Welding Tips and Tricks

This is not really a tig welding question I guess however I am making a railing for a stage staircase out of aluminum that will be tig welded. I will have to paint it black unfortunatly. I am wondering if anyone has any tips for this. I am assuming I will need to do some kind of acid treatment or something for prepping the aluminum. I will be using 6061 t6 1 1/2" square tubing with 3/16" wall thickness. The reason it will need to be painted is the stage has kind of a black theme and bright lights from the stage lighting will reflect from the unpainted aluminum surfaces....thanks wayne

If its not a long term protective coating hit it with a red scotch brite pad and shoot it with a rattle can.

Properly done, you would first clean it with Alumaprep then rinse with water and dry. Next coat it with Alodine 1201, rinse it with water and dry then paint. It that's too much work then just use Zinc Chromate primer (unless your in California) and then paint it. A third option would be powder coating and a fourth would be Anodizing.

Thanks ......I will call the local powder coat guy and may go with that. If its too expensive I will go with the special prep and paint myself...........thanks again Wayne