Anodizing

Hey guys I'm sure this has been asked before but I haven't had much luck on the search. Has anyone anodized at home?

I have an upcoming project where I have about a dozen brand new, bare aluminum Surefire sized lights I want to anodize. I'm thinking about doing the battery charger Sulfuric Acid bath but I don't want to ruin them. I'd obviously try a couple demo pieces of aluminum first to see the results. I was thinking if I calculate the correct surface area I need to match up with the amps the battery charger is putting out I'd be ok and wouldn't need a variable voltage source.

Am I better off sending these to a professional anodizer?

Also, how would I skip a surface in the anodizing process? Say I don't want to anodize a section of the light where electrical contact is made.

Thanks!!!

I'm curious about this as well, but don't want to spring for an expensive variable power supply. I've seen people link together 9v batteries and such, but seems unreliable.

As for masking off areas, that's easy. Playdoh.

DrafterDan said:

I'm curious about this as well, but don't want to spring for an expensive variable power supply. I've seen people link together 9v batteries and such, but seems unreliable.

As for masking off areas, that's easy. Playdoh.

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The 9v battery method is for color anodizing titanium, isn't it? Or can you also anodize aluminum with 9v batteries?

badtziscool said:

The 9v battery method is for color anodizing titanium, isn't it? Or can you also anodize aluminum with 9v batteries?

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The 9v battery method is for titanium, not aluminum. The process is different

I found this: https://www.pfonline.com/articles/calculating-anodizing-rate-for-type-ii-and-type-iii-coatings



Rule of 720:
Minutes to anodize = (mils of coating desired × 720) / Amps per ft2





Since a battery charger is a set amperage you just have to make sure you have correct area of items to be anodized in the tank acording to what I've seen online.

Interesting about the play dough. It wont fall off in the solution?

That's interesting, thank you.
P

Perhaps contact member LightKnot.

Thanks, I'll give him a shout! Forgot all about him. I picked up some Cerakoted Mags from him a while back.

LiftdT4R said:

Hey guys I'm sure this has been asked before but I haven't had much luck on the search. Has anyone anodized at home?

I have an upcoming project where I have about a dozen brand new, bare aluminum Surefire sized lights I want to anodize. I'm thinking about doing the battery charger Sulfuric Acid bath but I don't want to ruin them. I'd obviously try a couple demo pieces of aluminum first to see the results. I was thinking if I calculate the correct surface area I need to match up with the amps the battery charger is putting out I'd be ok and wouldn't need a variable voltage source.

Am I better off sending these to a professional anodizer?

Also, how would I skip a surface in the anodizing process? Say I don't want to anodize a section of the light where electrical contact is made.

Click to expand...

Simply put, you'd better find a professional anodizer aka metal processing workshop. Doing anodizing at home is simply unimaginable... do you know how much hazmat is involved in the process??

Skpping a surface: you do that by plugging and masking. Again, let the pros do the work (but even so, it's not easy and will curtail extra time and costs).

Anyway the more parts you send to the metal processor, the better CP (cost performance) you'll get.