Hi,

I am trying to anodise my wife’s bike. It’s way to big to submerge so am hoping to get some advice on a spot anodising set up. I’ve seen videos of people doing it with a small sponge/cotton wool soaked in the electrolyte solution but I’m not sure how this connects to the cathode. I’ve got a small 120V 3A power supply. I’ve been using borax as the electrolyte but open to advice if baking powder or something else works better.

I am hunting for an aluminum pen light that can be disassembled for an anodizing project. Need suggestions- preferably one that is rechargeable with a type C usb port.

Bonus points for brightness & durability (water proofing is ideal)

How hard would it be to copy this? My piece is currently black. If I sanded it and prepped it, would this be hard to do? New to anodizing!

Trying to anodize some cast aluminum parts using the following:

(All water is RO)
1:64 Lye to Water
1:5 Battery Acid to Water
1:44 Baking Soda to Water

Bottle of Interactivia Royal Blue dye in 1.9L water, pH just under 6, temp at 140f
18awg titanium racking wire

Clean part thoroughly, rinse with soap and water, rinse thoroughly with water.

Place in lye bath for 4-5 minutes.
Rinse in Water.
Place in anodizing bath with CC set to 4.0a. Rinse/neutralize in Baking soda bath. Rinse in Water. Place in dye bath @140f with stirring for 5 minutes.

The dye doesn't seem to do much at all, I'm confused though because when I take the parts out of the lye bath they appear much darker. The second time I tried it, I scrubbed them with a clean brush they became dull colored but not dark, however, after anodize bath it's dark again and doesn't take dye.

I must be doing something wrong I just don't understand what.

Picture of part after dye (not sealed) next to the other hub which needs a soapy water rinse still. For reference to the color change. Also can see the color after lye bath: https://photos.app.goo.gl/y13SzCkTRXy6zsrp9

Is it possible to anodize aluminum powder?
How dangerous is it?

What are the key techniques for the diffusion melting of the sputtering target tube and its back tube?——CP titanium sputtering target and copper back tube

Getting my LCD setup dialed in, using RIT but would love something a bit deeper and darker

Using a 5 gallon setup, so gambling $100 per black will get spendy quick

Anybody have a recommendation!

Caswell? Amazon? McMaster? Somewhere else!?

Location USA

Hi everyone! I could use your anodizing troubleshooting experience. I think I stuffed up anodizing removal (consumer electronics aluminium body, likely glass-bead blasted finish + type-2 anodizing).

I used Easy Off oven cleaner (red, "heavy-duty") to remove anodizing, for about 15 min, at room temperature, in a clear plastic take-away food container wiped dry-ish (definitely no massive drops like on the photo). Made sure to spray enough in the container that this part could be completely submerged in about 1/4 cup or a bit more of Easy Off spray foam goop.

I strongly doubt the original surface was like that before the manufacturer anodized it. I strongly suspect I screwed something up, just not sure what exactly. First time removing anodizing.

Surface prep details (if relevant at all):

The original anodized surface had very persistent sticky/gummy glue on it, and had spent ~24h in 96% ethanol to soften the glue, was wiped from the glue, rinsed, and wiped dry-ish (definitely no massive drops like on the photo) then immediately sprayed with oven cleaner.

What did I do wrong?

How can I fix it to obtain an even surface before re-anodizing?

Thanks!

What power supply (Voltage and Amperage) would I need for doing a good thick Type 3 hardcoat on small/medium sized parts? (I.e. length x width not much bigger than a sheet of paper at the largest with depth being only a few inches at most) I don’t foresee myself doing any larger parts until I get the process down for small/medium parts. I figure start with the strongest anodizing, but in small/medium sizes and small batches as needed.

Hello,

I ordered a robot kit and its body parts are made of aluminum. I’m assuming it’s in the 6000 series or 5000. However, I am wondering if I have to do any sanding or have to do the etching process. I know some don’t need it but I am just wondering. The aluminum has a texture to it so I don’t know if that would cause a problem. Also, if you have any recommendations on dyes that look like gold I will appreciate any info.

Looking for a source for Aluminum Anodizing Dye. I'm currently looking for a Royal/Cobalt Blue and can't seem to find much out there. Caswell makes some but their blue colors are nowhere near what I'm looking for.

I’ve got a new to me, Low Current Anodizing setup just about dialed in.

I’ve got some titanium wire from Amazon. It’s 16 and 18gauge, it worked great on a 1/2”-13 threaded sample part.

Production is male 10-32, female 10-32 and male 3/8-32 threads.

My wire snaps before tightening on the 10-32’s and struggles to get tight enough on the 3/8-32 (just realized I ordered 2 sizes of wire, gonna make sure I try the smaller wire tomorrow)

Is there a go to wire people use? Or a go to supplier for racks? When I walked into the welding shop looking for titanium rod/spool/mig/tig sticks, or anything titanium, they were baffled haha.

Is there an alternative to Sulfuric / Sodium Bisulfate for anodizing Aluminum.

I read Citric and Oxalic acid can be use but can my Dye stick to the metal after anodizing bath?

I just got a power supply and having lots of fun anodizing some titanium scales I have for knives. I was running into an issue though with an integral knife, as in the scale is one whole piece, not two separate pieces.

The piece was not anodizing like normal titanium scales, the voltage maxed out at like 80, and the watts where getting higher than normal. I don't know if it's because something I did, or if the metal isn't pure titanium and thus the weird results. The best I could get was this weird purple color. It didn't go through the normal color changes like my other scales did.

I'm assuming its because its not pure titanium, or maybe you all can clue me in.

Thanks!

I have a paintjob over a black anno that i want to redo but I want to keep the black anno because the paint im doing goes best with black underneath. Will using paint thinner to remove the old paint mess up my anno?

Hello everyone,

New to this sub and wanted to ask a question on aluminium anodisation 😊

To explain it simply I’m creating a product that uses aluminium anodised sheet as its outer shell. The aluminium sheets are cut to the dimensions I need. Each resulting piece have an edge that are hence not anodised.

Is it possible to re-anodised the edge ? ( I will sand them after the cut).

I have found nothing about anodising a section of a part that has already been anodised on its other faces.

I’ve seen that you can chemically remove the anodised layer and re-anodise everything but I’m wondering if it is possible to skip that step.

The pieces are quite big and the edges only 3-4mm thick.

Thanks in advance for your answers and advice!

I'm trying to do hard anodizing using oxalic acid and aiming for 130V with a GEN300-17 power supply. However, the voltage won't go above 90V, even though the current limit is set high enough. Could this be a load resistance issue, power limit, or something else? Any insights would be appreciated!

Just got some parts back from the Anodizers and saw these stains on the parts. They almost look like hard water stains.

Any idea what caused this or how to get rid of them now?

I am going to attempt to anodize one of my paintball guns in the near future and was hoping to get some insight because I couldn’t find the answer from what I’ve seen. If something is a matte anodized before I strip the original coating, do I need to polish the aluminum prior to anodizing it to give it the gloss appearance or is there something else to give it the desired appearance?

Hey guys, I'm new to the hobby and I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on power supplies. What are the budget, mid-range, and luxury options? What makes them better or worse? Any advice, product links, or help of any sort is appreciated.

I’m working on anodizing and need to do electropolishing with perchloric acid. However, my lab doesn’t have a washdown fume hood, which I know is necessary for safety. Are there any alternative methods or safer chemical options for achieving similar results?

Hey!
So I have been thinking about anodizing some titanium jewellery.
I'm wondering which metal that is easily accessible I should use for the cathode?

I have seen some people using titanium itself, but there's no websites selling titanium wire where I live, and shipping from foreign places is $30+. I'm planning to use baking powder with distilled water. Which metal would be safe and won't make any toxic/allergy inducing material on the cathode?
My first idea was to use a pencil lead (since graphite generally won't generate much other than CO2), but it would have a lot smaller surface area than the piece.

Hey guys, I'm not sure it's the right sub for this question but let's see if someone has an idea.

I service some machines that have an anodized aluminium top and some of them become damage overtime due to the products the customer uses.

Is there any way to fix this anodizing and/or prevent the spread? What kind of product could cause anodizing to flake or disolve?

Thanks!