Ello ello. I finally got the pieces back from the anodizer. As I've said before, I haven't had too much experience in dealing with them yet, so my knowledge is a bit limited. To me, it seems as if they didn't do an outstanding job. I'm going to get a second set of those two little blocks anodized by a friend at some point for comparison, just to be sure. They will get thrown in with a batch for a company so it's up in the air as to when they will be finished. I'll edit the pictures to give a side by side comparison between un-anodized and anodized here in a few days. There's going to be a lack of updates for a while (shocker) since I'm heading back home for a week for vacation (Pennsylvania), and the week after that I have to move since my lease is up. Here's the pictures of the anodized pieces, in the same order as before. Don't mind any minor scratches or markings since those were of my own doing after the fact. Regular Sanded Alumina / Glass Bead Mix Alumina 100% Glass Beads Garnet Steel Wool Polished Alumina / Glass Beads Mix (Top) & 100% Glass Beads (Bottom) Alumina / Glass Beads Mix (Top) & 100% Glass Beads (Bottom) Here's some shots of the block next to the case. Hopefully your imagination can carry the surface finish and the color over to the case itself. Alumina Garnet Sanded (As-Is) 100% Glass Beads Apologies for the dark-ish photos. I didn't have much time to post-process these. I'll replace them when I get home tonight. What do you guys think?
Saaanded. Looks like the anodizer scratched lots of those pieces? Hopefully that won't happen to the case itself...
I've always liked the brush look that you already have, which looks like it took you a fair bit of time to get such a nice look so another vote for sanded .
The thing that I'm unsure personally about the anodised black glass bead finish it kinda makes it look like plastic with it being so perfect looking & the lines from the sanded finish just adds a nice subtle overall detail but whatever finish you go for it'll look so awesome anyway . If you've got someone you know who will treat it with good care for the anodising I'd go with that if I was you mate, well as long as they know what they are doing anyway . But then again it could be with them just being small cubes so were more tricky to do without marking, I've read black is the most difficult to do nicely & the black on the cubes looks sweet from the photos.
The glass bead gets my vote. 'Brushed' and anodized aluminium is overdone these days; I prefer the matte effect personally.
A brushed finish just wouldn't work with Acronym, it either needs to be polished or finished with one of the more uniform treatments. The glass looks good. The finer the better imo.
So that's apparently: Sanded: 6 Glass Beads: 3 Why do you say that the brushed finish won't work? The only downside I see to it is that I don't know which way I would do the grain. Obviously I think it would look better how it is now (horizontally), but then on the side pieces around the back where the parts are spherical, keeping with the horizontal grain would actually turn vertical (see below). I agree with you. To be honest I've never really been a fan of the polished stuff, especially large amounts of it. I think that it should be used sparingly as accents, if at all. Polishing the entire case would probably blind me if I'm trying to watch a movie . Honestly, my original thought was to sand the outside (like it is now) and then blast the interior. The interior is a b**** to sand, and I don't think I could ever get it to the point where I would be completely happy with it; hence the blasting.
Brushed finish can look good on flat surfaces and it can also look quite good on curved surfaces. The key to a nice brushed finish is dead straight 'grain'. In this instance, you will be 'brushing' compound curves. Aside from the fact that it will be very difficult to get the grain dead straight (unless you have some automated way of doing this), imo you need to go deeper into what the shapes you've made tell the onlooker. Those curves are smooth and sensuous, brushing is hard, rough, I really dont see how you dont see that. But it's your baby, go ahead, I'll be interested in the result.
HMM I like both the sanded and the glass beads. Its a real hard choice as you have to visulize the entire case done in the method that you finally choose. Its going to look amazing no matter which way you go so maybe go for the method that you are happy with and is the most effective for you in time and money. I doubt you will get many people actually caomplaining about the end result
