Anodizing at Home
Anodizing at Home
by gdubb2
Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:17 am
Hi Everyone,
With all the people making aluminum parts for various robots, has anyone tried anodizing aluminum at home??
I ran into this website while researching paintball stuff for my RC paintball shooting 1/6 scale tank project.
http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml
I found other info at http://www.mini-lathe.com/ .
I decided to try this, since I will be making brackets for my RoboNova. IT WORKS... I picked up some battery electrolyte at an auto parts store. Got some clothes dye, a few plastic containers, a gallon of distilled water, and dove in.
With my car battery charger as a power source (minimal), I made a cathode from some scrap 6061-T6 Aluminum, and proceded to do it. It took 1 hour with my charger to anodize a piece of 6061-T6. It came out of the acid with a clear finish. Dipped it in some water with baking soda to neutralize any residual acid, rinsed with distilled water and put it in the dye. It was in the dye for 15 minutes, then into a pan of boiling water to seal the finish.
It's not pretty, but neither was my mix of green and brown dye. But the finish is hard. I scratched the plate where it was not submerged in the acid and got to fresh metal. On the anodized section, I didn't scratch through to fresh metal with the same pressure.
The finish is a lttle blotchy, but I probably missed something with the dye mix, or cleaning the part before anodizing.
Safety is very important here.. That's acid you know. And it gives off nasty fumes while the current is passing through it.
The pictures are of the same part under different light conditions. The green/brown section is anodized, the aluminum looking part was not in the acid, and the transition was a little of both.
Total cost so far for this. $14.43 USD, and I have enough left for any brackets I might make. Next I'm going to try to strip the gold anodizing from one of the RN pieces and make it green.
With all the people making aluminum parts for various robots, has anyone tried anodizing aluminum at home??
I ran into this website while researching paintball stuff for my RC paintball shooting 1/6 scale tank project.
http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml
I found other info at http://www.mini-lathe.com/ .
I decided to try this, since I will be making brackets for my RoboNova. IT WORKS... I picked up some battery electrolyte at an auto parts store. Got some clothes dye, a few plastic containers, a gallon of distilled water, and dove in.
With my car battery charger as a power source (minimal), I made a cathode from some scrap 6061-T6 Aluminum, and proceded to do it. It took 1 hour with my charger to anodize a piece of 6061-T6. It came out of the acid with a clear finish. Dipped it in some water with baking soda to neutralize any residual acid, rinsed with distilled water and put it in the dye. It was in the dye for 15 minutes, then into a pan of boiling water to seal the finish.
It's not pretty, but neither was my mix of green and brown dye. But the finish is hard. I scratched the plate where it was not submerged in the acid and got to fresh metal. On the anodized section, I didn't scratch through to fresh metal with the same pressure.
The finish is a lttle blotchy, but I probably missed something with the dye mix, or cleaning the part before anodizing.
Safety is very important here.. That's acid you know. And it gives off nasty fumes while the current is passing through it.
The pictures are of the same part under different light conditions. The green/brown section is anodized, the aluminum looking part was not in the acid, and the transition was a little of both.
Total cost so far for this. $14.43 USD, and I have enough left for any brackets I might make. Next I'm going to try to strip the gold anodizing from one of the RN pieces and make it green.
