Any way to annodize at home?

[lasercrazy]

I just need to make a very thin anno layer on some heatsinks. Is there an easy way to do this with common household stuff?

 

[unnerv]

Check caswell plating. It is not real cheap but they have a kit. http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/aluminum.htm

 

[lasercrazy]

That's a little too big for my needs, but thanks for the link anyway.

 

[cy]

aluminum naturally forms a thin anodic film.

simply dip part into hot water (not boiling) for a couple of minutes to seal.

 

[lasercrazy]

Thanks cy. :thumbsup: Just hot water or do I need to run some current through the piece?

 

[cy]

carefully degrease your part before dipping in hot water.

note natural anodic film is thin at best.

 

[gadget_lover]

I made the mistake of dipping parts in BOILING water to seal them. I forgot about them for 20 minutes. The resulting ano was dark brown/black. It was spotted where bubbles adheared to the surface of the part.

I picked up a steamer at Goodwill to experiment with next time.

Dan

 

[RCatR]

I tried today with a 12V 10A battery charger and three solutions:

Coca-Cola
Diet Coca-Cola
Lemon Juice


All three produced bubbles when current was apploied; but none caused the aluminum to anodize the way I was hoping. Diet coke made the most bubbles, and made some dark dots on the Al; but they wiped off with a paper towel

Any ideas?

 

[carbine15]

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

 

[TranquillityBase]

I bought all my starter anodizing supplies from this site;

http://www.focuser.com/atm/anodize/anodize99.html

I still haven't built the system, but a small tank is all that is needed for small parts.

TB

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Just a heads-up for those of you with expensive lathes, tooling, or other equipment--sulphuric acid fumes will rust your valuable goodies in no time--you better have a good ventilation system and extremely tight containers for storage.

 

[KDOG3]

Hmmm. Will the hot water trick seal it enough to be non conductive for the Seoul P4 base?

 

[cy]

no... never depend upon anodic film for only insulation

Hmmm. Will the hot water trick seal it enough to be non conductive for the Seoul P4 base?

 

[MorpheusT1]

no... never depend upon anodic film for only insulation

:thinking:


I thought you just said it could be done.


Benny

 

[PhotonFanatic]

I think cy is trying to distinguish between a film, which is exceedingly thin, measured in microns, and a coating of anodized aluminum, which can be up to .001" thick, or more.

The film could be penetrated quite easily by another piece of metal, but a layer of anodizing that is .001" thick will withstand quite a bit of abuse.

 

[KDOG3]

Ah. Gotcha...

 

[DNova]

In case anyone cares, the natural thickness of oxide film on exposed aluminum is around 5 nanometers (.005 microns).