ANODIZING EQUIPMENTS

I have looked through the Pick a Kit helper and have been following the forum for a while, and now I would appreciate some further advice from the experts.

I need to make some daguerreotype plates. This involves putting 1/2 mil of pure silver on one side of mirror polished flat copper plates ranging in size from about one inch square to up to 4×6 inches. (Thickness around 20 gauge).

My problem is that the complete Caswell silver electroplating kit and a regulated power supply are more than I can afford right now. Since my needs are pretty simple ( no complex shapes, restricted range of size, suitable base metal) could anyone recommend an absolutely base set of equipment and supplies that would allow me get started doing this kind of plating? I particularly wonder if I can using a less expensive power source.

If the complete Caswell kit is the only way to go, I will just continue saving money till I get there, but if there is a way to get going with a smaller up-front investment, that would be really welcome news.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

hey guys, i guess i could try myself but that’d just waste time. after I strip old ano im left with a blotchy finish as seen below.

i just got some desmut from caswell, havent used it yet, but wondering if this would even out the finish to go straight to anodize or do i need to polish this up first? a matte finish is fine but obviously this looks like feces[lol cr@p is censored?]. i got a buffing wheel right here so its no biggie just trying to save time.

Let me start off by saying I’ve never polished any large fins. Only some fins on a valve cover that where easy. So pretty much I’d like someone who has done a decent amount of heads and cylinders to lmk me know what you think. Who knows, maybe everybody is already doing this. My idea is to have about 4-5 razor buffs on one shaft at a time, but with spacers in between. Lets say between each razor you put a washer, about the thickness of a fin. It would pretty much be a fork type buffing wheel, so you could buff 5 fins at one time. Obviously it’s going to grab and will want to knock it out of your hands. Probably a low rpm buffer would be best. LMK what you think.

Am I ever going to be able to keep my polished parts shiny? Every time I anodize them they turn cloudy. I have tried shorter run times but still no luck. Any ideas. My whole purpose of doing this was to ano clear over polished parts so I would not have to polish the aluminum all the time.

I have a small Harbor Freight pressure/media blaster…

I believe it is this one:
- Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
40lbs.

I have no real experience with blasting before…

but took some ‘black magic’ medium..threw it in the blaster…

hooked it up to my compressor..and started to see how things works stripping some old paint/rust off some old parts..

I found that the medium seems to ’spit’ from the nozzle..instead of a constant ’stream’ of abbrasive… and at times..it just seems to FALL out of the nozzle end when open..and I point it down.

is this normal? what can I do to get a more useful pressure blaster? with consistent pressure/stream… and the media staying in the blaster until ready.. (not falling out of the deadman nozzle)..

am I using to small of a medium? (I didnt think it mattered)

is the blaster just a POS? (its used)

Thanks

Okay, so I’m doing a larger than usual order (17 parts).
And I was wondering how to ensure that all parts are getting current through?
I’ve heard people just using a multi meter up against the wire and the cathode, but that will just tell you if power is going through the wire, not through the part.
Is there another way to tell?

Also, if I blast all the pieces for surface prep, and one fails anodizing, do I just change the wire, and re-run in the ano tank? Or do I have to strip, prep the metal again, etc (start from scratch).

Thanks

Hello everyone! I thought I would stop in and ask a couple of questions since you all have been so helpful before! (Thank you!)

I’m having a little trouble finishing up buffing an item that I’ve made out of copper. I’ve done all of the sanding and early buffing stages and am right at the upper end of the buffing spectrum. I’m not a total buffing newb . . I’ve had a lot of success with smaller items. But this is really the first item that I’m buffing that is quite a bit larger than the buffing contact surface so it’s much harder to get a uniform surface.

I am trying to get the ultra small scratches out caused by the the last level of buffing I did which was with a green bar that I DID NOT get at Caswell. It’s a green bar composed of superfine Chromium Oxide. It is a step beyond Tripoli. And I’m trying to figure out where to go next to get the fine scratches out.

I just want to add ahead of time, that while I’m learning buffing, I am quite familiar with the process of sanding– so, the scratches you see in the pictures below ARE NOT scratches left by sanding. They are completely left by the buffing compound I last used and I know that FOR SURE.

SECOND QUESTION — In the below picture, I circled some of the small black specks that I get with some buffing compounds. Now I’ve heard talk about them in many places but I want to know what exactly they mean. I’ve read that it means you don’t have enough compound on your wheel and I’ve read that it means you have too much compound on your wheel. I think I’ve read a few other things to. So, how exactly do I determine the reason that I’m getting the black specks of compound?

**Just a note: I am well aware that in this photo there are scratches going in different directions. They are ALL scratches from the same buffing compound and NOT from previous levels of buffing/sanding. I’ve been experimenting with various wheels/directions/pressures to get rid of the scratches

As always, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the help; it’s always so very appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

That wasnt baked long enough the first time??

I PC an aluminum head to a snowmobile and it looks great
but i wonder if i baked long enough?

Thanks

BTW i was using powder by the pound and the color is fire engine
red extra durable coat i believe its called

You’ll find that during plating, the deposit is not very even, due to the throwing power of the bath. When a piece is set with the current too high, these areas are prone to burning as the majority of the current is accepted at high points, edges, points, areas closest to the anodes, etc… You can use robbers to absorb some of the deposit, so that overall the plate on the piece is more even, and help prevent burning. This isn’t readily apparent until one tries to sand or buff a copper plate, and the low current density (lcd) areas are quickly buffed/sanded through, whereas quite a bit of time can be spent on the high points, because the deposit built up thicker there. This also becomes unacceptable in respect to longer plating times, often encountered when a piece has pits/scratches in it, such as when more time is spent in the acid copper bath to build up more thickness to make the repair. When left in too long, too much builds up in high current density areas (HCD’s), and coral shaped deposits begin to grow. Robbers take away some of that deposit, instead of it all being focused on HCD areas.

Here’s a step by step pic of correcting this problem. every situation is different, this piece in particular seemed to provide a good example of HCD areas.

Usually I polish before placing an object in the bath, however in this case, being a relatively simple shape, without any deep recesses, it’d be obviously easier to buff copper than steel (the base metal). It’s been ground and sanded to remove and pitting/metal stretch marks, then sand blasted. I’ve already put the item in Flash Copper for 30 minutes. Flash Copper has excellent throwing power, and it’s purpose is just a strike coat, so current distribution/uneven build isn’t of great importance.

It may not seem too extreme in the photo (nickel for scale), but all the areas highlighted in red will attract most of the deposit. I can’t give you a percentage, but it’ll be enough to disturb how even the thickness of the deposit is, which also affects corrosion protection.

The piece is now ready for acid copper. The plating time will be longer, to build up enough thickness to be able to buff away the texture from sandblasting. It’s difficult to set up robbers without a rigid method of securing the item in the tank. In this case I used some scrap copper pipe, tapped a 1/4 x 20tpi hole in it, and bolted the piece right to it. The piece eventually gets a bolt covering this hole when it’s installed on the car. It’s okay in this case to fasten this way, as normally, this method will leave some "evidence" and be noticeable after the brighter subsequent baths. Directly behind the work piece, I bent a ‘U" shape in the robber wire, and when I tightened the piece down to the bar, it secured the robber wire at the same time. The object is to conform the robber wire near to the areas that will normally accept more deposit, so that it will limit the amount, in this case copper; that is deposited on the workpiece in that area. You can see how it’s secured and bent to shape in the photo. There are other ways to secure the wire, and other shapes can be made, but this is what works best for me.

The last photo is the piece secured in the tank. Often times I flatten and bend the end over (that is coming out of the tank) so it mates and rests on the pipe running across the tank. However, it can be very difficult to rinse the plating solution out of the tube without two open ends. A solid bar would be a better option, but more expensive.

Understand more.
-Jimmy

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Hi guys, I found this interesting powder coating technique that let’s you apply digital graphics to any 3d surface :
Powder Coated Graphics on Bike Frames – Core77

I tried to google for this and the only relevant information I found was this:
How do you do graphics powder coating?

Do any of you guys know any other information of it that could be shared?
(materials, what kind of printer, etc)
Any help would be really appreciated!