I've got a pair of OD green MEGA receivers. I'm building a custom carbine. I contacted MEGA to find out if they could anodize my rail system to match. They aren't public friendly. The best I got was "We send them to Oakland, somewhere". I checked the Oakland area yellow pages for anodizing.....CRIPES!!  Too many to count.  Anybody know who does MEGA's OD anodizing??  I want to build a color matched rifle, if possible.

Thanks,  Mike/MMissile

cant help you but i want a matched pair of the spikes receivers that are like a brownish/burgandy color.  I think it looks awesome.  I saw a pic of one on the photos thread

You could probably do it at home if you had the gear....you'd just have to find out what brand/color of dye they use.

US Specialty Color Corp is a popular anodizing dye brand.

mine would come out tiedyed.

How bout some Acid Wash.   I call it "smoke"

slick marker.   i havent been in paintball for 6 years or so.  Used to have an ANS Autocoker running on nitrous. miss them days

find a competent annodizer in your area and find out what your rail is made from (6061 7075 blah blah blah) get a couple scrap chunks of that alloy and bring it down with your upper..........have them color match it.

Fresh ironman matrix, Its like the Image smoke anodizing when they used the matrix.  As far as OP, I would look into companies that do paintball markers some will do the type III hard anodizing.  Usually paintball companies are meticulous to detail.  Companies like ODD paintball can do some really crazy stuff with ano. and lazers.  

Here is a link for some ideas...
ODDpb

yeah, things have change a lot since I played.  mine had a color scheme like this one. chrome to blue

Guys, let me explain the reality of this to you.

Different lots of aluminum will take the dye differently.  The receivers, forged, won't take the dye like a cast part, or a machined from bar stock part.  

Aluminum welds will always be darker than the surrounding aluminum.

It is just about impossible to make various parts match by color anodizing.  The best you can do is do them all black, and that may come close.  Still, some parts will be purple, not black.  Some parts will be dull, or shiny black.  

They just won't match.

Sorry, reality.

Which is why my aluminum products (not firearms related, so don't ask) are powdercoated now, not color anodized.

i'm not tryin to shoot you down or call you a liar, BUT...

i worked at paintball shop, yes i know it's different, for 3 years and we sent markers out for ano all the time. Yes, pieces would come out different colors sometimes, but for the most part the color always came very simillar from piece to piece. Usually the only concern we had with anodizing was the removal of metal when cleaning, or the ano building up and causing small holes to becomes smaller.

I could be way off because I find myself wrong very often.... but from personal experience, I have had many pieces of aluminum anodized with no problem.

I put myself through college as a plater. I can tell you more than you want to know about annodizing, chrome and a host of other metal finish techniques and the idea that everything comes out "off" is completely false.

Yes welds can come out a slight differenct color but the problem is two fold. Color is obviously going to reflect light different by the surface you have it on and most if not all welding rod Ive ever used isnt an alloy in the sense of what youre welding it to. I use specific rods for specific welds.

Most recievers are 7075 T6  anyways so welding on them is nearly moot, it can be done but it sucks. The alloy wasnt developed to be welded up.

QA on annodizing tanks, infiltration of dirt or other contamination and keeping your chem mix (dye included) in its orginal balance along with absolute plating times is essential. you cant expect anything to come out consistant if your tank, tank time and other variables arent consistant.

As I mentioned before, if you find a custom annodizer who is remotely interested he will probably have no problem mixing up a small batch of it and matching. Of course its going to cost you but hey..........

thanks guys.....now if someone knows somebody who will color-match my upper.......let me know.

Thanks again..Mike/MMissile