Hi there,

first of all, thats the first black NewNewFace...



And with flash:



Now the problem:



The holes for the screws have to be drilled from outside and are closed by welding. Anodizing the handle will leave this ugly spots, cause the welded areas are not taking the anodizing the same way than the pure aluminium.

Does anybody good in metalworks know a solution?

The only solution i can think of at the moment is to leave the holes open. Ugly, too, but not as ugly as the grey spots.
BTW, this happens with clear anodizing too.

There is a new knob in development, the rest is ready to sell.

Comments?

cheers,
Thomas

I know this may sound somewhat ridiculous, but maybe just touch it up with a sharpie?

I mean...it's on the side of the handle....who'll notice?

Yeah, thought about it, but it's just not the perfect thing. Am i too german???

Outstanding, Thomas! Wow!

As for the holes, leave them open, at least until after anodizing. Then, either you or the purchaser, might choose to fill them with black expoxy, which can be wiped smooth/flush to the metal. Should look just fine -- a few black dots on closer inspection is all.

cheers

Whoa! Nice work. Leaving the holes open is a reasonable solution, seems like it would look fine.

-Mike

I really like the look of the NewFace in black. When do you think they might be available?

Beautiful face!

It's a real shame about the annodizing, though. There is a solution.

Your welding shop is using the wrong filler rod. They must try for a better match of the base material. This is a very common problem- meaning that even the welders don't know what's going on.
Your parts are likely to be 6061 (a very common alloy).
Most shops weld with either 4043 or 5356 welding rod.
4043 flows better and is easier to make a nice looking weld with, because the major alloying constituent is silicon.
5356 has got some small amount of magnesium in it and makes a stronger weld.
6061 is an alloy containing both silicon and magnesium.
I can't remember all the details, but it's worth a little more research.
I learned about this a long time ago- about 15 years.

At any rate, welding the 6061 with one or the other filler ends up giving you very bad results after annodizing.
Sorry, I can't remember which is which... whether it's the magnesium that's oxidizing differently or the silicon.
Ask your shop which filler they use and suggest they try the other.
They might not be so organized as to know which they used- or have only one on hand but not the other.

A poor reply from a welding engineer, but I haven't been in that field for a while now.

I agree with Mark, leave them open.

Can you get black screws that small???

Cheers

Cris.

PS - Looks great!!!!!

Yeah I think leaving them open would look fine. In my car you can't see the sides of handles anyway.

That face is so totally hot!

I'd just like to say that that looks unbelievable. The original NewFace's were nice as well but for some reason this black one looks particularly clean. Stellar job.

I my self have never been a big fan of the newface's but that does look good.. Great work...

H - O - T

OMFG! AOL! That looks fantastic! I agree with others about leaving the holes open -- if you can find black screws, it would carry over the bolt theme from the front quite nicely. If we could get the funky buttons from the 2A to go with that, I'd be all over it like spandex on a fat person.

Or... do they make allen bolts similar to those that hold the fascia on the front in that small of a size? that would be good lookin'.

But the screw head will be on the inside. Unless you can figure out how to screw in a screw from the outside just as filler and still have there be enough room for the interior screw to do its job.

What about lighted buttons?

So they are being drilled thru from the outside because it's easer that way.

1) If after tapping the holes a shallow counterbore was put in the outside, then a short plug could be pressed into the hole. After the final mechanical finish there would be a small circle visible.

2) Just making the counter bore would clean up what would have been the ragged edge of the threaded hole. It dosen't have to be deep, a thread or two.

This is a beautiful "stealth mode" new face.
While the welding spots is the problem, I agree with gbeer about plugs, hey, if the welding spots could make perfect circles, that'll be also acceptable.
It is possible to hack these buttons and the knob using fiberoptic wire, but it would be a lot better to have translucent buttons for this mode. I cannot make out from the pictures whether Firefox's translucent knob will go there, but this aluminum knob sure looks impressive. Is it possible to have ridges on the side of the knob?

Hi,

thanks for the commendation.
There also are some good ideas, which i'll have to discuss with my friend at the shop.
I like the idea of the little allen bolts, if there is enough space left for the screws holding the handle from the inner side... I'll check this out.

I'll provide a set of the clear farnell buttons for the lighted players. So it's up to you to fill them with the color of your choice. Mach has some good experiences with that. The original knob won't fit, it isn't deep enough and also the wrong diameter, i think. The knob on the photo is one of Tim (303), i plan to have a knurled area for better grip and the shaft in a little smaller diameter to make a halo-effect and also prevent the knob from sticking in the fascia. The little holes will stay, so light will come through them, too, especially if you fill them with fiber rods.

The start of sale depends on my friend. As said earlier, the costs are about 200 Euros, including fascia, handle, black and clear buttons, knob and screws/bolts.
Colors available are black, brushed alu, silk-smooth alu, and all colors you can anodize, like red, green, blue, gold, but we have only the first three as samples made.
I'll try to bring up pictures of the brushed and silk ones, although it's hard to see the structure in the photos.
Polished may be an alternative, depends on the demand. It's handwork and may cost a little more.

I now need an idea of the demand, so i start a thread in the for sale forum. Please tell me your interest and the color you want there, leave discussions and ideas here in this thread.

cheers,
Thomas

Another item about welding aluminum. You do not want to weld on 6061-T6 aluminum. Espically near those tapped holes. It is an excellent way to loose the heat treat and thus most of the strength of the 6061-T6 aluminum. Tensile strength drops from around 60kpsi down to around 10kpsi.

That makes it easy to strip the threads.

If you are set on welding you might try getting an aluminum in the 5000 series. It dose not rely on heat treat for it's strength.

BTW: About the plugs, I looked at my original handle, the screws only go about half way thru the handle. Plenty of space to install a pressed in plug.

Have not talked to my friend yet, but came around to shoot some more pictures.

The brushed one in different light conditions:







Brushed vs. silk-smooth: (not very good to see in the pictures, but an imagination...)





And the welding spots on the clear anodizing:



I think, the brush-effect should be a little stronger, we'll try with the next run.
Welding seems to be out of the race, they have only these materials.
But perhaps filling bigger holes with just the heads of little allen bolts could look really nice.

cheers,
Thomas

Those look great... I agree with the rest of the group and say either leave the holes open or use tiny little bolts if you absolutely must.

My Empeg is being installed in my new car this very moment. I can't wait for these new(new!)faces to be available for sale!

They all look so good, the decision is difficult. Will I ever have a metallic dash? And if so, which finish will match? But hey, black anodized will work for now.

Do you think you can have package type deal discounts?

I would most likely get one in black
Excellent job!