anodising help

[steviebexplosif]

hi all anyone got any ideas or suggestions on anodising, i want to get some parts anodised, there are several anodisers in my hometown, bham, uk, and after contacting one he made some comments on the purity of the aluminium, and how it had to be as close to pure as possible, however after looking into it, seems different grades can be done, also i dont want to try but, there are home anodising kits available,what to do whos got the answers surely someone has here, cheers stevieb

 

[steviebexplosif]

no one got any ideas

 

[silverclaws]

It is true that only certain alloys of aluminium can be successfully anodised, so if you don't know what your alloy is exactly, you could end up paying for something that doesn't take.

A clue might be for what is the alloy part used for, is it a decorative part, a light weight low stress part or is the part used in a high stress area. These things might give some indication as to what the alloy might be, but hey, there are shed loads of different alloys all with different properties. So, as you can see anodising might not be as straight forward as you think.

But if you are already thinking down the lines of home anodising, then what you are doing in trying to achieve what you desire is learning and with learning and experimentation, you could end up being quite proficient at the process and become a minor authority on it yourself and there go on to do such nice work as multicolour and fade anodising. Maybe even a part time business opportunity ?

Many whom I have known who have dared to follow their own ideas have ended up minor specialists in what they do.

But what Ano kit is it you have in mind, the Caswell set up ?

 

[Rusty Scrubber]

 

[integerspin]

Ask in a platers, I don't know if most anodise or not, I used to give loads of stuff to my local platers and it wasn't until 1992 when they said if I wanted it quick[which I did] to drop it off at A1 anodising myself..

Generally they don't want to know with castings, they will say the silicon in the ali prevents a good job. I have given calipers to them a couple of times, they didn't recognise them as castings, I got them back and each time they waived the charge as they weren't happy with the color. I have a set on my GSXR, which were anodised in 1998 and look fine, but they aren't very black and there is some patchiness to the color.
If you get welded components anodised and the filler rods, had silicon in them the welds go dark.

If you want to try doing it yourself look for the recipes online. You will find sulphuric acid method is the most common. A mate of mine used to make paintball gun silencers and he anodised them himself.

oh and you can't have anything with steel inserts done, it removes the steel and messes up the tank, so I am told...

 

[Rusty Scrubber]

 

[GT-Steve]

Have a read through my old thread: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=144131

It may be of some help??