The Shop > Finishing
Anodizing aluminium without battery acid
fatal-exception:
So the question is how durable is the finish? Is it brittle like proper anodizing? Is it non conductive? After your hot water sealing, could you still wipe off the dye?
Even if you are just doing test pieces, you should really pretend like you are doing a part that you spent a ton of time machining. You won't learn a whole lot about how good your method is if the part is not prepared properly.
Caustic soda (lye crystals) will strip old anodizing off with ease. Depending on how strong you mix it, it can completely dissolve an aluminum part quickly. The vapor given off is flammable. I wouldn't recommend it for cleaning your part before anodizing. That being said, you can do it the hard way using soap and water and rinsing and all that jazz, or you can spend 5 bucks on a can of brake cleaner and have your part extremely clean and ready for the acid bath in a few seconds. (brake cleaner is an amazing degreaser! :headbang:)
I was lucky a few years ago and got a 5 gallon bag of battery acid that was not diluted for about 10 bucks. (I don't think the guy knew what it was worth.) They were getting out of the battery refilling business. I mixed up about 2 gallons with water and have been using the same bath since then. i guess what I'm saying is that the battery acid bath lasts a long time. It's worth it to get the 'right stuff' in my opinion, as it's a tired and true method with professional results.
Here's the swatches of my premixed dyes:
and the largest plates I've done:
AdeV:
--- Quote from: fatal-exception on December 02, 2011, 04:54:17 PM ---... or you can spend 5 bucks on a can of brake cleaner and have your part extremely clean and ready for the acid bath in a few seconds. (brake cleaner is an amazing degreaser! :headbang:)
--- End quote ---
A quick question - is brake cleaner safe on Ali parts? I need to clean up my BMW sump & I'm thinking there must be something better than Petrol (gasoline) to do it with...
fatal-exception:
--- Quote ---A quick question - is brake cleaner safe on Ali parts? I need to clean up my BMW sump & I'm thinking there must be something better than Petrol (gasoline) to do it with...
--- End quote ---
Absolutely! :D The parts above were cleaned with it prior to anodizing.
BTW, your sump project is awesome. I spent a whole afternoon at work one day reading about it. :beer:
andyf:
Ade, how about colour anodising your sump, to impress the spectators when you roll the car? :lol:
Andy
Bluechip:
--- Quote from: andyf on December 02, 2011, 05:09:19 PM ---Ade, how about colour anodising your sump, to impress the spectators when you roll the car? :lol:
Andy
--- End quote ---
Ade, that's a splendid idea from Andy. :thumbup:
I think you should give it some serious consideration.
And while you're at it, anodise the roof.
Thereby impressing any spectators under the car ... :ddb:
BC
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version