Anodizing?
 

So our team was looking into new techniques like anodizing. I herd there were ways of doing it in house. If you anodize in house, how do you do it, what do you use to do it with and how expensive is it?

Re: Anodizing?
 

Call up a local anodizer. Im sure they would be willing to throw your parts in with an existing batch.

Re: Anodizing?
 

Please don't anodize at home. It involves acid and high currents. But if you must do it I suggest googling around for anodizing at home, there is a paintball forum that had a really good write up on it. I think it was war pigs or something. Sadly my internet isn't up to par with searching for it right now.

Re: Anodizing?
 

If you must do it at home, use the garage. The garage, with the outside door OPEN. Preferably with air currents flowing outwards. And the anodizing process just outside the door...

I've seen it done, or part of it; it's pretty nasty. All I really remember of the parts I saw is that they involved battery acid. Yes, that's right. Battery acid. Not pretty if it gets loose, to put it mildly. Also, note that you'll need something large to hold everything; the group I saw doing it was doing 3" wheels and used something like a dishpan, with mixed results.

You're much better off following Rickertson's advice: find a local anodizing company. Don't have one? Ask your local machine shop about who they use.

Re: Anodizing?
 

Are you set on anodizing specifically, or just looking to color? Powder coating is a lot more doable in house, but if you must anodize, find a sponsor and let them do it.

Re: Anodizing?
 

Actually the acid they use is not as diluted as battery acid.

Nasty, nasty stuff, and not for the inexperienced. But if you must, as others have counseled, please read enough to understand and address the dangers.

Re: Anodizing?
 

There are no anodizing companies within quite a few hours from us, but we've got it done the last few seasons from various ways.

A long time ago, we got buddy teams to throw it in with their stuff.

More recently we had a company 5 hours away do it, we overnighted it to them, they processed the parts, then overnighted back; All I had to do was ask, no negotiation required!

The last time I got a quote on anodizing, it was our 2010 robot with over 150 parts to be ano'd, and they wanted $85. It really is a cheap process. We looked at doing our own tanks a few years ago, but wrote it off when we realized the cost involved (to get enough capacity to actually finish) was enough to just outright pay for our robot to be anodized for the next few seasons.

Re: Anodizing?
 

Quick search in the Austin area shows some great companies. I'd check out this one
http://www.midamericametals.com/

One thing to try to do with any company that is donating surface finishes is to use colors that they frequently use and nothing out of the ordinary. But yeah you should be able to get free anodizing as long as you drop their name somewhere as a sponsor.

Good luck.

Re: Anodizing?
 

Hey thanks for all the great responses guys, i really appreciate it. We don't have our hearts set on anything and were exploring our options, and yes we were looking into other things like powder coating.

Re: Anodizing?
 

It won't be as durable as anodizing or powder coating but you might even want to try your hand at painting if you can afford the cure time. A little detail spray gun is cheap if you have a sufficient compressor to run it. An enamel paint like Rustoleum or some sort of farm and implement paint can be rather durable, and can lay down pretty nice when thinned and sprayed. Of course, all the success is in the prep work. With bumpers nowadays, a lot of parts of the robot never see any real contact, so paint may work out.

Re: Anodizing?
 

I think I read that more diluted acids will work at higher voltages.

Re: Anodizing?
 

We've anodized our robots for the past 6 years. We do this because:
1. We have a great sponsor who does our anodizing for free
2. We really like the look of anodizing vs. powdercoating/painting

Last year we had over 250 parts anodized, about half black and the other half red. Even for a smaller plating company like our sponsor, it was fairly easy for them to just throw in the parts with another batch. I'm sure you will find similar results when researching a plater near yourselves.


We've also tried painting some of our own parts, and while they do look nice initially, the paint is considerably less durable than anodize. Just keep in mind if you do anodize, you take into account issues like bearing press fits and threads. Our sponsor is very good about masking holes as long as we indicate them when we give them the parts.


-Brando

Re: Anodizing?
 

Body shops in the area might be interested, and car paint is quite durable. A quick robot demonstration will get them excited - body guys are engineers at heart. New 2-part paints cure in hours, too.

A friend once painted his car with a brush. :eek: Wasn't bad from 10 feet away.

Re: Anodizing?
 

We tried to anodizing a few years back in the off season and quickly realized we didn't want to ever deal with it during build season. It's a lot of prep to setup and if you can't keep an area setup for it, it's just a hassle. We purchased the home brew kit from these folks...

http://www.focuser.com/anodize.html

It's an interesting process to teach the students about. Keep in mind you still need to get the acid, power source, heaters/hot plate. Don't forget the gloves, goggles, and safety spill kit!!

Re: Anodizing?
 

Don't forget the structural implications of anodizing. Aluminum fatigue life, which is already bad, gets very bad after it is anodized. Clearly it's not an issue for many teams, but it's something to consider, even just out of principle.