Anodizing Titanium
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:44 pm
I have to start by saying I have not tried this, but it seems like cool info so I'll pass it along. I found this over at Mini-zRacer.com:
"As for how I did mine, I filled up a small glass of coke. I wired up three - 9V batteries in series. I stripped about 3" of the negative lead and turned it into a coil (hoping that the electricity would be better spread around the fluid). I then put a spring loaded clamp on the positive end. Being very careful, you dip the screw (clamped to the positive side, using the last 2 or 3 threads) into the coke. Lots of bubbling will occur right around the screw. After about 3 - 4 seconds, it slows/almost stops. Pull it back out and you'll have an anodized screw. The best thing about titanium, is that the layer built up is extremely durable to repeated removal/insertion.
NOTE: Don't let the positive lead actually touch the coke, cause you'll cause a short and you'll make the screw go black. (while it's not a big deal with the lower voltages, it could be a huge deal with the higher ones, you could give yourself quite the wake up shot.)"
This site shows some color charts:
http://www.valhallaarms.com/wyvern/tita ... dizing.htm
another thing I learned about anodizing both titanium and aluminum is that the anodizing process creates a layer of molecules on the surface of the object that are much harder than the raw metal, so anodized parts would be less prone to damage.
"As for how I did mine, I filled up a small glass of coke. I wired up three - 9V batteries in series. I stripped about 3" of the negative lead and turned it into a coil (hoping that the electricity would be better spread around the fluid). I then put a spring loaded clamp on the positive end. Being very careful, you dip the screw (clamped to the positive side, using the last 2 or 3 threads) into the coke. Lots of bubbling will occur right around the screw. After about 3 - 4 seconds, it slows/almost stops. Pull it back out and you'll have an anodized screw. The best thing about titanium, is that the layer built up is extremely durable to repeated removal/insertion.
NOTE: Don't let the positive lead actually touch the coke, cause you'll cause a short and you'll make the screw go black. (while it's not a big deal with the lower voltages, it could be a huge deal with the higher ones, you could give yourself quite the wake up shot.)"
This site shows some color charts:
http://www.valhallaarms.com/wyvern/tita ... dizing.htm
another thing I learned about anodizing both titanium and aluminum is that the anodizing process creates a layer of molecules on the surface of the object that are much harder than the raw metal, so anodized parts would be less prone to damage.