Hadn't seen it was done in a way other than anodizing...
Not quite sure what ceramized is, but indeed it appears to be different

Worse! China!

White M1s should be made!!!

Painting is one way to go, but it causes weight issues as well as even coating is difficult.
Possibly the best paint you could use would be car paint. Just protect the bearing area and hte response system seat. HOWEVER: this causes weight issues as well, as car paint is pretty heavy.

Simple mod idea for slightly lighter yoyos: NAIL POLISH! but be careful. It's could be hard to get a consistant thin coat. good news is, that nail polish remover removes the polish and doesn't ruin the annodizing, in my experience anyways.

Actually, car paint is not very heavy, and, really it's not very thick. It is, however, applied (color and clear coats, not metal primer coat) as highly atomized spray in a very clean and controlled environment. But, it is not, ultimately, something you would want on a yoyo. Durable, yes, from a car perspective, but nowhere near as durable (from a hardness perspective) as an anodized surface on a yoyo. We're talking the difference between steel and aluminum substrates here, in terms of paint durability.

If you don't care how nice a yoyo looks over time and use, auto paint is a fine solution. But, if you are a yoyo manufacturer, you want your product to maintain that "factory finish" as long as possible, as every one of your yoyos in a customer's hand is an advertisement for your product. How would you want your product to be perceived by someone if their first encounter is with a used product of yours? You want that product, even used, to evoke an interest or desire.

As far as nail polish, I really wouldn't go there. 'Nuf said.

db

Seems my research was misinformed. And auto paint would still look hot though. Probably some way to seal it a little and make it more durable though.

And through further research, yah, stay away from nail polish.

EDIT: it appears that silver white anodizing is doable. That would still be pretty sick.

Found a vendor in Italy. Says it is just an "experimental" coating. No way for us to verify their claims. At $250 per shot it's a bit expensive for the yoyo market. Not an experiment we are likely to conduct. Maybe if the price came down by an order of magnitude

Furthermore, this process is dangerous!!! High voltage and current runs the risk of electrocution. Definitely not to be tried at home!! I can see why the process is $250 per shot. It must be some pretty aggressive anodizing. Acid baths, and high voltage, bad combination!. This one is going to take some time to come to market in a safe and predictable manner.

This $250 per shot. Now would this be for each piece of material or for one shipment consisting of say, 10 pieces of materials?

Each piece.

That's what I figured. Outch, now that's a bag of hurt.

That makes no sense, considering it is the same amount of work for them to do 50 pieces as it is to do 1.

look at new jon-robs vid:
http://vimeo.com/4343593

looks to be white...who knows if it is anodized or just powdercoated..hmm

I believe it's painted. Levi did some special edition ones. Caddy white pearl w/ gold details.

Quote from Steve of Spyy.

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[quote="cowmamba"]I believe it's painted. Levi did some special edition ones. Caddy white pearl w/ gold details.


I believe you are right. It definitely looks like the exact same color as my old Cadillac from 1990, it was a pearl white STS with the 300hp Northstar engine. Five coats of professionally applied paint. But in the video you can already see the paint job has a nick on the rim, probably from a grind on cement or something, automotive paint is tough, but in a different way than anodizing, it is meant to stand up to harsh chemicals and UV degradation, but it is not "hard" like anodize. Car paint can't handle physical abrasion of any type. Good eye!

Yes, it is car painted and sealed with a clear coating. Car painting is awesome, but it isn't tough. Now a white plastic cover... Hmmmm....

EDIT:
White annodizing is as of yet, possible only in extremely dangerous settings, bleaching annodized metal and lead to rusting and wear, if any effect at all (googled, can anyone else verify it's claims? Some research suggests bleach will do nothing), however there are durable white plastics that will adhere to metal no problem, so itll feel and look like plastic, but play like metal.

Some suggestions to the machine men:
The white plastic would still be high impact and durable, simple to do, and can be omitted from certain areas (nut pressings, bearing mounts, centers), hell this could lead to a whole new line of M1, the MP

OMG dont even get started on asking about using bleach on a yoyo! LOL that was the biggest thread laughing at Lucca over at YYN a couple years ago.

like i said, it so far seems to do nothing good.

Hey, you said that there was CLEAR anodizing dye?
If so, then base coat the yoyo with a white airbrush, then then anodize it with clear dye.
Would that work?

This gives me some great ideas for some tesla coil experiments.