Some good stuff to learn , some day ill try my hands at it ty for the video Dave .

I’ve been wanting to do anodizing for a long time now. I purchased the dye a few years ago from Caswell. I have watched a lot of videos on KZread about the process but I was looking for something that was straight forward and easy to do. You have, in my mind, simplified the process to a point where I feel comfortable with performing the process. I am looking forward to seeing how you perform each step and with any luck I will be doing my own anodizing in the very near future. Thank you for researching this topic I really think it will be interesting and useful to a lot of people.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Next Friday is doing it step by step. I have it down pat now and repeatable.

What a great introduction to Anodizing. I started reading up on this topic and the most interesting thing so far is I thought anodizing was more like nickel plating but its actually creating a heavy oxide layer that ca be dyed with a color...Very cool topic. Thanks for putting this video together.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

No problem my friend!

Hi Dave, good to see you back. Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda) is an alkaline not acid. It disolves aluminium very well! In this case it's used to etch the surface. Anodizing creates like tiny tubes sticking up from the surface, the dye fills these "tubes" but you need to seal them off to keep the dye in. You can seal the anodizing by placing them in boiling water (15 minutes for those little parts). Lead is better for the electrodes, and aluminium wire preferable. Hope this helps.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Hi Dave, I'm slowly figuring this out. Tired of wasting aluminum foil so now an aluminum plate which works very well. Thinking about trying lead. Also tried boiling water.. removed all the color in less than 60 seconds!

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) is a base and this does not anodize but dissolve the aluminum. During this process Hydrogen gas is produced. To anodize you need sulfuric acid. Combined with the current this will produce a very well controlled aluminum oxide layer with a porous structure. One you dye this (after anodizing), the color will be absorbed in the pores. You need to boil the part after this to close the pores so the dye stays on the part. Using NaOH will give a slight porous layer that looks like anodization. Years ago (when I did not yet know how to anodize) I used this to get a smooth finish on aluminum front plates that I then sprayed with a clear coat. I've been doing this for years and this is also how professional shops do this. The backing soda (sodium bicarbonate) is only to clean up any spills. If you sill any acid, cover it in backing soda to neutralize the acid. The titanium wire is great, this is reusable whereas aluminum wire will be anodized as well and the anodization makes the surface conduct less electricity so you have to sand this off or take a new wire each time.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Hi Rob, I don't want to sound arrogant but yes I've seen many videos on the subject all using different techniques. I didn't want to use harsh acids as I have no way to store them. This is a simple and safe technique that works for me and all the chemicals are in crystal form for storing in a drawer with all the jars shown. I did try the boiling water which instantly removed all the color so i just seal parts with oil. The finish is great and doesn't come off at all with use. Many use hot plates etc, which I also didn't want to get into an elaborate setup using 5 gallon buckets. I very much appreciate your taking the time to give great input! Cheers..

What was the name of the set at the beginning? Looks nice enough. Thans Dave always a great video.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Sorry not sure what you are asking.

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Got it now Giwaelro Nut and Bolt Thread Checker on Amazon $27

@termlimit

5 ай бұрын

@@TheMiniMachineShop Brilliant thank you Dave! Hope the family is doing well.

Forgot to mention ... to see if you have a real anodization layer, try to scratch the surface with a scribe. It should feel/hear like you are breaking the (hard) oxide layer. If it feels similar to scribing a like on plain aluminum, no - or very little - anodization took place

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

As I mentioned you have to turn the part again to get it off so yes, it's anodized.

09:35 Sodium Hydroxide is a base

@TheMiniMachineShop

5 ай бұрын

Interesting you are right.

Ahh, OK I have NO experience with anodizing, but I majored in Chemistry back in the day and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) is NOT an acid. So...@9:53 into this video, I'm confused. You mention that a lot of different acids are used in step 2, (muriatic acid, sulfuric acid, "battery acid"...) but you've decided to use Sodium Hydroxide as your acid. Which is fine, I guess. It's a free country. But Sodium Hydroxide is not an acid. In fact it is the OPPOSITE of an acid (low pH) because NaOH is a very strong BASE (high pH). So if it works just like the acids did, then the process doesn't need an acid. Now on with the video.

@TheMiniMachineShop

4 ай бұрын

Can't believe how many people are upset because I accidently called it an acid and not base.

@steveh8724

4 ай бұрын

@@TheMiniMachineShop Yeah, well it's a pretty fundamental error for anyone who knows anything about chemistry. It's kind of like confusing aluminum and steel. Plenty of people don't know the difference, but in a post about fabricating, you wouldn't want to make that mistake...

OK, I finished the video. Truly one of the weirdest videos on anodizing I've ever seen. Lots of good technically correct info combined with some strange, arbitrary, and even some just wrong information. Also a whole lot of talk with minimal actual detailed instructions. Now on to the second video. Fingers crossed...