Weathering aluminum parts like my DL44 Blaster Flash Hider in the dishwasher

[METATRON]

Hi, I‘m working on a Star Wars costume at the moment (see my other threads) and found a nice way for weathering Aluminum parts. Just put them in the dishwasher. Something you should never do with aluminum kitchen stuff.
Here my DL44 flash hider before, new and shiny:

And after one round for an hour. But be careful, to much and it could be overdone. Then you have to polish your part and try it again.

 

[Cbstudios]

Thats awesome! A nice subtle change!

 

[7-11 Jedi]

Weird. After reading your thread, I tried it with an aluminum flash hider I had. Came out sparkling and shiny. Did you use detergent?

 

[scarf man]

Weird. After reading your thread, I tried it with an aluminum flash hider I had. Came out sparkling and shiny. Did you use detergent?

Pixelpiper posted a lot of info about the dishwasher trick a few years ago in the Luke V2 thread,
keep reading for a few pages, the info is a bit spread out.

Luke ROTJ V2 lightsaber

Every time Ive used Aluminum Black its nowhere near that even, its always splotchy,. YMMV, but that and similar products are the "right" way to do it (using a product for the purpose for which it was designed). The EASY way to do it is to put the booster in your dishwasher on a normal cycle...

www.therpf.com

 

[eethan]

Weird. After reading your thread, I tried it with an aluminum flash hider I had. Came out sparkling and shiny. Did you use detergent?

I think you need to use an oxigen based detergent, like oxiclean for instance. some detergent will not do anything.
I have also read that wraping your part into aluminium fold would increase the effect.

 

[METATRON]

I think you need to use an oxigen based detergent, like oxiclean for instance. some detergent will not do anything.
I have also read that wraping your part into aluminium fold would increase the effect.

Hi, very interesting. I’m using these little dishwasher tablets. Maybe your have different ingredients? Could be. I also have to fill the machine with a special salt from time to time. On the package it’s written that’s the ingredients are phosphate, polycarboxylate, bleach and soaps.
It’s a store brand. For the German folks:
Ich nehme die DM Marke von Denk mit.