Originally Posted by
qcpmsame
You did a great job or working out these scrapes and polishing them up, prior to the anodization process. That is some nice work on sanding and filing those levers...
I cannot pick up any stray finger or hand prints in the after pictures either...
Lastly, did you do the boiling, after you went through the electrolysis part?
Bill
Thanks Bill.
Looking closely, you can see spots where I didn't sand out every ding. That wasn't negligence, it was just me getting them good enough for this first trial. I'll still probably scrap them.
Also, now that I look in the light of day, I can see places where my lye bath didn't remove all the old anodizing in places I didn't sand. Easy fix for next time.
I have to work on my power supply and/or concentration...they are related, as well as surface area of workpieces and cathodes (lead, in my case). The battery charger tripped it's breaker at 12V 6A so I had to knock it down to 6V (my big charger is on the fritz so I have to use my MIG or a lab power supply I have laying around next time).
Lastly, I had to move my anodize bucket into a pail of cold water to keep control over the rising acid temp.
I low boiled them for 40 minutes in distilled water.
All in all, a great education and the results were promising enough to refine the tank with a bubble agitator, temp control, and different cathode setup.