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Unread 06-02-2006, 11:26
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Pat Fairbank Pat Fairbank is offline
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FRC #0254 (The Cheesy Poofs)
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Re: Anodizing - has anyone tried it at home?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dtengineering
It works well enough, I suppose, but we still haven't figured out the best way to make the electrical connection to the part being anodized. Often the connection itself will anodize first, cutting off the current flow to the part.
I've found that drilling a hole, tapping it, and screwing in some aluminium wire works well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag
What did you use for the current and where did you get the acid?
When 296 tried homebrew anodizing last year, we used a really big 12V manual battery charger that put out about 40 amps. The acid was ordered for us through the school's chemistry dept.

I wrote a post here describing our process - it's far from being perfect, but the general idea is there. I'm anxiously awaiting 229's whitepaper, and hoping to get some tips from it to improve our own process.
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