Re: Small tank anodizing
Cameraman:
Two items
You were right about the metal (steel) shaft on the paint mixer being in the anodizing tank. After only a couple of minutes it started to get off-color. It didn't hurt the bath at all beciause it wan't part of the circuit. I swapped it for an aluminum one (1/4" rod). No reaction now and it works really well.
On the issue of the range hood. I do my anodizing in the basement only about 15ft from the return air there. I taped a couple of pieces of plastic sheeting onto the range hood which hang like drapes in front of and to the sides of the hood and table I work on, effectivly closing it in. When I used to really get the amps flowing and was producing a lot of fumes I just lowered the drapes which made the hood even more effective. I've never had any problem with fumes in the house. Now that I've reduced to about 6A/sqft the bubbles have gne down a lot and I don't lower the drapes at all any more. In fact My setup is only 5ft from my lathe and also steel gas pipes and I've never seen any problems with rust. I'd soon stop if I did. You could check the air flow easily with a smoke source like a burning show-lace. MAybe without the ano-tank running and just the fan of course!!
I finished that 11x7x1/2 plate yesterday but at 7.4Amps the bath was up to about 80deg after about 110 min So I cut it about 10min short. I was going for my usual 1mil finish but I think I probably got to .9 according to the 720 rule. The down side of small tanks I guess.
In any case it came out perfect. Mirror finish aluminum to start, now mirror finish black.
BTW. I never used to use the sealant and never had a problem. I thought I'd give it a try and you are right I don't like the fumes. I looked up Nickel Acetate on the WEB and because of the Nickel component it is clasified as Cacinogenic (sp?). (what isn't these days). But I never had any problem with just de-ionized water so I'm not sure I'll keep using the sealant.
Anyway, what I did was just remove my anodizing tank from under the range hood while the part was dying and put the sealing tank in it's place.
The beauty of the small setups. The range hood fixed that fume problem as well.
Sage
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