Color anodizing

[Rick6a]

Does anyone have first hand knowledge or contact information on an RV friendly company that provides anodizing services for small parts that are shipped to them? I'm thinking of having a set of fuel caps anodized red before they are sent out for engraving.

[RV8RIVETER]

Rick

Did you check your local yellow pages? I found a metal treater that would do my parts. He charged $50 to set-up the anodizing tank, so whatever I could fit in the tank was included. There was an upcharge for color, but I do not remeber what it was. Just a thought, to save you some shipping $$.

[ChiefPilot]

Depending on the prices you find, it might be more cost effective to do it yourself. I've anodized a number of parts, all colored, myself. I don't have the details here at work, but if you're interested let me know and I'll dig them up at home. If you already have a constant voltage power supply, you should be able to get set up for under $100 and that will let you do whatever small parts you wish.

[Rick6a]

Originally Posted by RV8RIVETER

Did you check your local yellow pages?.......Just a thought, to save you some shipping $$.

Depending on the prices you find, it might be more cost effective to do it yourself. I've anodized a number of parts, all colored, myself.

There are a couple of places within an hour or two of my home that do anodizing including the shop I once used to anodize several canopy parts. I have also reviewed a few how-to sites that illustrate how to make up a home brew but I'm really not interested in ramping up for that either. To avoid to and from driving hassles to the nearest locations (that I know of), I'd rather just send em out and let someone else do it. I just thought there might be someone here who knows of an anodizing shop that welcomes small amounts of work from members of the RV community.

[TX7A]

http://www.focuser.com/atm/anodize/anodize.html#top

[tomcostanza]

I've anodized a number of parts, all colored, myself. I don't have the details here at work, but if you're interested let me know and I'll dig them up at home

Brad,
I'd be very interested in the details.

TIA,

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted by tomcostanza

Brad,
I'd be very interested in the details.

TIA,

Hi Tom,

Sam Evans provided a good link in his post just above. Another one is this one at Warpig (paintball). I use the same basic method, except I didn't buy a starter kit. I buy the desmut, dye, and sealer from Caswell Plating, battery acid from Napa auto parts (they sell it in either 1 gallon or 5 gallon containers), and use my bench power supply to do the anodizing. Also, instead of a cooler, I use a plastic 5-gallon bucket and instead of aluminum wire I use some aluminum flats (1/8"x1") to line the bucket with. I think it cost about $80 to get started, and that was enough material for a half dozen or so parts.

My response when my wife questioned the sanity of what I was doing: "Electricity and battery acid bubbling in the garage - what could possibly go wrong?"