35 amp ish at 15v ish power supply? Diy anodising!

[GraemeVW]

6A / sq ft for 2 hours will give a decent layer (~~25µm).

You can use sodium bisulphate instead of sulphuric acid. It's more readily available (sold as swimming pool pH down).

Voltage depends on temperature as well, but I guess you'd need ~20V on tap to be safe. (Ideally constant current, as above).

Has it been anodised before? If so, it'll need stripping (in sodium hydroxide) before re-anodising.

Yes, it has. When I was talking to the pro's, they would strip it, then I polish all the areas that needed polishing, and back to them to anodise.

 

[GraemeVW]

6a/2hrs would look quite a lot duller than 12a/1hr. (only really talking about clear coat)
Do some scaled-down tests as you might find you don't like the look of it at all if you go below 24a/30mins.

Or, make things easier and don't go for polished. Soda/vapour blasted or something first would make things a lot easier. Just needs to be some sort of treatment where you can be 100% sure you have removed 100% of the blast media.

Ill experiment.
If I don't finished, I'd probably go with the fake chrome powder coat. It looks like polished aluminium that needs a buff up. I've just heard it flakes easier than normal powder coat though. I'd also have to find somewhere nearby that even does it.

The bike is a bit of a custom build, and 'shiny everything' is a big part of the look.
I'm just trying to do it without the need to take it apart once a year to polishing again.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I'd think most cheap arc/mma inverters would be dc.
Don't know why I never thought of trying one when I did my stuff..
Really cheap might not have the duty cycle for it but there must be plenty of 200a welders available second-hand that do 100%@100a? Probably cheaper than the equivalent solid state power supply unless you happen to find one locally?

 

[hotponyshoes]

Do a couple of welded test sections as well.
Like they say, the welds won't look the same as the rest. Sometimes they can be really look different..

 

[GraemeVW]

I'd think most cheap arc/mma inverters would be dc.
Don't know why I never thought of trying one when I did my stuff..
Really cheap might not have the duty cycle for it but there must be plenty of 200a welders available second-hand that do 100%@100a? Probably cheaper than the equivalent solid state power supply unless you happen to find one locally?

Ill have a look, see what I can find.
I'm not overly bothered if the welds look different to be honest. The frame is made from 3 types of components, a sand cast headstock, extruded box section, and cast section. All stick welded together. But it has the same welds on both sides so even if it all looks a bit different, it will be ok. The welds aren't blended. As long as the main sections are shiny, it's all good.

 

[GraemeVW]

I'm building something similar to this

 

[skotl]

Google second hand “rack mount PSU”

Here’s a random HP PSU that gives 12VDC at 65A for a tenner:

Pardon our interruption...

www.ebay.co.uk

Edit: they want a million pounds postage for that one so scratch that, but it’s an example - plenty on eBay, Facebook marketplace etc

 

[sako243]

It may be worth speaking to Badger Annodising in Birmingham. They do a lot of 1 offs for people. Last time I was up there there was a guy collecting some bits of shower rail that they'd done. Couldn't source original parts but they'd matched the finish and colour of the original gold leaf parts.

 

[GraemeVW]

It may be worth speaking to Badger Annodising in Birmingham. They do a lot of 1 offs for people. Last time I was up there there was a guy collecting some bits of shower rail that they'd done. Couldn't source original parts but they'd matched the finish and colour of the original gold leaf parts.

Thanks, I'll add them to the list of people to try. Not too bad a journey from here either.