I intend on anodising a few aluminium parts I made, so decided to make an anodising bath. I already had a power supply and a 10 litre plastic tub. So I bought some acid, made up a couple of cathodes and stuck it all together then dunked a test piece in to test. Results were excellent, so I assembled the cable splitter I just finished, plugged the cable inlets and dunked it in the bath. Result is excellent.
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Anodising at home.
- Thread starter toglhot
- Start date
Hammer1963
Well-known member
I am curious what voltage is required during this process, time frame of emersion and how you you were able to insure that the color came out as silver as I seen other anodized colors. Educate me please, because this is something I would be interested in trying.
The colour after anodising, is a silvery grey. But there is a dying process you can undertake to add colour. Voltage for anodising is somewhere in the 15- 18volt range from memory. I just use a battery charger set to power supply which has an output of 13.8 volts. Amps and time are variable depending on thickness required and size of the object. This is just the way I do it, I'm sure there are a number of armchair experts on site who would love to jump in and impress themselves with their knowledge on the subject. There are a plethora of sites on the Web dealing with the subject.
engineer2
Well-known member
I want to restore and plate some auto parts. I see the Caswell Plating website is working better. Eastwood has some plating products too.
None of this stuff is cheap unless you can figure out the chemistry and buy it direct.
None of this stuff is cheap unless you can figure out the chemistry and buy it direct.
There are chemical supply shops that can supply you with whatever acid you want. The only chemistry involved in anodising is diluting sulphuric acid. Instead of buying sulphuric acid, diluting it and ending up with a hundred gallons of the stuff, you buy battery acid which is already diluted, then dilute it further until you end up with the mix you require. From memory, don't quote me: I think battery acid is 35% sulphuric acid, a further 50/50 dilution rate should give you around 19%, by weight. Again, from memory, don't quote me!
Hammer1963
Well-known member
Thank you for the information!