Left: anodized, right: unanodized. Done with a budget of $6.As planned, I started to anodize some objects today. As you might know, my country bans practically everything. It's not like anyone knows that you can make explosives with sulphuric acid (battery acid) or ammonium nitrate (fertilizer), or that you can make poisons with sodium borate (laundry bleach).
I called up most hardware/paint shops (about 20) in my vicinity before I gave up finding sodium phosphate, which I thought of using as a substitute. They didn't really understand what was "trisodium phosphate" or a "degreaser", so I couldn't possibly tell them I was looking for "sodium phosphate" to "anodize" titanium. So I simply claimed that I needed a powder form cleaner to wash my walls before painting them.
They'd first tell me that they didn't have stock of what I wanted (which was what I was interested in) - then start on a long story to dissuade me from buying a cleaner, and teach me all sorts of techniques to paint my walls! And I actually got very sound advice! Use an anti-fungal chemical, rent a water jet, blast off the paint, wait a few days to dry, apply a lacquer/primer, apply paint.
Anyway, as I called up more and more shops, I learned more techniques along the way, and started to come up with more credible stories for how I was planning to paint my walls, lol. I swear, I'm an expert at painting walls now. But unfortunately, no one had TSP i.e. sodium phosphate.
Back to the story. I gave up using anything fanciful, and decided to electrolyze phosphoric acid instead. Where could I get a plentiful supply of that?
I called up most hardware/paint shops (about 20) in my vicinity before I gave up finding sodium phosphate, which I thought of using as a substitute. They didn't really understand what was "trisodium phosphate" or a "degreaser", so I couldn't possibly tell them I was looking for "sodium phosphate" to "anodize" titanium. So I simply claimed that I needed a powder form cleaner to wash my walls before painting them.
They'd first tell me that they didn't have stock of what I wanted (which was what I was interested in) - then start on a long story to dissuade me from buying a cleaner, and teach me all sorts of techniques to paint my walls! And I actually got very sound advice! Use an anti-fungal chemical, rent a water jet, blast off the paint, wait a few days to dry, apply a lacquer/primer, apply paint.
Anyway, as I called up more and more shops, I learned more techniques along the way, and started to come up with more credible stories for how I was planning to paint my walls, lol. I swear, I'm an expert at painting walls now. But unfortunately, no one had TSP i.e. sodium phosphate.
Back to the story. I gave up using anything fanciful, and decided to electrolyze phosphoric acid instead. Where could I get a plentiful supply of that?
Should I use regular, diet, or zero coke?I didn't refer to my data booklet, but I think I remember that the oxidation of water is an endothermic process. Meaning, this works better at higher temperature. So don't try anything funny like chilling your coke for extra flavor.
For the remaining bit of my setup, I used some very cheap household items, or things you can easily find at a hardware store.
For the remaining bit of my setup, I used some very cheap household items, or things you can easily find at a hardware store.
1) plastic container, 2) alligator clips, 3) insulated wire
4) AC-DC rectifier (optional), 5) aluminium foil, 6) regular cokeI opted for regular coke in the end. The AC-DC rectifier is optional - I also recommend car batteries, or about 2-4 standard 9V cells that you can buy from the supermarket - which is actually my preferred choice. I didn't have a spare beaker or anything of that sort at home, so I went to the nearest Chinese hawker to takeaway a packet of fishball noodle soup.
Total cost of apparatus: US$6. More if I bought 9V batteries.
Anyway, it's messy, so leave something on as you do it - say, music. In my case, I set a piece of lead in the stove to make some fishing weights.
Total cost of apparatus: US$6. More if I bought 9V batteries.
Anyway, it's messy, so leave something on as you do it - say, music. In my case, I set a piece of lead in the stove to make some fishing weights.
Yeah, my kitchen is dirty.The next thing is to choose the part that I want to anodize. I have 2 titanium bolts for my AX-lightness seatpost, and I was planning to change them to aluminium anyway, so there was no harm experimenting with these.
At this step, I'd suggest 2 additional things you can do: clean the bolts using dishwasher, then wet-sand them. I didn't try either, but the results were nice anyway.
At this step, I'd suggest 2 additional things you can do: clean the bolts using dishwasher, then wet-sand them. I didn't try either, but the results were nice anyway.
Setup using the foil as an electrode. Just tear a square and fold it into shape.By the way, the positive terminal should go to the bolt, not the foil as pictured. I forgot that when I took this photo, but I rectified it later. I emphasize: the bolt should be placed as the ANODE (connected to +ve terminal), and the foil should be placed as the CATHODE (connected to -ve terminal).
This shows how I clipped onto the bolt with minimum contact.
It should work like this. As I mentioned, I mixed up the terminals at first.
I swapped the wires and it started to work beautifully.The bolt and the foil mustn't touch, but aluminium foil floats very easily, so it's best to make a small square section of the foil and tape it to the side of the container. I dipped the bolt inside for about 1 minute before it started to show consistent coloration. It doesn't look too good when it emerges (as pictured), but after rinsing off the coke, the color shows nicely.
Weight of bolts
First bolt anodized completely; second bolt anodized halfway.P.S.: Oh, regarding the topic - it's the same if you use coke light... no difference here for weightweenies. The reason why this works is because of the high phosphoric acid content in coke. The difference between diet versions of coke and regular coke is that they either use a protein sweetener, or less sugar, instead.
3 comments:
I gonna try that next week end, looks lot of fun :)
If you use aluminium, does it work too ?
as it is a bit more frequent in the parts drawer ;-)
and can the range of colours be widened ? if you go to higher voltage ?
^Sacs A Dos: Enjoy ;) But I must say I can't promise that the results will look very good with coke. My bolts were a lucky try. It's still best to use TSP.
^Anonymous: Yes, anodizing is simply... spamming the part with oxygen. So this works with aluminium too. BUT, the one caveat is that aluminium oxide doesn't show any color - it will be a dull grey - you need to apply a dye. Refer to the link on starbike for more information.
And mm, no, you can't widen the range of colours at a higher voltage. No legendary red, white or black ;) As you can see, it tapers off at a white-ish green towards the end.
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