Re: Ghetto aluminum anodizing
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 10:36 am
Thanks Guys,
But, this is the part where I discourage everyone. The first thing I want to say about anodizing at home is.... it's not easy to get good results. You really need to work for it.
The HowTo of anodizing is easy to find online. The link above is one of the very first links I used to teach myself how to do it.
If you are really serious about this, you need to register over on the forum at the Caswell site. They have an anodizing section on their forum that is absolutely the place to get answers to any problems you're having. Don't buy the Caswell plating guide. It's crap. But, the plating guide at the link above is very good.
I studied anodizing for about a year before I actually built my setup. I studied the enormous number of different problems people have with their efforts, and every one of them boiled down to one thing; You must be very very clean to do this. Your water must be as pure as possible. Distilled pure. You can't drag chemicals from one tank step to the next, so you rinse, and rinse and rinse, and then rinse again between steps. What do you rinse with? You guessed it, distilled water. Your parts must be surgically clean before you start, and before they hit the next tank. You NEVER touch the parts. Something as simple as a finger print will ruin your finish. Your temperatures in each bath must be exact, and the PH levels perfect. So you need to have a way to control things.
It's a five tank system. After cleaning the parts, and I mean perfectly clean, they go into a special cleaning tank that strips off the oxidation layer on the surface. This oxide layer forms in about a second when bare aluminum is sitting in plain air. So after the special oxidation strip, you move the part to a rinse step in such a way that NEVER lets the part dry. This, as mentioned before is because it only takes about a second to re-form an oxide layer on the surface of the aluminum. Once it's been rinsed very well, the constantly wet part is then moved to the de-smutt tank. This tank strips off the alloys in the aluminum on the surface just a few molecules deep, leaving a layer of a few molecules deep of pure aluminum on the surface. Then you rinse again, never letting the part dry to keep the air off of it. Once clean, the wet part moves to the anodizing tank. Anodizing typically takes about an hour. The part is kept wet as it's moved from the anodizing tank to be rinsed again. Once clean, it's moved wet to the dye tank (the color tank). After the dye tank it's moved wet to be rinsed again, and then moved wet to the sealer tank. After the seal tank, the parts are safe again in plain air.
As you can see from my short description, if you want your parts to come out good, you really need to be organized and prepared. You will find that most guys that do this at home get pretty crappy results. No, let me rephrase that, most home anodized parts look like shit! I am not about that, so I spent a lot of time and money with my setup to get the same level of quality the big commercial shops do. I do not recommend this type of thing to anyone who is not super detailed oriented and super clean.
I know, I'll end up being the big downer on this forum.
Take care,
David
But, this is the part where I discourage everyone. The first thing I want to say about anodizing at home is.... it's not easy to get good results. You really need to work for it.
The HowTo of anodizing is easy to find online. The link above is one of the very first links I used to teach myself how to do it.
If you are really serious about this, you need to register over on the forum at the Caswell site. They have an anodizing section on their forum that is absolutely the place to get answers to any problems you're having. Don't buy the Caswell plating guide. It's crap. But, the plating guide at the link above is very good.
I studied anodizing for about a year before I actually built my setup. I studied the enormous number of different problems people have with their efforts, and every one of them boiled down to one thing; You must be very very clean to do this. Your water must be as pure as possible. Distilled pure. You can't drag chemicals from one tank step to the next, so you rinse, and rinse and rinse, and then rinse again between steps. What do you rinse with? You guessed it, distilled water. Your parts must be surgically clean before you start, and before they hit the next tank. You NEVER touch the parts. Something as simple as a finger print will ruin your finish. Your temperatures in each bath must be exact, and the PH levels perfect. So you need to have a way to control things.
It's a five tank system. After cleaning the parts, and I mean perfectly clean, they go into a special cleaning tank that strips off the oxidation layer on the surface. This oxide layer forms in about a second when bare aluminum is sitting in plain air. So after the special oxidation strip, you move the part to a rinse step in such a way that NEVER lets the part dry. This, as mentioned before is because it only takes about a second to re-form an oxide layer on the surface of the aluminum. Once it's been rinsed very well, the constantly wet part is then moved to the de-smutt tank. This tank strips off the alloys in the aluminum on the surface just a few molecules deep, leaving a layer of a few molecules deep of pure aluminum on the surface. Then you rinse again, never letting the part dry to keep the air off of it. Once clean, the wet part moves to the anodizing tank. Anodizing typically takes about an hour. The part is kept wet as it's moved from the anodizing tank to be rinsed again. Once clean, it's moved wet to the dye tank (the color tank). After the dye tank it's moved wet to be rinsed again, and then moved wet to the sealer tank. After the seal tank, the parts are safe again in plain air.
As you can see from my short description, if you want your parts to come out good, you really need to be organized and prepared. You will find that most guys that do this at home get pretty crappy results. No, let me rephrase that, most home anodized parts look like shit! I am not about that, so I spent a lot of time and money with my setup to get the same level of quality the big commercial shops do. I do not recommend this type of thing to anyone who is not super detailed oriented and super clean.
I know, I'll end up being the big downer on this forum.
Take care,
David