"Jim C Roberts" wrote in message
m...
Greetings all,

I have a guy wanting me to custom build some parts for his show
truck. These parts will be aluminium, mostly flat or at worst will
have to have some mounting studs welded on or a little bit of roll put
into them. No bending, so I believe 6061 will fit the bill here,
correct?
Now for the big question, what all can be done with anodizing? Not
talking about a home brew kit, I will need to farm this out just
wondering who can do what? I have checked out a few web sites that
seemed to promise a whole lot, I believe one even mentioned screen
printing the anodize on. Seems a bit far fetched, anyone seen/heard
of this?

As usual, thanks in advance for any and all help in this matter,
feel free to e-mail me directly or post to the NG with
answers/criticism.

Jim C Roberts

Jim,
If you intend to anodize, welding isn't a great idea. My experience from
past years tells me that when you weld on aluminum, any anodizing done will
show the weld by a different color reaction to the anodizing.

Anodizing is not a "stick on" kind of thing, it is an electro-chemical
reaction in which, if I'm not mistaken, controlled aluminum oxide is formed
on the surface of the item being so treated. To have your work anodized,
look in the yellow pages for plating shops. Those that are involved in
the aero-space industry are likely to be able to help you, including giving
you good advice on how to do your work so the end result is satisfactory.

Good luck~

Harold