My latest anodizing

A wonderful write-up, Ed, thanks so much for sharing.

If I ever do decide to tackle this myself, this would be a great article to refer to.

:man:
Dave
 
Cool! It looks similar to what Casewell Plating sells here in this country. I leaned towards the cloths dye mainly because I can get it right down at the dollar store and when I tried it I got good results. For now I think I will stick with it. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Don't get me wrong I do appreciate the idea and will keep it in mind. As a matter of fact I think I will look at it a little closer now that I am past a lot of my testing stages. Even though I said if it ain't broke don't fix it I still try to improve process. Sometimes it blows up on me but it is fun trying new things.

Have a great day and keep anodizing J.T. !

Ed
 
ED how are you polishing the cases are you doing it in a lathe? I ask because when I did polishing work before it took allot of elbow grease to get the parts to a nice finish.
 
That's a great write-up. The process is not as complicated as i thought it would be. I like the fact that you can buy the chemicals off the shelf, and do this without any real specialized equipment.
 
I think using proper anodising dye gives better results than ordinary clothes dye. I Have been using bisulphate and have found that is the equal of a straight acid process. Cheers Ken
 
Yep Hoooooter I have heard other people say that.

As I am a hobbyist and this is all new to me, experimenting and showing what I have come up with I can only speak of that experience.

I have not tired the anodizing dye yet.

The cloths dye can be tempormental if not kept heated to certain temperature I have found. I don't know how the dye made for this purpose reacts. The cloths dye I found at 140 degrees F will take consistantly and also the dye itself wants to breakup and dissolve evenly everytime I heat it to that temp. I store it, after it cools down, back in the plastic jugs the water came in. When I get it back out to use it is like all clumped together. When poured back in the pan it has to be heated back to 120 to 140 and stirred and it will mix back into or dissolve back into one nice solution ready to be used.
As far as the dye taking to the part I guess it is like any dye the longer it is in the solution the more takes to the part or it gets darker.
I have had no problems with it unevenly taking unless part was not preped right.
Also I found the dye not taking correctly one time because the parts actually got to warm in the anodizing tank.
It appeared as the crystallin layer was building in the anodizing tank and it was sealing itself due to heat.
I had to many parts in tank and the anodizing solution heated up.

I will have to give the anodizing dye a try.
The dye I use now and have only tried is the RIT cloths dye liquid solution in the 8oz bottle.

Thanks
Have a great day!
Ed
 
Just wanted to show a good example of the amber tinged that the parts get after a good anodizing bath, before dyeing or sealing.
Sorry I don't have a before picture but most know what "virgin" aluminum looks like. I added a picture of just a piece of 6061 stock that the parts were made from a hopefully you can see the color difference.
This color is a good sign of a uniform bath. If a group of parts like this comes out and one still looks like it did when it went in then it is more than likely a bad connection to that part.
Ed

IMG_2134.JPG IMG_2126.JPG
 
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