home anodizing

[FATGUY]

after my once great looking rattle can finishes untimely demise, I've been thinking about alternate ways of refinishing saws. Powder coating is awesome, but not cheap. (I am) My brother asked me if I'd considered anodizing and provided me with this link. Will this work on ALMag? Anybody have any experience with this?

http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml

 

[pioneerguy600]

after my once great looking rattle can finishes untimely demise, I've been thinking about alternate ways of refinishing saws. Powder coating is awesome, but not cheap. (I am) My brother asked me if I'd considered anodizing and provided me with this link. Will this work on ALMag? Anybody have any experience with this?

http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml

Very interesting , thanks for posting this.
Pioneerguy600

 

[BobL]

after my once great looking rattle can finishes untimely demise, I've been thinking about alternate ways of refinishing saws. Powder coating is awesome, but not cheap. (I am) My brother asked me if I'd considered anodizing and provided me with this link. Will this work on ALMag? Anybody have any experience with this?

http://www.warpig.com/paintball/technical/anodize.shtml

Even in that article is says that anodising does not work all that well for cast parts probably because the electric field gradients are highly non-uniform around indentations and holes.

 

[edisto]

Hey Nik,

I have been thinking about anodizing in terms of cooling. Black aluminum sheds heat about 15X faster than regular aluminum (with no air circulation, the difference is much less with air flow)...and I'm working my way towards trying it out on a cylinder head.

Here's a site that covers the DIY aspect pretty thoroughly:

http://astro.neutral.org/anodise2.shtml

 

[Basica Guru]

I worked in a commercial shop in my younger days. The basic premise is solid. There are lots of variables like solution concentration, temperature, aluminum formula and distance to ground, but I think it would work ok.

As far as AL/MAG, I just do not know. Have you looked at the powder coat system that Craftsman has? Looked pretty good for a reasonable price.

Roger

 

[2000ssm6]

How about the Jet-Hot coating? http://www.jet-hot.com/coatingschart.html

A chrome muffler may look weird on a saw though. The "sterling silver" can stand 1300°.

 

[fourfivefour]

I'm not sure there's anything I would want anodized on a saw but this gives me some ideas for my boat and race car.

Anodizing has one downfall, it's not very UV resistant.

Lots of info out there if you Google home anodizing.

 

[FATGUY]

I realized after reading the article it wasn't the be all and end all, I was just wondering if anyone had contemplated such a task. Edisto, tell me moe about this heat dissipation. I've seen that jet hot, it looks bad a$$, why stop at the muffler, can the whole saw (obviousley not the plastic) be done like this. Kinda takes the cheap price out of it, but man would that be a cool looking saw!!!

 

[FATGUY]

I worked in a commercial shop in my younger days. The basic premise is solid. There are lots of variables like solution concentration, temperature, aluminum formula and distance to ground, but I think it would work ok.

As far as AL/MAG, I just do not know. Have you looked at the powder coat system that Craftsman has? Looked pretty good for a reasonable price.

Roger

didn't know anyone had a powder coating system. Honestly this kind of metal finishing is a bit of a mystery to me. I'll try and find a link and post it. If anyone else can beat me to it, great.

 

[046]

used to work in a production plating shop right out of high school. was working full time and taking a full load at school.

anyways... it will not work!

aluminum to be anodized has to be of high quality. some aluminum are made with other base metals. especially cast aluminum have composition of copper, etc... those other base metals will desolve in the sulfuric acid part is anodized in. also the nitric acids, parts are dipped in to prep part will attack certain metals.

say you try to anodize a stihl side cover, after stripping off paints. what will come out of anodize tanks will be severely eaten away.

power coat is always the toughest... wonder if the exact color power coat is available?

 

[FATGUY]

wow, glad I asked. I would have thought I was doing something wrong. That's what makes this site great.

 

[Scooterbum]

Here's a fun place........

http://forum.caswellplating.com/

Been on this forum quite a few years.Good bunch for the most part.

 

[peterc38]

I have 30 years experience in electronics and aerospace metal finishing. I have been involved in plating or anodizing almost any coating/substrate combination you could think of.

In short, attempting to anodize under home conditions is IMO a really bad idea. For a lot of reasons, it will be difficult to obtain a quality coating not to mention the safety issues.

 

[edisto]

I realized after reading the article it wasn't the be all and end all, I was just wondering if anyone had contemplated such a task. Edisto, tell me more about this heat dissipation.

Given that the biggest enemy (unless you count someone with my lack of experience carving into a cylinder head) in modding a 2-stroke is heat, I did some research on heat sink designs (heat also is a huge limiting factor for processor speeds).

A pretty good summary of the benefits and limitations of black anodized aluminum for cooling can be found here:

http://www.aavidthermalloy.com/products/extrusion/anodize.shtml

The reason for anodizing, as opposed to some pigmented coating, is that almost all coatings will actually result in heat retention.

 

[Bret888]

As I understand it, excess heat is the result of the ethanol blend gasoline we are forced to use these days. My dealer told me, a test of E10 vs non ethanol gasoline, resulted in 150-200degF higher head temps on small air cooled engines. I am expecting to see new developments in cooling efficiency. I have seen more bikes with black jugs lately, and I just figured it was a styling thing, maybe it is a cooling efficiency thing? Whatever their process is, should work on saws just the same.

 

[stipes]

I have a friend that powder coats,,and he said it's not that hard to do...The biggist draw back is having a big enough oven to bake the parts in...Kitchen ovens are a no-no cause of fumes and contamination...Have to have one at least set for 160-210 degrees.. The other draw back, any decals,seals would have to be replaced. I seen the end results of some of his work though,,beautiful!!!!

 

[GASoline71]

That would be pretty coolif it worked on aluminum and mag... I have also wondered about jethot coating chainsaw mufflers myself. It would be a great rust inhibitor, and help stay cooler in summer.

That first article about home anodizing is very interesting indeed...

Gary

 

[LAndrews]

As I understand it, excess heat is the result of the ethanol blend gasoline we are forced to use these days. My dealer told me, a test of E10 vs non ethanol gasoline, resulted in 150-200degF higher head temps on small air cooled engines.

Sounds like the guy didn't bother to retune the carb to adjust for the difference in fuel quality.

Carbs meter fuels by volume and viscosity, but their energy is measured by weight and chemical composition. Fuel changes effectively change jetting so retuning is usually necessary. A well tuned motor easily shows differences between different grades of pump gas - let alone totally different fuel blends. THink about how an alcohol drag car goes so fast. Alky works great when you let it.

+1 to the other guys who've done a lot of anodizing/plating work - I paid my way through college doing anodizing. I've never seen a cast part produce a good finish - they're always grainy and the color is poor. As noted, casting sand and metal impurities cause tons of little ugly regions that are impossible to fix. Anodizing can be done at home, but it's pretty hard to do well. Most people don't have access to a rectifier beefy enough to handle that kind of load.

Harbor Freight sells a home powdercoat kit that's relatively inexpensive. You can cure the paint in the oven, but don't be surprised when wifey decides to find a new home for your pretty new saw. :censored:



Gary: Jet-Hot coatings work really well but they tend to keep more heat in the pipe which usually forces a jetting change. On expansion chambers, the difference usually forces a pipe redesign compared to uncoated steel. Don't know what to expect for a can muffler. But the coating really does look nice!

 

[046]

it's amazing that's there's 3 people in this thread that's got metal finishing experience....

yup totally agree with below of course.... there's a few unintentional results of having vats of acid laying around. unless they are completely sealed, you will get acid etch from gases released. this will effect ALL metals it touches. go to any plating shop and there will be a film of rust all over the building.

regulations for disposing chemicals have gotten tighter and tighter. don't know about you, but I'd wouldn't want the EPA to be snooping around.

used to be plating shops would simply flush all sorts of chemicals down the drain. those days are hopefully gone.

don't have as much experience as you do, but also have done almost every variation of metal finishing. from gold plating to rhodium, cadmium, electroless nickel, hard chrome, hard anodize, powder coating, etc.. etc..

I have 30 years experience in electronics and aerospace metal finishing. I have been involved in plating or anodizing almost any coating/substrate combination you could think of.

In short, attempting to anodize under home conditions is IMO a really bad idea. For a lot of reasons, it will be difficult to obtain a quality coating not to mention the safety issues.

 

[Lakeside53]

Stihl saws are power coated, then as required, machined. That's one of the drawback with home powercoating the crankcases... "masking" isn't generally good enough, and powdercoat is BI?CH to get off...



And.. 160 to 210? powder coating I've been involved with requires 350F to 500F...