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Home Anodizing


GordonCopestake

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Came across a good few links on home anodizing. I was thinking about changing the colour of my scope and anodizing seems the answer :D

Seems fairly simple and easy enough to do, just have to get some sulphuric acid which is nasty stuff.

Anyone have any experience with anodizing?

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Well to be honest i used to be a chemistry lab technician so handling chemicals isn't a stress. It's more the technical nature of the process that i've not seen before. Seems fairly straightforward though. Clean, electroysis, dye, boil.

The requirments are for a bath of 20% sulphuric acid and a 12 volt power supply (im going to see if i can use my 17amp hour sealed lead acid battery). You attach the negative to a lead cathode in the tank and the positive to the aluminum piece you want anodized. Leave it for an hour. Then you wash it in water then dunk it in a bath of clothes dye for 15mins. Then you dunk it in boiling water for 15 mins. Done. Seems easy enough........

Obviously great care has to be taken when handling acid, even 20% solution.

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... except that the current required depends on the size of the item you are anodising. It can rise significantly for a small increase in weight/surface area. I doubt that a 17 A/h pack will be sufficient for anything but the smallest of bits - remeber that that acid is going to get *real* hot with all that power running through it. Tom How has done some home anodising - go check out his experiences...

http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml

Arthur

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Yeah, it was Tom How's site that i saw that first got me thinking about it. I've exchanged a few mails with him. If the sealed lead acid battery doesn't work a car battery charger can easily be used. Im sure it's just as effective as paint but to be honest this is much more interesting! Another of those "projects" to keep me intersested on cloudy nights in the (well ventilated) shed!

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