Anodizing Shop

[Tigwldr]

So my son is now 18 and we have been avid paintball players for well over 10 years. He plays in leagues all over the US. We have been tinkering with the guns for a while and always had to send them off after doing milling work to them. That gets expensive after a while so he had the idea to learn the process and build our own setup. We have been researching for months now on how it works, what's the best stuff to buy for our application all that stuff. We are now ready to start the work space. Luckily I have an old shipping container on the property that doesn't get much use. Today we started cleaning it out.

We will frame the walls up and insulate. The inside of a steel shipping container mid summer in South Carolina is unbearable. AC is a must have. I already have power to it but the lights need reworking and repairing. I hope to have all the walls up by next weekend.

 

[Tigwldr]

Another pictur.....

 

[Pogona]

love the idea of this project, i would love to learn the process of anodizing myself someday when i get finished with my other projects.

 

[Tigwldr]

It is actually pretty fun project. It's small enough where he can learn about electronics with all of the heaters and stuff that are ended and not be overwhelming to him. I'm coaching him along but most everything he will be doing the labor and thinking on.

 

[billspit]

I've wondered if spraying a foam insulation on the exterior of these boxes would work. There is a foam used for roofing that may work, but it the typical ylellowish color.

 

[Kevin54]

One of the bad things about anodizing is the chemicals used. Some or non-caustic, and others are caustic, or mildly caustic. If you are going to do this as a full blown business, most likely you'd get blown out of the water before before you got unloaded off the trailer.

For a hobby, it's doable. One that you may want to talk with about it is DEERE2210. He does anodizing out of his home shop on parts that he makes for others. I would imagine that he could tell you what you need, don't need, and everything on between.

One other thing you may want to look at also, instead of anodizing, or even to go along with anodizing, is hydrodip painting, or hydro-graphics. Either terminology will turn up a lot of results. People are sort of getting away from anodizing and going with the hydro-dip. If you are in a fairly large area, hydro-dip is relatively new, so there may not be too many places, if any places at all around you. It is going to be a very lucrative business for some, depending on how far they want to go with it. It's also starting to put a dent in powdercoating, all for the fact that you can get endless designs with it.

 

[Guster]

One of the bad things about anodizing is the chemicals used. Some or non-caustic, and others are caustic, or mildly caustic. If you are going to do this as a full blown business, most likely you'd get blown out of the water before before you got unloaded off the trailer.

Ditto. If you are planning to learn how to do the milling and machining as well it would be worth mentioning that you wouldn't want to keep the machines in the same space as the anodizing setup. The sulfuric acid vapor alone would cause the machinery to rust very quickly. Besides, good constant airflow will be critical working in a confined space and will let the steel container last a little longer too.

Otherwise it is a fun hobby to be in. It paid for my first few machines and tooling with a constant supply of beers on the side. Though that was when markers were simple and accessories were rare. I had a friend who played around with the anodising part and he got quite good at it too. He did it out of a garden shed - first one I saw that rusted from the inside out.

 

[Tigwldr]

I have plans for it being well ventilated and even the ano bath itself being in a "box" so to speak that has a vacuum on it at all times when its in use. We have been researching for a while and have been ordering tanks and heaters and such. My son plans to make a little money while he is in school but most of all he can work when he wants to and still do school work. He wont have to worry about punching a clock and making grades at the same time.

 

[rdn2blazer]

I hope you and your son do great with this bussiness. Props and good luck. Looking forward to the AC install in your unit. Please keeps pictures coming, thank you.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Very cool, take lots of pictures!!

 

[Kevin54]

Like I said, good luck, but be careful. If you really get into it, and it grows in size somewhat, someone could come knocking on your door wanting to see permits. No permits can be some real problems. I'm only saying this because you will have some hazardous chemicals. Plus all it will take is someone thinking that you are cooking meth, and they will literally kick in the doors. A lot of the strictly anodizing places around here have all went out of business because of the EPA.

I have a friend that had a body shop. He was out in the country. He got divorced, lost the house and business, then decided to start another business as he was making some damn good money. It was going to cost him around $250,000, by the time he had all the proper equipment put in to run a legit business and his permits. So now he just works for someone else.

And don't take it wrong, I'm all for the little guy, but be careful in what you do and how you advertise with a business like that. Good luck to you!!!!

 

[Bib Overalls]

Tigwlder: You need to check out this well regarded supplier.

http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/anodizing-products/anodizing-kits.html

 

[Arps]

Cool, cant wait to watch it happen

 

[Tigwldr]

Tigwlder: You need to check out this well regarded supplier.

http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/anodizing-products/anodizing-kits.html

They are easy to work with. I have already bought several items from them including their how to book.

 

[Tigwldr]

We did some framing and insulating today. My son has never messed with insulation before so he's scratching like crazy right now.

 

[Tigwldr]

Just another shot.

 

[hoho98925]

Looking forward to your updates.

 

[Tigwldr]

We have finally had some time to spend on the ano shop this weekend. All the walls are insulated and osb is up along with all the lights working. Now it's time for the painting.

 

[A_Pmech]

Looking forward to seeing the first work come off the line!

 

[Tigwldr]

Got a lot of painting done over Christmas holidays.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Looking great and thanks for posting.

 

[zkling]

Anxious to see how this turns out. Do you make custom parts as well or just wanting to cover up from modifications? I've tinkered with anodizing a little, it's a process that really takes up space, especially if you plan on doing multiple colors. You paintball boys really love your anodizing. Do you plan on doing many multi color parts?

 

[Tigwldr]

Looking great and thanks for posting.

Thanks, Its been a long road so far, tinkering in the shop as we have time and money for stuff but its coming along nicely.

Anxious to see how this turns out. Do you make custom parts as well or just wanting to cover up from modifications? I've tinkered with anodizing a little, it's a process that really takes up space, especially if you plan on doing multiple colors. You paintball boys really love your anodizing. Do you plan on doing many multi color parts?

We do love our anodizing. I have seen up to a 6 color splash ano. It was crazy. We will be setup to do 4 colors on one part. More if they want to but more colors will take a bit longer as we will have to let it all dry and change out our dye tanks. I cant wait to get started on doing guns. We will eventually buy a tabletop mill to do some custom cuts on bodies but that will mostly be personal stuff.

 

[LXCam]

The biggest waste of money ever spent in my shop was setting up my ano area. It seemed like a great idea at the time but unless it something you do everyday, it's not worth the effort. Oh it started out innocently enough, one of those media grade home kits, but noooooooo, I had to make it way better gooder and by the time it was done and functioning what started out to be a 600-700 kit wound up being 3K. The only way you can make this work is you must be able to cool your ano bath, everything else is easy.

As was pointed out absolutely do not have your machining equipment in the same air space as your ano line unless you plan on running a ventilation fan 24/7, IT WILL rust and corrode everything around it.

I will say that once you finally get it down correctly, it's a very rewarding feeling. Especially after the frustration of the learning curve. It's a darn shame you don't live close or I'd give you everything I have with the exception of my power supply and digital PH meter. So with that debbie downer laid out there I do wish you and your son the best of luck. If done correctly you can make money at it as long as you do it on a regular basis.

 

[Tigwldr]

Thanks for the input. We realize there are risks and rewards with everything. I think we have enough of a foot in the door with the paintball world in the south east we can atleast make our money back in a short amount of time.

 

[LXCam]

That would be awesome bud, I honestly hope it all works out for you. The reason I set up mine was I was building fuel hats for modern muscle cars and the wait from the only two ano guys left in SoCal was killing me since I would make my hats/parts in batches of 10. So my thought process was since certain aspects of the ano process was an hour here, a couple hours there, rinse and repeat I could machine during waiting periods. Well it doesn't exactly work out that way. There's a LOT of baby sitting your bathes. And if you don't constantly keep your bathes clean is a all day chore filtering and preparing keeping your PH levels spot on.

So back to the bright side, whose product will you be purchasing?. If you stated that somewhere else in the thread my apologies for skipping over it.

 

[Tigwldr]

http://www.paintballcity.org/images/sharkytrav/warpspds.jpg

Thats the kind of "cosmetic" anodizing we will be doing. Its alot more work to perfect the processes but paintball players love to have flashy guns.

 

[Tigwldr]

That would be awesome bud, I honestly hope it all works out for you. The reason I set up mine was I was building fuel hats for modern muscle cars and the wait from the only two ano guys left in SoCal was killing me since I would make my hats/parts in batches of 10. So my thought process was since certain aspects of the ano process was an hour here, a couple hours there, rinse and repeat I could machine during waiting periods. Well it doesn't exactly work out that way. There's a LOT of baby sitting your bathes. And if you don't constantly keep your bathes clean is a all day chore filtering and preparing keeping your PH levels spot on.

So back to the bright side, whose product will you be purchasing?. If you stated that somewhere else in the thread my apologies for skipping over it.

We have a chemical company close to us that has dyes and degreasers and stuff. US Specialties in Charlotte, I also have a couple of emails out for pricing on a couple of other suppliers, I think "Bright Dyes" is one of them.

 

[Tigwldr]

This is storage shelves for incoming work. We can do bigger parts than these bosses but most of what comes in will be small enought to use these. They are old paintball boxes. We hand cut all of the brackets out of 1x8. We want to boxes on an angle so we can see the parts easier.

 

[Tigwldr]

Started working in the heater controls this weekend. Everything is coming together.

 

[Tigwldr]

Front of the same box.

 

[southalabama]

I know your sold on anodizing but a friend just started doing cerakoting.

It's awesome. He's actually blasting off anodized finishes off ar15 parts and putting cerakote on them. No dealing with chemicals. Might be more expensive for paint ball guns but I'd suggest looking at it as addition to your line of anodizing.

 

[Tigwldr]

Worked on another heater controller yesterday. This one controls four elements at the same time. I have to build one more controller and the electronics will be finished. Not a bad wiring job for a welder if I do say so my self.

 

[Tigwldr]

Controller front

 

[A_Pmech]

The controls look good!

What type of elements are you using for the heaters?

 

[Tigwldr]

1000 watt water heater elements for this box.

 

[Tigwldr]

The lead sheets are now formed and cut to fit on each side of the ano bath.

 

[Tigwldr]

Well we have been up and running for a few months so I figured I would add a couple of pics of what we do. We have been getting customers from all over the world and we are happy with the results so far. We have anodized parts on guitars in Switzerland, on flashlights in Canada and all sorts of things in between.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Great stuff and thanks for the update.

 

[Tigwldr]

Knife scales we did for a customer.