Anodizing questions

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hard hat

hard hat

Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
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470
Location
Norfolk, VA
I've anodized a few pieces now yet still have a few questions.
1. What are you using as a degreaser?
2. What are you using as your power supply? I using a car battery charger, how do you regulate the power?

I am using a 12v 6A car battery charger and it seems to have an automatic power selection. With calculated current, it comes pretty dang close to being right on its own. I have a 25ohm variable resistor rated at 3A but haven't needed to use it. My cathode plate is about 36 in squared.

For degreaser I have been using what I bought with my setup from someone else. It smells like power purple diluted in water. It gave ok results but I recently added some blue dawn dish soap to it and it works much better. One thing is that no matter I scrub and clean and rinse, the water spray test for water beading on the surface isn't as good as I would like. However, the anodizing comes out nice and even.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
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It's been a long time since I anodized but, I believe we used caustic soda bath. Mike Redburn or Brad G will probably confirm or correct me on this.
 
correct. also known as lye, just make sure you get 100% caustic soda as you don't want anything else in there.
 
I do have lye for etching, which produces a matte finish. For items desiring a gloss finish you can't put them in a caustic soda bath.
 
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