Project 4: Done! and lessons learned

When we last left project 4 it looked like this:

My test pieces looked anodized but they wouldn’t take dye.

Earlier tonight I tried again and it worked! Here is my new piece before anodizing while my husband drilled holes in it:

And here is what it looks like now:

Yay! It has some water spots, but I can polish that up.

Lessons learned:
– This was a tough one for me. There are steps in the anodizing process that are a mystery. I still don’t really understand how to figure out the voltage level based on the size of the piece. Fortunately I brought my husband with me today to help with the math.
– Sometimes equipment just fails for no reason. The two failed test pieces and the successful plate were from the same canteen set, so there was really no difference between tonight’s try and January’s. It just so happens that tonight’s worked.
– I probably won’t be anodizing whole sets of pots and pans.

We also made most of the box for project 23 tonight but I didn’t buy the hardware I needed. I’ll finish that soon and show you the completed project. Then I’ll be all caught up and can concentrate on project 24.