We’re giving every single Dominator personal attention here at PwnCNC.
There are more than 14 carved aluminum parts that go onto each and every machine regardless of size.
Since we have pending orders… we’ve taken the approach of running them through our Anodization line two sets at a time. With the amount of work these require we can reasonably get two sets of parts every week while still meeting our other obligations.
Two sets ready to go. One is for our Black Dominator i’m assembling this saturday while the other is for our next machine order.
I am so glad that our first Dominator customers are being so vocal and sharing their experiences with the community. It goes a long way in sorting out initial roll-out issues and making every customer’s experience after… that much better.
We really believe in this machine and know it has features that we haven’t even begun to articulate or expand upon.
These two sets of parts have been ultrasonic cleaned and awaiting bead blasting. It’d seem our air compressor is a bit too small and it takes each part longer to get a good quality blasted surface. This contributes to the 2-sets/week limitation we’re experiencing.
Raw carved finish you can see layer lines and it is really good as is. The bead blasting is almost certainly decorative as it gives a more matte finish to the coloring. We receive the parts “as-machined” and do several cleaning steps to remove grease. Then bead blast to achieve the matte finish in the end. This bead blasting also smooths the surface to give a more uniform look to the part. This removes any carving lines that are left behind. Fractions of a mm difference in how the machine was trammed can leave lines that can not be felt but only seen. The bead blasting clears that out and provides an even surface.
The bead blasted surface is now heavily exposed. Grease, and other contaminants even from just touching with your bare fingers can leave smuges. After bead blasting we can’t even touch the parts unless we have gloves on.
We then do a few more rounds of degrease cleaning and a deox dunk which etches the parts so it receives anodization well. Then onto anodization, dyeing, and sealing.
Overall a well anodized part will last a lot longer. Easy to wipe grease off, and a great looking surface with the matte black look. Pair that with the black anodized aluminum extrusions and your machine looks really good. Our first machine was silver anodized aluminum extrusions and next to the black anodized plates also looks awesome.
The black dyeing does hide some imperfections which is why we don’t offer silver anodization just yet. We’re very new to the anodization process and with each round of parts we’re getting better and better with our results. The black hides minor things that would be very visible on a silver part.
