Anodizing
When you do things on you lathe or mill you also want to make them look nice. One very good way to make aluminum look nice is to anodize it.
The anodizing process is very simple but you need some strong chemicals to make it work.
My anodizing line is not yet finished. I'm currently thinking about air agitation in the anodizing bath. This will help to get a nice even finish.
At the moment I have only two colors, dark red and black. You can buy almost any color you need. You could always have a natural color and skip the color.