[TowerTalk] Crowd sourcing ideas on making antennas look better

[jimlux]

On 10/31/16 7:04 PM, Mickey Baker wrote:
> Alodine. Easy, fairly cheap, good long term protection. Chromate coating,
> two stage process.
>
>

There's also versions of conversion coating that don't use hexavalent 
chromium, but chromate is by far the most popular.

But the OP was looking for something that is visually more attractive.

A bit of browsing around shows that you can do a two step process: 
chromate conversion coating (to make sure that the surface is 
conductive, unlike bare aluminum) and then a masked and dyed anodize 
(which you can get in most any color).  It would appear that it's not 
that hard to mask off the parts you don't want anodized.

Since we're talking tubing here, does the inside need treament too?

I wonder if the chromate conversion reduces the galling/sticking issue 
on disassembly?