Guide Annodizing for dummies 101

How do you get consistant colour over all the parts?
If I'm using the same charger for all the parts (ie: the same amperage) won't the smaller parts get more dye than the bigger ones?

 

I doubt ill ever do it, but at least if i get the guts i'll know how! excellent job describing the steps

 

This will be extremely helpful for a friend of mine who wants to anodize some of his stuff. It's a great tutorial, well done .

If you have pics, can we see some of the results?

 

Nothing

edited...

 

Speaking of buying those powerful chargers to use as a electrolysis power source like metal plating and annodizing, the good folks back in my country were using Car Batteries instead.

Most car batteries should give up easy 60AMPS for about an hour before requiring recharge. The aluminum positive cable should be quite large, roughly about the size of what you see being connected to the car (that you borrowed the battery from. ). Then all you need is a 3-10amp battery charger to charge that battery back up again.

 

Man this article is everywhere, there's like 7 on the internet that I found all with different names stamped on them, damn thieves.

 

any pics?

Any pics of this? im building a computer case and it would be very cool to anodize it red.

 

I was into this idea but i found an easier way to get an anodized look for a lot cheaper and a lot safer to do lol. Called dupli color metalcast anodized colour paint lol.

 

You could possibly get two tone (or more) by using multiple dyes. Ie. have a two buckets next to each other. Problem would be withdrawing at an even rate to provide a uniform fade.

 

Sidenote about the cleaner used: Nitric acid may be the preffered cleaner, but such a hassle to find/purchase/use. As far as SimpleGreen is concerned, I would say that that would be the second best choice. The reasoning is I have to 'oxygen-clean' parts from time to time. And the number one cleaner for doing this is actual the same formulation as SimpleGreen. Actually, I just use SimpleGreen. What does 'oxygen-clean' mean? The parts in question will be subjected to high-purity oxygen gas. High purity oxygen gas, when subjected to impurities of any kind (including the stuff floating around in the air) will instantly ignite. It is imperitive that metal parts (mostly stainless steel) e cleaned to the point where there are NO impurities on the parts.

So, I would vote that SimpleGreen be the second best cleaner to use.

Oh, another thing: The reasoning behind professional shops is equipement and technique. To take this guide just a step further, some of the following may be helpful:

1: The cheapest thing is using a simple car charger. But if you can locate (used or rented) another charger with higher current abilities, this will help results.

2: The act of flushing cold water is a source of oxygenating (SP?). Instead of direct flushing, it would be better to setup another plastic pan with distilled water and quickly transffer the parts from the sulfuric acid to this. Rinse the part by swishing it back and forth, or possibly even setup a propeller inside the distilled water.

3: Some more extensive research on the dyes used would help. Personally, Id find the color I wanted in a permanent magic marker and dismantle it and throw that in. Its much more resistive to fading and intended to be strong enough to adhere to anything, as compared to dyes used for cloth.

4: The boiling process would best be done in one of those stainless steel pans used for food service at banquet functions. Its a much better solution for both heating and purity reasons. Again, try to keep the parts from air exposure as littel as possible, so transffer them from one pan to the other as quickly as possible.

 

where could i find a more indepth guide?
like holding my hand and guilding my hand thru it word for word, action for action.

by the way these are great

 

I just wanted to post a quick update for everyone here as I've actually tried this process and failed misserably

Having failed I've done considerable research and learning including reading some published books on the subject (Technology of anodizing aluminum, A W Brace) instead of just relying on the internet.

My findings are that whats published on the interenet is the 'don't worry its easy' explination and doesn't give you enough background to make it work. It will work - but only if many of the unknowns fall in line by chance. Chance isn't something that is good enough for me

Anyways - I will try to post a guide in the next couple of weeks but I would suggest to anyone who is considering this to have a go first with the Caswell system first. Even if you only read their manual!

So - just a word of warning here that don't expect good results from what you've googl'd - it more then likely won't work.

 

Colour is unaffected by amperage, colour is affected by how long you leave it in the dye. Smaller parts with more amperage will result in a larger amount of aluminium being deposited, but that will not effect the colour as far as I can tell.

 

Thats not completely true dgd - color is affected by both amperage and voltage as well as the strength of the electrolite. Essentially (I hope i have this the right way around) the amps relate to the depth of opening - the voltage the diameter of the opening. If the electrolite is not balanced iwth the volt/am and temp then the layer is desolved before it is created.

What does this have to do with color? the bigger the openings the more dye that gets trapped - the darker the color.

Relating it to different sizes of parts - you really need to calculate the surface area and then use the appropriate current density to get a consistant anodised layer and therefore a consistent color.

Have a look at the caswell site as it describes this for you.

 

I didn't realise that, only done first year chemistry. But regardless, it shouldn't matter, as you can just leave it in the dye until it comes out at the same colour. The only issue would be keeping the parts to the same volume, as the deposition would be greater on smaller parts. So if there was a serious difference, you could have one part being far larger than the other and not fitting.

 

Hey, all...

I have posted previously where some of the pictures of previously annodized items are. I apologize for not posting where the source of the article I found was, I only had it as a .wpd file on my hdd. I did alter the text to reflect the differences of my experience with working with the process. I was only attempting to give folks a little help in the "how to" dept. Which I think this forum is all about. I have just recently acquired about 5 gallons of 98% pure sulfuric acid (that stuff is a bit heavy!) and upon revamping some rooms here at the Chicken Head Lab, I will be milling, and annodizing custom parts for paint ball markers, R/C cars ( (my own Kyosho Inferno MP-6 Sport ) ) And be modding some Pc junk...
So Apologies for not getting all squared away with all, But nobody is perfect.
Keep modding and I will be updating this soon....

 

Funny, I have seen this info elsewhere:

Written by Jim Bowles for the paintball gun community (Original article by Bruce Hampson):

How to anodize

However, if you follow a few threads above and not download GAIN (spyware), you can learn how to build a rebreather out ouf plumbing parts and motorcycle innertubes!! Cool stuff!

You can also learn that you can get a free US Government paid lab if you live in Korea!!!

I just saw that someone already called this one out. Sorry for the duplication.

 

For Crying out loud!

All I was trying to do was let people in the forum know about the stupid process! I am a modder and am only trying to help make the info available! Stop telling me where you can find the freaking info! It is also available here now, I know now that there are millions of other places that have this info! thank you. Now just drop it and shut up if you find it elsware. It is here to help others. If you can use it GREAT, if notSHUT UP ABOUT WHERE ELSE IT IS. I ALREADY SAID I WAS NOT SURE WHERE I HAD GOTTEN THE INFO FROM BUT I HAVE ALSO UEDD IT MYSELF FOR MY OWN PROJECTS. SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY.

Rude post edited by Cheese

 

Woah there boy. That could have been said in a much more polite manner, don't you think?

Interesting information. Too bad that a lot of the methods are rather difficult for the home hobbiest to do to a computer case

 

looks like a copy and paste job from http://www.paintballtimes.com/Article.asp?ID=74