Rig for Anodizing Pen Barrels?

[LadyTiger]

thanks again for your input Acidrain. we made our first attempt this morning and it didn't go so well... we did get some development of an oxide layer on the test piece but we couldn't get any of the dye to stick. now that you mention it, there was a definite oxidation/corrosion of the connecting wires and so i bet that poor connection was part of the problem. another contributing factor was that we only left the piece in the sulphuric acid for about 40 min.

i just discovered and printed out an older thread that should really be called "how not to anodize" () where the guy tried using grape kool-aid to anodize his parts red. while i was skimming over the plethora of advice, i encountered a reference to the "720 rule"? do you have a good link explaining what that is?

(PS--the guys changed their mind again and ignored what i had to say about stainless steel paper clips. thus our sulphuric bath is full of little bits of iron now from where the paper clips were completely eaten through. i laughed at them. they're now going to go out and purchase some more Al wire for us to use.)

[destroyer125]

Check this out. Followed by using the LCD method

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

The 720 rule is the LCD math pretty much 6 amps per sq ft at 12 v

[Ready2Dye]

Originally Posted by destroyer125

If your going to use paper clips, Id suggest going and buying some long gloves, You will need to grab your pen pieces out of the bottom of the tank.

LMAO

You're pretty funny destroyer, I gotta admit I'm still laughing. Screw it... I'm putting that in my sig. The one I have now is actually from the thread with the kool-aid LT was talking about; cuz the dialouge in there is SOOOOO funny.....


.....ANYWAYS....

Originally Posted by LadyTiger

i just discovered and printed out an older thread that should really be called "how not to anodize" () where the guy tried using grape kool-aid to anodize his parts red. while i was skimming over the plethora of advice, i encountered a reference to the "720 rule"? do you have a good link explaining what that is?

(PS--the guys changed their mind again and ignored what i had to say about stainless steel paper clips. thus our sulphuric bath is full of little bits of iron now from where the paper clips were completely eaten through. i laughed at them. they're now going to go out and purchase some more Al wire for us to use.)

So LadyTiger, the guys in your group ignored the idea and used the clips anyways?

.....we are a STUBBORN breed!

About the parts not comming out good, were all the parts connected with only the paper clips? If so, when they corroded the connection was shot, and no further ano'ing would be possible.

About the 720 rule; you must have looked at the thread twenty times and not noticed it. It is a "sticky" on every page of "Anodizing Questions" and its called.... Anodizing calculations(720 Rule) and inside there you can find a link to an online calculator were you plug in the surface area and desired thickness with whatever current density you want (6ASF works fine). If you want MORE info on the 720 rule go here.

HTH

[LadyTiger]

lol, I did completely overlook that sticky... thanks for bringing it to my attention. i still have to read it, but i'll respond here anyways.

I'm surprised, but the paperclips held up for almost 30min before the first side ate through. We were testing a 2.5"x2.5"x.77" block of 6061, which is a fairly stout chunk of Al. But as mentioned, the oxide buildup did seriously impede the process.

I have done the SA calc and each set of pen parts should have ~.144 sq-ft of surface area. Thus for each pen we should need about .86 amps? Our PS was set for 2 Amps (and was delivering not quite 1 Volt) so this sounds like a connection issue. (Yay!)

Any other recommended links for newbies?

[acidrain]

Definately a connection issue... you should be seeing voltages in the 11 to 15 range, depending on acid strength and temperature.
Your surface area and amps calcs look correct.

[LadyTiger]

Ok! After much trial and error, I think I might have something working right now as I type this. I redid all the wiring and connections with brand new Al wire and my piece is bubbling quite nicely in the bucket. I had a bit of a scare with possible exposure to the acid, but everything feels ok after a good 5 minute rinse, lol.

The only dye that we have access to at this moment in time is Rit "wine red" or something similar to that. I'm going to try using that even though I'm not sure I believe its the best choice. Hopefully, even if the dye doesn't take, examination with the light microscope will show a nice oxide layer. Then we can move forward and try doing this with some real anodization dye from the shop!

(Btw, we had to scrounge up an old kit belonging to a previous class because the shop couldn't take our work this week. I'm about 85% sure that its the basic kit sold on this website. )

--EDIT--

I'm so totally stoked at how good this looks right now. I really, really hope this works so that tomorrow morning I can show off the pretty red chunk of Al that I made all by myself.