If anybody is looking for an anodising this company in high wycombe have good reviews, ive never used then personally so cant confirm or deny the reviews
https://www.alphaanodising.co.uk/
https://www.alphaanodising.co.uk/
Anodising
- Thread starter damianw
- Start date
Busy is fine and a 2 second reply to say so would suffice but to blank customers isn’t good business. They may be busy now but things change in a instant and it’s disappointing they quoted a amount , I’ve prepped the frame and now nothing.
Can’t spell it out if they never pick the phone up or reply to emails though.
MuchAlohaNui
Senior Retro Guru
Maybe anodize the parts yourself? Really...the initial investment is not too wild if you are simply after a few colors as the dye will be your greatest expense. Max a few hundred bucks for everything.
My power supply was about 65 euros, but I went nuts on the dyes because I bought from an American company so after six colors totaling about 40oz with shipping and import tax was about $150. All the other stuff I picked up on Amazon and eBay for 50 euros.
Power supply, lead anode, titanium wire, Sodium Hydrogen Sulfate, tea kettles, baking soda, fish tank pump and other little bits can all be purchased on Amazon or used on eBay in the comfort of your house and pajamas.
The quality of the anodizing basically comes down to how well you prep the surface via etching and cleaning, the temperature at which you keep the dye in your electric tea kettle and lastly the quality of the dye. You can do small parts in your kitchen and the sodium hydrogen sulfate is neutralized with baking soda once you're done and any recycler will accept it because the solution is not acidic or caustic.
The sodium hydrogen sulfate takes longer to etch, but for those of you who don't want to deal with hydroflouric acid, this is your best bet.
No one around me will accept small parts / small orders so I used this excuse to learn how to anodize my own aluminum and titanium parts here at the house. It's a pretty fun learning process.
My power supply was about 65 euros, but I went nuts on the dyes because I bought from an American company so after six colors totaling about 40oz with shipping and import tax was about $150. All the other stuff I picked up on Amazon and eBay for 50 euros.
Power supply, lead anode, titanium wire, Sodium Hydrogen Sulfate, tea kettles, baking soda, fish tank pump and other little bits can all be purchased on Amazon or used on eBay in the comfort of your house and pajamas.
The quality of the anodizing basically comes down to how well you prep the surface via etching and cleaning, the temperature at which you keep the dye in your electric tea kettle and lastly the quality of the dye. You can do small parts in your kitchen and the sodium hydrogen sulfate is neutralized with baking soda once you're done and any recycler will accept it because the solution is not acidic or caustic.
The sodium hydrogen sulfate takes longer to etch, but for those of you who don't want to deal with hydroflouric acid, this is your best bet.
No one around me will accept small parts / small orders so I used this excuse to learn how to anodize my own aluminum and titanium parts here at the house. It's a pretty fun learning process.
swannymere
Kona Fan
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Any chance of a step by step how to (with photos or video) for those of us with minimal technical knowledge or just nervous and want our hand held?
MuchAlohaNui
Senior Retro Guru
Sure. Without flooding you with too much information, watch this video a few times. This guy sums up the process pretty clearly. The video is a tad old, and in that some of his Amazon links to specific products do not exist. However, the information within the video is spot on. Watching a few times will break the mystery for most of you.
One major point that I want to add to the video is the power supply. He is doing aluminum ONLY. Because of this, his power supply is a lower voltage unit from what I have. If you want to anodize titanium also, you will need a power supply that can push upwards of 120V. When you're shopping keep in mind as you look at power supplies, as you go up in voltage, the amperage will go down. My unit is rated for 220V @ 3 amps. The one in the video below 30V @ 10 amps. 30V will not allow you a full spectrum color palette if doing titanium. Likewise, if you're anodizing aluminum crank arms, max amperage you'd need is about 3 amps anyhow BUT better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Another aspect is the Caswell step-by-step manual. In the video he makes mention of the manual. You can buy supplies and the manual directly from Caswell (where I bought my dye's - some of the best out there) or if your patient, a slightly older version of the manual is floating around for free online, BUT...you will need to find this yourself
. I will not post potential copy-right problems here.In his video I believe he uses hydroflouric acid (battery acid)...which most of us don't have access to (if you do, lucky you). Hydroflouric acid drastically reduces etching time and frankly is the best to have. But, I have a massively hard time finding store-bought HF, so you use instead, sodium hydrogen sulfate (swimming pool chemical). For etching with sodium hydrogen sulfate follow this link and give it a good read:
http://www.observationsblog.com/sci...izing-and-dying-aluminum-without-battery-acid
PLEASE NOTE: If you are etching titanium NOTHING will work except hydroflouric acid due to how hard the surface of titanium is. I have yet to find a supplier or hardware store that sells commercially, i.e. to the average Joe. If you find a source for HF, please let me know, ahhhhh!!!!
There is a company called Multi Etch selling their "proprietary" etch powder which they show can etch titanium but their asking price is pretty expensive...and if I don't find HF soon, I may be resorted to using this product. It does give good results.
https://www.multietch.com/etching-titanium-multietch
Conversely, because they manufacture a chemical, you can reverse-engineer their product using the MSDS on page 3:
https://www.multietch.com/files/sta...34d2e321e644604c/1597683036599/SDSdry2020.pdf
For the dyes I bought:
https://caswellplating.com/anodizing-products/anodizing-dyes.html
On to the video for aluminum...
On to the video for titanium...
If you have any questions, ask em'.
Last edited:
Sure. Without flooding you with too much information, watch this video a few times. This guy sums up the process pretty clearly. The video is a tad old, and in that some of his Amazon links to specific products do not exist. However, the information within the video is spot on. Watching a few times will break the mystery for most of you.
One major point that I want to add to the video is the power supply. He is doing aluminum ONLY. Because of this, his power supply is a lower voltage unit from what I have. If you want to anodize titanium also, you will need a power supply that can push upwards of 120V. When you're shopping keep in mind as you look at power supplies, as you go up in voltage, the amperage will go down. My unit is rated for 220V @ 3 amps. The one in the video below 30V @ 10 amps. 30V will not allow you a full spectrum color palette if doing titanium. Likewise, if you're anodizing aluminum crank arms, max amperage you'd need is about 3 amps anyhow BUT better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Another aspect is the Caswell step-by-step manual. In the video he makes mention of the manual. You can buy supplies and the manual directly from Caswell (where I bought my dye's - some of the best out there) or if your patient, a slightly older version of the manual is floating around for free online, BUT...you will need to find this yourself
In his video I believe he uses hydroflouric acid (battery acid)...which most of us don't have access to (if you do, lucky you). Hydroflouric acid drastically reduces etching time and frankly is the best to have. But, I have a massively hard time finding store-bought HF, so you use instead, sodium hydrogen sulfate (swimming pool chemical). For etching with sodium hydrogen sulfate follow this link and give it a good read:
http://www.observationsblog.com/sci...izing-and-dying-aluminum-without-battery-acid
PLEASE NOTE: If you are etching titanium NOTHING will work except hydroflouric acid due to how hard the surface of titanium is. I have yet to find a supplier or hardware store that sells commercially, i.e. to the average Joe. If you find a source for HF, please let me know, ahhhhh!!!!
There is a company called Multi Etch selling their "proprietary" etch powder which they show can etch titanium but their asking price is pretty expensive...and if I don't find HF soon, I may be resorted to using this product. It does give good results.
https://www.multietch.com/etching-titanium-multietch
Conversely, because they manufacture a chemical, you can reverse-engineer their product using the MSDS on page 3:
https://www.multietch.com/files/sta...34d2e321e644604c/1597683036599/SDSdry2020.pdf
For the dyes I bought:
https://caswellplating.com/anodizing-products/anodizing-dyes.html
On to the video for aluminum...
On to the video for titanium...
If you have any questions, ask em'.
It’s still something I want to do. But I’ve been told the quality you get is also down to a certain amount of experience.
Any examples of items you’ve done? How many attempts did it take to get it correct ?
I'd say deffo it is a trial and error process, and you'll need to have lots and lots of practise pieces to get shading ect. not in what you see is what you expect to get, and im sure what looks vibrant on the pic, isn't what you'll get in real life first off.
Interesting hobby. You join it to be able to anodize one small bike part, and before you know it you're hooked and trying to anodize everything.
Interesting hobby. You join it to be able to anodize one small bike part, and before you know it you're hooked and trying to anodize everything.
MuchAlohaNui
Senior Retro Guru
I am new to all of this also, so I don't have many examples yet. I have been successful with titanium bits thus far, but I am not getting the vibrant colors as you see in the video above solely because I don't have the HF to etch the metal. That step is critical for the anodization layer to adhere to. Next week, I have the house to myself so I will be anodizing aluminum, as well as stripping off old anodization from other parts that I want different colors. What's good about aluminum, you can easily remove the anodization and start over. Titanium less so, unless you have the etch to eat off the color.
Another thing I didn't explain in basic terms above:
Aluminum gets its color with dye
Titaninum gets its color with electricity put through the metal, or heat exposure
But each metal needs an anode and cathode during the process.
Another thing I didn't explain in basic terms above:
Aluminum gets its color with dye
Titaninum gets its color with electricity put through the metal, or heat exposure
But each metal needs an anode and cathode during the process.
