Question about anodizing titanium

[Willem Parel]

There is already a lot written about anodizing titanium but I still have a question.
I bought myself a power supply like this

http://www.circuitspecialists.eu/po...t-single-output-bench-power-supply-csi-12001x

I gave it a try today with baking soda and demi water, (2 gram / 10ml.) with different voltage but nothing happened.
I did it the way like Santos with a wired pencil and I cleaned the Ti with soap.
What am I doing wrong, does the Ti need more preparation?
I stumbled upon terms like stone washing but what is that.
I have already ordered some Ammonium Sulfat in case this is better than baking soda.
There wasn't the slightest colouring on the Ti even if I turned it up to 125 Volts.

How do I get it running?

 

[Brian Marshall]

Ummm... first double check your polarity? Have you got the right wires going to anode & cathode?


B.

 

[Willem Parel]

Yes , that's not the problem....


uuhmmm, I checked the pictures of Santos and indeed the polarity is the other way around.....:beatup:

http://www.gravure-couteaux.info/anodisation.html

So I will try again tomorrow and tell the outcom.
Thanks for attening me on this minor but STUPID mistake....

 

[Brian Marshall]

I make the same kinda mistakes every day...

Last night I fell asleep with my glasses (spectacles/lentes) on my chest.

Woke up to find them in 5 pieces underneath me. Unrepairable

At least your mistake (IF that proves to be it) does not cost you $300!


Brian

 

[monk]

i might be careful of the "soap" you use. it may leave a residue of oily film on the piece. just guessing that could also contribute to possible problems. i have an adjustable power supply for doing this sort of thing. as with engraving, surface prep can make quite a difference in a project result.

 

[Willem Parel]

Brian, thank you again for putting me on the right track, I tryed it with the polarity changed and it coloured right away.
I watched YouTube movies about anodizing and I saw there that the item was the + and the anode the -.
With the wired pencil it was a bit confusing and I thougt the pencil schould be the +, but no !

Monk, also thanks for the advise, what is in your opinion the best way of preparation.
Flapwheel and then ultrasonic cleaning isn't enough? would cleaning with acetone be good?

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

If you anodize Ti and want the whole piece to be colored by putting it totally in the liquid you are using, the negative pole has to be connected to a stainless steel plate that is bigger than the object you will be coloring and that will be attached to the positive pole by an Titanium tweezers. If you don't use titanium tweezers it won't work because you make a shortcut that way. The flow of electricity will stop once the Ti is colored with the that particular volt. So if you would use stainless or copper tweezers to attach the positive the electricity will take the easy way true the copper or stainless part.

But if you want to color the Ti like Santos with a wooden tooth stick, you have to connect the negative (black) to the tooth stick, and the Ti object you want to color on using the tooth stick as a paint brush connected to the positive (red) wire.

So connecting the negative and positive is totally the opposite depending how to color. I have no explanation for that but it is the way it has to be done.

Arnaud

 

[Willem Parel]

Thanks Arnaud, that is what I just found out, but you are talking about stainless steelplate, there is a thread here of James Roettger in where he is telling that anodizing doesn't work quite well when there are different metals in the bath, he found out by experience.
So it would probably be better to make an anode from a piece of Ti and also using Ti wire to put your items on.

http://www.engraverscafe.com/showth...graved-titanium-experiment&highlight=Titanium

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

You could be right Willem I don't have bad experience with a stainless cathode (-)
But a anode (+) must be Ti

Here is a pdf manual that came with my anodizer, I already shared this in another tread.

http://www.juwelenarnaud.be/clipart/GuidetousingtheReactiveMetalsEU.pdf

arnaud

 

[Willem Parel]

Thank you very much for this PDF Arnaud, I am very glad with this because with mine power supply came a very short users manual.
I will print yours out and read it carefully, the supply in your manual looks the same as i have bought.
This will be a big help.