I really doubt it will help to a noticable extent.

True enough, anodizing will only help with the radiative part of cooling, but in a host like that convection and conduction from the air are likely to play a much bigger role. Its a different story for a finned heatsink, anodizing those can improve performance by 10s of percents.

For many hosts anodizing makes little sense, unless they have a fins/ridges etc that greatly increase the surface area.