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Home Anodizing


ducky

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How hard is hard anodizing at home, doable or not? Looked at a few youtube posts and it seems to be a workable home process, bucket, battery charger, some acid, and conductor plate of aluminum or lead. I have two 80% lowers one is anodized one is raw. I was thinking I would mill out the raw one then anodize and stain the whole thing. That way the inside trigger area would be anodized and dyed to match the rest of the receiver while complete. I would hang on to the other one for a build down the road one the wife forgets about this build. The dye part seems easy enough, done a similar process with Rit dye on HK handguards to bring old handguards back to life.

 

I was interested in finding out the water to acid ratio. Most of the videos I saw they mention the dilution of acid with water but never mention the ratio. There was also reference to surface area and a calculation for soak time. I would like to understand the science a bit more before I give this a try. Wondering if anyone has found a good site with that information they could share.

 

Thanks,
Duck
 

 

 

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I've done anodizing at home with some CNC parts I made. My advice - don't do it indoors.

 

I used battery acid, a battery charger (55 amps) and a sheet of aluminum for the cathode plate. The most important thing is keeping the temperature under control for the electrolyte (i.e. the acid solution). Once the temps start climbing it's hard to control the anodizing process and you'll notice that the stain won't take.

 

Battery acid is around 50% and you have to dilute it 1:1 with water (distilled) to get the right concentration.

 

-S

Edited by shibiwan
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thanks for the info. I think I will use an aquarium heater and a 5 gallon bucket. I saw someone doing so on a youtube video. Also found a guys post on AR15.com. He used an different electrolyte than battery acid. it was still and acid just not battery...

 

You really don't want any extra heat. The heat generated in the electrolysis will be enough to mess you up so you don't want to add more to it.

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  • 8 months later...

How hard is hard anodizing at home, doable or not? Looked at a few youtube posts and it seems to be a workable home process, bucket, battery charger, some acid, and conductor plate of aluminum or lead. I have two 80% lowers one is anodized one is raw. I was thinking I would mill out the raw one then anodize and stain the whole thing. That way the inside trigger area would be anodized and dyed to match the rest of the receiver while complete. I would hang on to the other one for a build down the road one the wife forgets about this build. The dye part seems easy enough, done a similar process with Rit dye on HK handguards to bring old handguards back to life.

 

I was interested in finding out the water to acid ratio. Most of the videos I saw they mention the dilution of acid with water but never mention the ratio. There was also reference to surface area and a calculation for soak time. I would like to understand the science a bit more before I give this a try. Wondering if anyone has found a good site with that information they could share.

 

Thanks,

Duck

 

Hers a link that should help! If you have any specifics you need answered ask, I've done it for years!

http://www.uponone.com/howtos/1.pdf

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