The Steamboating Forum

Clear anodizing should be relatively close, especially after some oil film...

I made a hollow two-piece aluminium piston for the 10" LP on the big boat... The original was 3" thick cast iron, and weighed 30+lbs more than the new aluminium one. Sooooooooooooooooooo much closer to an actual "balance" between HP and LP weights. Had the cylinder head off the other day to check up on it... after 1-1/2 years of steaming and over 400miles, it's still going strong.

Quote: "I wonder if you can anodize so as to make it look like steel?"

Anodize can be any color imaginable. Steel would be gray I would think. Anodizing process builds a thin hard porous oxidization on the surface which can be dyed. Any color can be blended with the dye. I get parts anodized all the time and depending on how they mixed the dye, the color is never the exact same, one run to the next. Clear anodize is just that, no dye if you polish the aluminum, it will look like chrome.

There is another process afterward for a first class job and that is bright dipping, it is like a thin durable protective coating that keeps it bright looking.

-Ron