I did my first successful run yesterday. It dyed beautifully so I take that as a sign that it also anodized beautifully. It was a bit of a rocky go, however, mostly because I made (ahem) improvements to the process. This is long because I know that the more completely and accurately my description, the more likely you veterans will be able to see what went right and what went wrong.
Not wanting to cut a 1/4" strip in my perfectly good new cathode plates, I instead bent the end of the titanium wire into a loop, drilled a hole in the corner of the plate, put the wire up against it, and covered it with a strip of aluminum on both sides with matching holes. On one plate I secured it with an aluminum pop rivet and on the other with an aluminum bolt & nut. I figured that the aluminum hardware would at best anodize and become essentially inert and at worst dissolute into nothing (taking several months to do), but since the wire was up against the lead, the state of the hardware wouldn't be an issue.
The part was a flat aluminum bar very similar to the practice pieces which ship with the kit. The bar has a hole near each end, so I attached the other titanium wire to it with an aluminum bolt and nut through one of the holes.
The bar is 25 sq in. I figured 4.5 amps/ft? with .7 mil thickness, so that's .78 amps for 112 minutes with peak voltage of 11.25.
When I turned everything on, the power supply decided on 3.5 volts. I noticed that I was getting bubbles at the anode connection and both of the cathode connections. After letting it sit that way for a half hour or so and not seeing the voltage change by any significant amount, I began to worry that I was anodizing hardware and the target piece was just along for the ride. So I lifted the piece until the connection was up out of the solution. The voltage went up to around 10 volts. The hanging hole is very near the end so the surface area was reduced by absolute max of 2 sq in.
After a bit more (30-40 minutes), I began to wonder if my (ahem) improvement might be impeding the process, so I suspended the plates so that those connections were out of the solution as well. Now the voltage went up to a little over 11.
I hadn't stopped my stopwatch while making the modifications. I had cut the power each time. Lifting the part was simple enough, and it didn't come completely out of the solution. When I adjusted the plates, I did remove the part completely from the solution and hung it out of the way. I guessed that I probably spent about 10 minutes rigging the plates, so when I turned power back on I left it in for another 50 minutes. During that time, the voltage very slowly but steadily dropped, which completely flummoxes me. The way I'm understanding it, the voltage is supposed to increase to PAR, then when optimum thickness is reached the current is supposed to drop.
As I said at the beginning, I got a beautiful dye out of it. It's not completely uniform (the edges look a little darker than the middle of the length) but it looks like I must have had a sufficiently thick layer. There's also a soft line of lightness going diagonally across on both sides of it. On one side the line's low end is about 1.5 inches from the bottom end of the bar and ends up 2.5 inches from the end. On the other side, it starts at about 2.5 inches and climbs up to 3.5 inches. Since the dye mixes up at 2 gallons, I stuck the 11" long bar in at an extreme angle. I didn't particularly want the 'hung' or upper end in the dye because it had a black oxide band where the acid solution had lapped against it during anodizing and I didn't know whether or not that would contaminate the dye. I had the heater suctioned to the side with its top just below the surface, so I'm wondering if those lines correspond to the bottom of the heater, where the temperature might have started dropping off - however, there's dye on both sides of the line, so I'm puzzled. The lines aren't ruler straight - there's just a hint of curve to them - and they're very soft sided. They're thin - no more than a millimeter. I'm spending so much time describing them because I'd actually like to duplicate it or something similar. I read about fades and such but I can't begin to imagine how to accomplish an effect such as this intentionally.
I'm normally pretty precise and prefer as close to perfection as I can reasonably expect in things, but when this bar came out of the dye it occurred to me that it bordered on art and gave me a whole new perspective on how my product could look.
So I'm trying to figure out what went right and exactly how badly was I messed up in my thinking during the whole thing.
Not wanting to cut a 1/4" strip in my perfectly good new cathode plates, I instead bent the end of the titanium wire into a loop, drilled a hole in the corner of the plate, put the wire up against it, and covered it with a strip of aluminum on both sides with matching holes. On one plate I secured it with an aluminum pop rivet and on the other with an aluminum bolt & nut. I figured that the aluminum hardware would at best anodize and become essentially inert and at worst dissolute into nothing (taking several months to do), but since the wire was up against the lead, the state of the hardware wouldn't be an issue.
The part was a flat aluminum bar very similar to the practice pieces which ship with the kit. The bar has a hole near each end, so I attached the other titanium wire to it with an aluminum bolt and nut through one of the holes.
The bar is 25 sq in. I figured 4.5 amps/ft? with .7 mil thickness, so that's .78 amps for 112 minutes with peak voltage of 11.25.
When I turned everything on, the power supply decided on 3.5 volts. I noticed that I was getting bubbles at the anode connection and both of the cathode connections. After letting it sit that way for a half hour or so and not seeing the voltage change by any significant amount, I began to worry that I was anodizing hardware and the target piece was just along for the ride. So I lifted the piece until the connection was up out of the solution. The voltage went up to around 10 volts. The hanging hole is very near the end so the surface area was reduced by absolute max of 2 sq in.
After a bit more (30-40 minutes), I began to wonder if my (ahem) improvement might be impeding the process, so I suspended the plates so that those connections were out of the solution as well. Now the voltage went up to a little over 11.
I hadn't stopped my stopwatch while making the modifications. I had cut the power each time. Lifting the part was simple enough, and it didn't come completely out of the solution. When I adjusted the plates, I did remove the part completely from the solution and hung it out of the way. I guessed that I probably spent about 10 minutes rigging the plates, so when I turned power back on I left it in for another 50 minutes. During that time, the voltage very slowly but steadily dropped, which completely flummoxes me. The way I'm understanding it, the voltage is supposed to increase to PAR, then when optimum thickness is reached the current is supposed to drop.
As I said at the beginning, I got a beautiful dye out of it. It's not completely uniform (the edges look a little darker than the middle of the length) but it looks like I must have had a sufficiently thick layer. There's also a soft line of lightness going diagonally across on both sides of it. On one side the line's low end is about 1.5 inches from the bottom end of the bar and ends up 2.5 inches from the end. On the other side, it starts at about 2.5 inches and climbs up to 3.5 inches. Since the dye mixes up at 2 gallons, I stuck the 11" long bar in at an extreme angle. I didn't particularly want the 'hung' or upper end in the dye because it had a black oxide band where the acid solution had lapped against it during anodizing and I didn't know whether or not that would contaminate the dye. I had the heater suctioned to the side with its top just below the surface, so I'm wondering if those lines correspond to the bottom of the heater, where the temperature might have started dropping off - however, there's dye on both sides of the line, so I'm puzzled. The lines aren't ruler straight - there's just a hint of curve to them - and they're very soft sided. They're thin - no more than a millimeter. I'm spending so much time describing them because I'd actually like to duplicate it or something similar. I read about fades and such but I can't begin to imagine how to accomplish an effect such as this intentionally.
I'm normally pretty precise and prefer as close to perfection as I can reasonably expect in things, but when this bar came out of the dye it occurred to me that it bordered on art and gave me a whole new perspective on how my product could look.
So I'm trying to figure out what went right and exactly how badly was I messed up in my thinking during the whole thing.
- Are bubbles coming off the mounting hardware ok and can be ignored? Is it the water breaking into hydrogen and oxygen, or is some of the hydrogen coming out of the acid?
- Is it ok to have the cathode connection down in the solution or do I really need to grit my teeth and snip a strip?
- Is it ok for the part's titanium to be in the solution or do I need to use aluminum up to the surface and connect the titanium above?
- Was I getting any anodizing action before making one or the other change, or did it all happen in that last 50 minutes?
- How can I intentionally make soft-sided imperfections like the lines I described?
- I sprayed the sealed part with wd-40 as instructed, but why did I do that? When can I wipe it off?
- How do I know when chemicals need to be replenished? I understand the bit about replacing evaporated water, but do I have to wait for crappy parts before figuring out that the de-oxidizer needs to be replaced? How do I know when the sealant is dead? If the bubbles in the ano tank are just water hydrolizing then I can figure that the acid's presence is largely catalytic except for the small amount that migrates into the neutralizer tank, and as the dye lightens that's pretty apparent, but those other two... And mist suppressant - will mist begin forming and then I add a couple more teaspoons?
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