question

im pondering over what to do with the exterior of my tippy.

i was thinking during school what it would look like if u polished the outside of ur gun and made it like a mirror?  but it might rust. so if any one has seen the new doritos(chips) the bag color looks like a realy cool color for a 98c.  and was also wonderin if u could put a clearcoat over the polished thingy and maybe/hopefully keep it from rustin

thanks ive gota go eat so   j/k my mom makes good food

*edit*

the color of the chip bag is kind of a shiny charcole color

Edited by llama

polishishing it wont make it mirror shiny, it dosent look that good too. the reciver halves are aluminum which will never rust.

to make it mirror shiny, you could try powdercoating in chrome. but im not sure if it would stick.

call me stupid but i thought anodizing was meant for aluminum guns   like cockers and mags and such?

Bigomondis104 wrote: ya anodizing a tippmann wont work cuz it is made of aluminum and the other guns i guess r made of stainless steel. the problem is that the anodize wont penitrate the pore of the metal and wont stick. but you could always spray paint it. its up to u.

Ummmmmmm, where did you get your facts from?

Anodizing is designed for aluminums, and is the prefered surface finish for aluminum.

I have never dealt with anodizing a cast aluminum or seen it such as on a Tippmann, but I have had many machined parts anodized for my job and it's about the best surface finish you can get. Very durable, resists corrosion very well and doesn't break down easily.

You can chrome plate the exterior of any marker and it wouldnt hinder the performance at all....but, its gonna cost you big bucks, if thats what yer asking about.

I've seen a Tippmann that has been stripped of it's paint and it does NOT look good. Please scratch that idea. If you do anything, paint it or anodize it if this turns out to be possible.

well maybe they didnt polish it.  im not just stripping the powder coat im polishing it

ill post pics when im done

SnakeEyes wrote: llama wrote: and a 98 is made out of like 5or 6 different metals thats y u cant weld on a tippy cause some of the metals will melt and the rest will just crumble. Huh? The body is only one type of metal, and that is cast aluminum, which you can definitely weld if you take care. I know, I have done it many times before.

Cast aluminum = Allow of aluminum, magnesium, zinc, tin, and various other metals.

And since tin has a melting point of 230* C, zinc has a melting point of 430* C, megnesium has a melting point of 650* C, and aluminum has a melting point of 660 *C, I don't see how you could possibly weld it.

Edited by maroon out

well if u play woods ball shiny is not a good idea try a flat camo
color

Well do you agree that aluminum can be welded? Haven't you seen it before?

The reason why you can weld an alloy with so many varying melting temperatures is because there is no distinct line between where each element ends and the next begins. When you alloy a metal, things occur on molecular levels that change the metal. When you alloy tin, copper, nickle, etc into pure aluminum the molecular structure changes. The metal no longer behaves like pure aluminum, it acts as a whole. When you weld it, some of those lower melting point metals will vaporize out of the weld pool and be replaced by what ever filler aluminum is present.

That is the short answer to an infinitely long question. There is a ton more going on in there that I either don't care to go into or don't remember enough of from my material science classes to put in here. But aluminum is entirely weldable, otherwise we wouldn't have torpedoes, automobiles, space shuttles, high performance bicycles, motorcycles, etc etc etc.