Question: Anodizing

[Dani Girl]

Hey everyone.

I've been doing a little anodizing and I'm after tips.

Been using nail polish to mask around engraving and anodizing with the positive on the metal and the negative wrapped around a paintbrush using the other end sharpened to a point and a hole drilled through the brush for the wire to wrap around... electrical tape wrapped well around that for safety.

When I go over 70v I start having trouble with the nail polish flaking off and the colour gets under the mask.

I have been trying to rub off unwanted nail polish when I slip with acetone on a toothpick and try to disolve and pick it up with that... works ok... any better ideas.

Blackening.
Does anyone blacken after anodizing?

Does anodizing wear alright at all?

 

[peteb]

Dani
I have been gathering tools and making jewelry from niobium. Niobium has some qualities I find are especially promising. It is very ductile and easily worked (repousse), it can be given a very tough black oxide thru heating and quenching in CO2, It has anodizing qualities similar to titanium and can be considered a "precious metal". For anodizing I have success with two alternative methods. I use a bulb pipette with a square silver wire soldered to an insulated wire that passes thru the bulb end and
fills the glass end very close but not thru the glass end. By sucking up the electrolite with the bulb, adjusting the dc current and completing the circuit by expelling small amounts of electrolite on to the piece the color is more closely controlled. You can get a small dot of color but the color changes the further from the electrode so my method is to color at the highest value, remove excess color on neighboring sections and proceed down the voltage scale. The other method could be called close point anodizing as it involves bringing a naked electrode very close to the surface (but not touching) and then introducing the electrolite to that area. At any rate you should design you pieces to protect the anodized surfaces as much as possible. I have most of my surfaces rather rougher than smooth but these surfaces tend not to reflect as much color but are more immune (I think) to wear. See my sitehttp://www.iconobium.com. I'll be glad to answer any questions I can.

 

[Ron Spokovich]

Your sample looks fantastic! I cannot offer advice to your quest, except to mention that anodizing if done to MilSpec does offer great resistance to wear. My military type flashlight shows no wear after seven years, through handling & pocket wear, except for where it hit the concrete after being dropped. However, your application and MilSpec may differ, and, it's only available in a green-grey color. If MilSpec items can be offered in colors, I do not know. The processes do differ, and it'd be interesting to see if colors, with this application, can be offered.

 

[davidshe]

Looks pretty nice Dani! My experience with anodizing has only been on rings down inside the cuts. The outside area certainly seems to come off easily so I would be leary of how long it holds up on a flush surface. I am pretty sure the kind of anodizing we apply is not the same as the hard anodized coatings you find on knives. But hey, just do some wear testing on a test piece and see how it holds up! No reason you could not blacken selected areas with rustoleum after anodizing.

 

[jerrywh]

This is a very interesting subject that I have been thinking of doing myself. You might try a different type of ground other than nail polish. Rio Grande has a ground used for electro plating that works well for me it is a special type of Lacquer, One thing I learned in plating is that all lacquer is not the same and neither are the thinners. Some thinners are not compatible with some lacquers even though they are both lacquer thinners. I do selective plating at times.
I really like your work.

 

[monk]

dani: if the nail polish you use is acrylic, that may be the problem. i'd suggest a quality oil-based paint. i'dthink that could solve the problem.

 

[Dani Girl]

Would acetone take off a quality oil based paint easily?

 

[Dani Girl]

The hard anodizing we buy on torches and pocket knives, that's usually on Aluminium isn't it? That's a different process altogether.

This Niobium certainly sounds interesting... i've got to look into that one of these days, there's less 'market' for it in knives which is mostly what I work on, haven't broken out into the jewellery market yet... but it sounds like it has some cool qualities.

I'll see if I can buy myself a ti handled knife and do some serious field testing/experimentation.

Feel free to keep this thread going if anyone else has ideas or questions regarding anodizing

Thanks

 

[monk]

Would acetone take off a quality oil based paint easily?

yes, it surely would do this. i think gesswein sells an asphaltum -based resist. i've never used it, but it might be worthy of investigating its' properties. the cronite co also sells good resists. they primarily deal with acid etchers. a good resist is a good start, regardless.

 

[Dani Girl]

I can't import rio grand's resist... I'll check gesswin but probably the same situation. I need to find something non hazardous to use if I'm going to import it

 

[delder]

I have done some anodizing. I prefer working with Niobium. No acid bath step before anodizing. It's more expensive but I feel it's worth the extra bucks.The palm tree pendant colors are anodized at three voltages. Green(95v)Gold(54v) Brown(14v). I enjoy playing with the process. Have fun

 

[monk]

i''m in the "lets see what happens" stage in this work. i've done 3 color tests so far.. 15v, 50v, and 130v. at 50 and 130 the colors are almost invisible. 15 volts gave a beautiful purple. the 130 volt bubbled on both the part and the cathode. i wasn't using a resist. had i used one, i think the gas formation may have caused a problem to the resist. at 130vdc, the part looked almost like it was boiling. not sure if there was a temp rise.
3rd from left is 80 vdc. forgot about that one.

 

[delder]

I'm wondering why your voltages and corresponding colors are so different than mine. Are you using Ti ? If so , the acid etch that proceeds the anodizing will give much more vibrant colors. You will be much happier using Nb.

my power supply is made out of an old variac and a bridge rectifier. the device is not filtered. after performing the full- range color test, i may have to add a capacitor to filter/stabilize the output.
dani: i received several lbs of titanium sheet from a friend. he said it was "commercial pure". not sure what that is, but i plan to take advantage of the material.
i use the pre-etch from rio grande. i make notes of all procedures to eliminate whatever variables may occur. sine this is experimental at this time, it's taking far more time than i'd like.
i like your timascus. where did you get it? i'm still working on black outlines. i've no clue where to start on that.

 

[Dani Girl]

Also different grades of titanium anodize at different colours. This is a piece of damascus made out of two different kinds of Titanium. They call it Timascus

 

[Silberschweif]

how mutch Ampere do you need at higher Voltages for anodizing ?

 

[Dani Girl]

Very low i think.

Danae.

 

[Silberschweif]

Thank You
Ok maybe it was the wrong question I found one 0-120v with 1A is it possible to use that or does it need more Ampere to get a nice color

 

[Dani Girl]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd...._=1445358107_974179f463f08c84a92912cb1568a74e

https://scontent-lax1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11426911_456627971173558_7226384474949153093_n.jpg?oh=662054d31d70d62e22a8ee0fc7bea8af&oe=56352227

https://scontent-lax1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11407125_456627931173562_7890274986946218441_n.jpg?oh=65eba0d7fbb26f67d0abf71396f5da5b&oe=562B0

 

[Dani Girl]

1Amp is all I use

 

[Dani Girl]