Home Anodizing

[tomatoevousparlour]

Has anyone tried Anodizing at home?
I found this site and it dosent look to bad:

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

 

[lewis1641]

that looks far too easy. also looks pretty easy to lose a hand or eye!

 

[tomatoevousparlour]

You say it looks to easy you think its fake?
The only reason is i want a pair of purple hubs but have struggled to find any

 

[lewis1641]

i dont think its fake i just mean that it reads like its easy but when you start doing it it will probably turn out harder! at least he has done a lot of the homework.

i think stuff like that is best left to the pros. there's a lot that can go wrong and i have heard horror stories on here of parts being reduced to nothing even in the hands of specialists. having said that i'm all for people giving stuff a go themselves, just be careful.

 

[tomatoevousparlour]

I think id try it with a cheap pieace first but im gonna try and get purple hubs first

 

[lewis1641]

definately a good idea. have you tried a wanted ad in the classifieds

 

[FluffyChicken]

It is easy, we used to do it in school (BiTD) and I am trying to get the school i work at to do it. Handy part is we have all the chemical there but in concentrated form. It's easy to get hold of as well as it's a common chemical. Try scientific suppies like

Fisher www.fisher.co.uk
S&C http://www.scichem.com/
Timstar
or the bigger companies, but it cost far more from them.

You would need to check if they will supply thi individual (Timstar do not I know that) but if you know your local school/college/University try getting it through

 

[The Bear]

Personally I would get the pro's to do it. A local firm (Portsmouth) did several bits for my motorbike for all of £20 and recently I had my crank and spare hub anodised for £10 ( I also had my Klein frame , forks and bars alochromed for £10 too). What I am saying is it's quite cheap to get it done properly.

As for things going wrong then I would say be careful. Even the Pro's mention these problems, warning of explosions if the materials are unpure or contaminated. A while back I had a hub anodised and some spoke wear marks on the flanges ended up being all pitted and burnt away during the de-oxidising stage and leaving a pitted surface when finished, all from contamination.

Don't be put off though, Check out my anodised RS1's.....

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56333&highlight=rs1

 

[silverclaws]

I am going to give it a go, I got a lot of cleaned and highly polished ally parts I want anodising red, and plan to do a couple of hubs( when I find what I want). I am going along the route of getting a ' Farnell' 0~20v stabilised power supply for the current, and I have a source of acid and distilled water. I do anodising at college, but their rig is always knackered, so am going to build my own for the fun of it and either aquire the dies from college for purposes of experimentation, or experiment with food dyes and coloured drawing ink.

The beauty is, make a mess, strip the colour in caustic soda solution, repolish and give it a go again.

 

[ferrus]

The beauty is, make a mess, strip the colour in caustic soda solution, repolish and give it a go again.

Don't forget you're stripping a layer of the aluminium when you do this, not just a coloured coating. I wouldn't recommend it for 'precision-fit' components.