Anodizing 101: Professional Level Finish At a Small Scale!

A total update to my previous anodizing video on how I anodize parts.

Here are the parts lists and calculators

[steveh]

Wow! I've watched dozens of video tutorials on anodizing aluminum over the years. This was among the very best! Liked and subscribed!

[tuckerdodson]

As a "professional anodize technician" (big quotes on that one since I'm under 2 years at my company, but have my process down pat), this is the closest to a "professional" as you can get as far as home setups go, I'm highly impressed.

The book by R.H. Probert is all our shop has ever used for reference and we always nail our thickness goal (.0005- .0007 measured w/ eddy current), except we base our power supply settings by constant voltage instead of amperage. Really easy if you know what aluminum alloy you're working with specifically. And don't worry, in shops like mine I splash my parts around in the rinse tanks the same way you do!

You've got the best, and safest home setup I've seen. Kudos to you for showing the right way to do it.

[matthewmoilanen]

Very well done with excellent detail paid to keeping the parts clean and flushed of each chemical treatment after each step. One note is that De-smut is a base not an acid. It can be and is used for removing a poorly anodized layer so you can get another shot at it!

[saxon]

Nice video, thanks. I have been doing the for a year or so-- mainly typeIII . Something that can help if you not sure about time in the bath and currents is a thickness gauge, you can get 99% repeatability.

[CurtVanFilipowski]

Thanks for sharing man! Answered a bunch of questions I had...also that ice blanket thing is a slick idea!

[steveburrows]

Excellent walk through, thanks for making it and sharing! We have a slightly larger line. We found setting a programmable power supply to 16 volts constant voltage will then automatically put the current at the exact value it needs to be.

[darrylwood]

Very enlightening, thanks! Has helped answer so many questions.

[alexsohn]

Wonderful video and fantastic finishes!

[Irishdave]

Great video and beautifully thorough. Subscribed and will want to purchase the Fictive once you have them back in stock.
Cheers

[sirmonk]

Using thermoses pretty smart. I was wondering what is good to use to get started.
Is your spray tap water or is filtered/ neutralized water?

[nickmcgookey]

Did you make the bucket hanging hook our purchase it

[sheltonjonathan]

Thanks for the video! I pretty much mirrored your setup but used a low end titanium coil chiller made by vevor. Well it appears to have not worked well. Are you still using that chiller setup? Thanks!

[bigguns]

Can you possibly update your parts list to include how many of each, item on the list or is it 1 of each how they are listed on amazon? Also, bucket count?

[PaxsonWoelber]

Thanks for this great video! I've read that pre-anodizing prep with glass beads is a mistake since the beads can shatter and embed glass in the aluminum, which can then affect the ano. Have you had any issues with that? Have you tried blasting with any other materials (walnut shell, stainless steel beads, etc.)?

[KhimBittle]

great video, i was always concerned about disposing of used chemicals, how do you do this ?

[adityasakhakusuma]

thank you very much for sharing this, what wire did you use? titanium welding wire?

[GryphonIndustrial]

At what step is it functionally anodized? After the sulfuric bath or after the nickle acetate?

Can you anodize them without dying them?

[tegheim]

You said that you use weldingwire to rack. I've heard that you can only use led, titanium or aluminium in the bath, or it will be contaminatons? Are you using aluminium weld wire, or does it work with any?

[blindnesssight]

just started to do some anodizing and the aluminium wire that i'm using which is around 3mm thick keeps burning and disolving. the part being anodized then breaks away around an hour into the anodizing. kept the amps to minimum, around 1A and the part is around 4 square inch. Dont get it.???

[darrylwood]

I noticed one of your knives had a zebra type black and white pattern, was that a masked? I have often wanted to try dual coloring.