Saturday, February 26, 2011

From the Dirty Robot Tech-Tip Archives: How to Anodize at Home

Approximately every 8 years, the bicycle industry stirs itself into an anodizing frenzy. Each eight year cycle may be further divided into specific colour epicycles (always beginning with purple). 

**** Do not try this at home ****

**Be advised that neither Dirty Robot Productions nor Stucky Life (or anybody affiliated with either of these entities) is responsible for any injuries or property damage incurred as a result of reading this**



**Electricity kills, you've been warned**



Tired of your plain aluminum stem? Anodize that shit!
All you need is to make it into a cathode.


Wires work well for this. Anodizing has something to do with electricity, so Safety First.
Anodizing also has something to do with nobility and sulfuric acid...,but acid is too dangerous.


Our less noble metal (the one used to coat the stem) is shown above.
The fish is blue and red and has led a happy life. We hoped to remove only the outer .0005mm but since the stem is CNC’d we may need the entire fish: the black star is ever hungry.


Safety First!
Electricity is hot. Wear gloves.


Pure water, as far as we understand, is not conductive.
Put all the wires into your ‘Reaction Chamber’.



Anyone with a boat will tell you that salt water is conductive, and that zinc is less noble than aluminum. We have no zinc.


We also have no salt.


But really, anything other than very pure distilled water will conduct
(an engineer told me this).


Something is starting to happen.


Look! Bubbles!


Right about now, the fish looks really upset. Mmmm, curry.


We don’t quite know what’s happening in this picture.


Actual elapsed time: several hours.


Safety First! That thing is still hot!



The new light blue finish looks great and the stem smells like curried pollock.

Laws: physical and otherwise, bent or broken by Dirty Robot Production.

**** Do not try this at home ****
**Be advised that neither Dirty Robot Productions nor Stucky Life (or anybody affiliated with either) are responsible for any injuries or property damage**
**Electricity kills, you've been warned**

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