[ungod]

I was researching anodizers in my area (turns out there are none) and kept ignoring the DIY articles until I couldn't any more. It turns out that DIY home anodizing is actually pretty easy. The biggest piece of equipment you need is a DC power supply, which is something I had been wanting for other projects and I knew would get re-used (mine cost about $75).

I used this article: How to Anodize Aluminum at Home | Make it From Metal I spot-checked a few of the items on Caswell's forums and found that it was accurate.

I made a few modifications. I bought my dyes from Caswell, who also sells a sealant which I used instead of boiling in water at the end. I also bought an anodizing stripper to remove the old color from my parts. The stripper is a fairly small bottle so you'll have to get creative on bigger parts, but it saved a lot of time.

I started with some Rev Grips that were silver and I wanted to be orange. Unfortunately I think that one of them had a poor connection and i'll need to re-do it, but overall they came out awesome!

It's a bit messy and you're working with acid and lye, so there are some precautions. But overall--super easy. I think i'm into the project about $200, which isn't a whole lot more than I would have paid someone to do the work for me.

Anybody else give this a try?

I've got some purple bits to do next (3d Violet!), after I fix my one Rev Grip end and maybe throw a few other small parts into the mix I'll follow up with more pictures.

 

[remanaz]

I have done titanium anodizing but not aluminum.

 

[Grinchy8]

I did some low voltage titanium anodizing. Aluminum was too much chemicals for my home.

 

[127.0.0.1]

I've done small Ti parts using daisy chain 9v batteries for my current supply
and cocacola as solution, works great. if I had a need for a DC power supply
for something more than anodizing I'd be doing the same as you....but no
need for a DC supply to be sitting around

 

[dirtwolf]

That's so rad. I have completed several home anodizing jobs with a sharpie.

 

[williamson36]

thanks for sharing - awesome!

 

[Gym123]

A car battery charger can be used as the power supply, so an expensive supply isn't mandatory. It limits control over the voltage and current if it's a really cheap one, but it will work.

I have watched several videos about anodizing that showed people using RIT dye as the colorant- this is the stuff people used in the '60s and '70s for tie-dying T-shirts, etc and it comes in a wide variety of colors that can be mixed.

 

[ungod]

I thought the chemicals would be a pain, but it's mostly just drain cleaner (sulfuric acid, the good stuff). Neutralize it in the driveway with some baking soda and pour it down the drain... Same with the lye.

I saw that some people were using Rit, but the dyes themselves are really cheap. I think I paid $10 for each of my colors (although, $10 shipping as well).

 

[Gym123]

I thought the chemicals would be a pain, but it's mostly just drain cleaner (sulfuric acid, the good stuff). Neutralize it in the driveway with some baking soda and pour it down the drain... Same with the lye.

I saw that some people were using Rit, but the dyes themselves are really cheap. I think I paid $10 for each of my colors (although, $10 shipping as well).

You're making sure the acid is completely neutralized, right?

How are you neutralizing the lye- with some kind of acid, I hope.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

Been doing it a long time. Just find the Caswell LCD method paper and follow it. Except I use a slightly different voltage/current scheme. It's so easy, that if you make aluminum parts, it's dumb not to anodize them.

There's nothing really harmful about sulfuric acid in this concentration. Don't tell anyone I said it, but you could literally drink it and I don't think you'd hardly notice. You can just flush it down the drain; it's just sulfur. But my current bucket is over 2 years old; I can't find a reason to change it.

 

[Gym123]

Been doing it a long time. Just find the Caswell LCD method paper and follow it. Except I use a slightly different voltage/current scheme. It's so easy, that if you make aluminum parts, it's dumb not to anodize them. View attachment 1961337

View attachment 1961338



There's nothing really harmful about sulfuric acid in this concentration. Don't tell anyone I said it, but you could literally drink it and I don't think you'd hardly notice. You can just flush it down the drain; it's just sulfur. But my current bucket is over 2 years old; I can't find a reason to change it.

It's not just the Sulfur, it's the combination of the elements, Ph level and molarity. That stuff is one of 'strong acids' and it reacts with almost everything. Ever pour H2SO4 into a beaker of sugar? It sits there, starts emitting water vapor, then turns black and a column of Carbon grows out of the container.

If it works, there's no reason to change it buy it may gain or lose a bit of strength over time, through evaporation.

Cool stuff- great looking parts.

My high school Chemistry teacher told us a joke a long time ago, where someone said "I have developed the World's strongest acid" and the other person asked "How will you store it?".

 

[ungod]

The sulfuric acid I bought was actually intended to be a drain opener (Rooto drain opener, 93%?), although I suspect bad things would happen if you used it as such. I certainly don't want to store it long term, though.

The hardware store guy was telling me they sold a bottle to a foreigner who didn't speak much English. He came back with an empty gallon bottle and a picture of melted pipes, furious!

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

Pipes are pretty resistant to sulfuric acid. When they melt, it's usually from the heat generated by the reaction of the sulfuric acid with the organic material clogging the drain. It can get so hot it will boil the water and cause water/acid to splash back up as well.

Both lye and sulfuric acid work really well as drain openers, the problem is like most things that work really well, sometimes they work too well. It's like when you absolutely positively want to dissolve any organic material, accept no substitute. Just don't forget that humans are made out of organic material.

 

[dysfunction]

We had a bathroom at our old house that needed to have sulfuric acid run through the pipes at least once a year. It was what it was. There wasn't a clean out, nor a point you could get a snake into that line from.

Kind of glad not to have to deal with that anymore, but yea.. It worked well.

 

[milehi]

I've done a ton of titanium but never aluminum. Mostly medical products and bolt kits.

 

[ungod]

Been doing it a long time. Just find the Caswell LCD method paper and follow it. Except I use a slightly different voltage/current scheme. It's so easy, that if you make aluminum parts, it's dumb not to anodize them.

There's nothing really harmful about sulfuric acid in this concentration. Don't tell anyone I said it, but you could literally drink it and I don't think you'd hardly notice. You can just flush it down the drain; it's just sulfur. But my current bucket is over 2 years old; I can't find a reason to change it.

Nice stuff!

I had a slow day today so I turned the gold links on my Canfield Lithium purple (Caswell 3D Violet). Also did my RevGrips and the LSC knob of my Mezzer (why not).

Tried to make some stem spacers too but I kept having issues. I suspect they're not really aluminum, probably some cheap pot metal that is painted to look like AL.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

Type of aluminum definitely matters. I only anodize 6061 although I heard 7075 works. I definitely tried and failed to anodize mystery aluminum before, and cast aluminum which didn't work at all looked worse because it got all blotchy.

 

[ungod]

Type of aluminum definitely matters. I only anodize 6061 although I heard 7075 works. I definitely tried and failed to anodize mystery aluminum before, and cast aluminum which didn't work at all looked worse because it got all blotchy.

Interesting, I should have paid better attention to that before starting!

Those headset spacers not only didn't work but I think they sabotaged the parts that were in the batch with them. I had to do the rev grips a few times because they seemed to take dye and then suddenly lose it. As soon as I took the spacers out of the batch it worked fine.

My suspension links are 7075 and they did work fine, although they came out a little different than the rev grips.

 

[Cleared2land]

I had a slow day today so I turned the gold links on my Canfield Lithium purple (Caswell 3D Violet).

What steps are necessary to change from one anodized color to another?

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

You have to remove the old anodizing somehow. Either sand it off or etch it off with lye.