anodising?

[aisuru]

i was looking at Feline Guitars' 'Black Panther' and the anodised tuners gave me an idea. i've been thinking about my next guitar - it's probably gonny be another Epiphone SG ( a G400 ) but i'm going to mod it's brains out. it's gonny get a refinish in blue ( the blue what's in my Saltire avatar over there to be exact ) and a few other things. a set of BKPs of course  

anyroad, i was thinking about anodising certain parts blue. mainly the bridge and tailpiece, but possibly the tuners as well. and now i wish i'd paid more attention in chemistry class at school.

questions:
• how easy is it to anodise the stuff?
• is it dye i need to give it the colour? what kind?
• what's the solution i put the parts in? some kind of acid as i recall.
• what else would i need to do it?

any other information i might need would be greatly appreciated also. cheers  :D

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

Electro anodizing is a process where you place an object into a solution of water and acid. You then place two diodes into the solution and pass a current from one diode, through the solution and into the other diode over a length of time.
The colour produced is variable dependent on the time the current is passed through the solution. The longer the time the darker the colour.
For some reason red cannot be produced, I forget why!

That is all from memory, try a gooogle search.

It shouldn’t be too hard to find some where that will do it for you, look in the yellow pages or something for anodizers/platers.

hope this helps!

[aisuru]

two diodes? i thought it was one diode, one anode - which is the bit you're trying to anodise. i think the anode is the -ve terminal on the battery. meby.

cheers anyway Steve  :D

especially about the time/colour thing!

[big steve]

one cathode, one anode would make more sense. i think steve is talking about electrodes, not diodes.

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

I think your right!
I'll do a bit of research for you, I did know allot about anodizing, but I can’t remember much now and want to learn again.

There is Chemical anodizing too, Im not too sure how that differs.

[tonberry_king]

So you could use any metal bits of the guitar? Say if I took the bridge off my LP, I could anodise it to change the colour and it'd still be exactly the same (not in colour, obviously  :P)

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

So you could use any metal bits of the guitar? Say if I took the bridge off my LP, I could anodise it to change the colour and it'd still be exactly the same (not in colour, obviously  :P)

Im not shure about that.  I know Titanium is very easy to anodize. Guitar hardwear will be a problem to anodize as It is already either nickel, chrome or gold plated. The plating would have to be removed first.

[aisuru]

Guitar hardwear will be a problem to anodize as It is already either nickel, chrome or gold plated. The plating would have to be removed first.

that's true, i hadn't thought about that. if i remember correctly, it's basically the same circuit as anodising, but reversed polarity to strip the finish? using a carbon rod or something  :?:

cheers guys :D

[big steve]

hmm, can anyone remember back to gcse chemistry?

[The amazing Phil]

Yeah, I remember ruler fights, spilled things making gassy clouds, tiny explosions, bunsen burners misused...but we never did anodizing! :lol:

[Kilby]

Sad bas*ard time for me :(

As far as I remember not all metals can be anodised, or rather anodised and produce worthwhile results.

Aluminium, Titanium and Niobium are the best ones to use.

Niobium is the nicest with Titanium a close second (have a look at http://www.coldsteel.co.uk/webstore/webstore.html for the finishes which can be acheived), as there is a multitude of cool colours and finishes available.

I doubt that steel can be plated with Titanium or Niobium as they are very non reactive, and therefore appropiate salts may not be available.

Niobium is very soft and even if plating where possible may not last very long.

Ti would make great machine heads as it's tough (& light), but it's strength makes it hard to work with.

Aluminum is shitee for anything like machine heads.

Theres a link here for Ti and Ni jewellery making, these folks may be able to answer questions better than me http://www.mcsj.co.uk/titanium.htm

Anodised surfaces also need to be protected from wear as I seem to remeber that it's a very thin surface layer which sets up an interferance pattern (like oil on water). Obviously Titanium would be best in this respect.

Kilby...

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

Niobium isn't soft, it’s extremely hard. Ive got it in my ears!
It is just very hard to machine.
Niobium is the only metal that you can anodize black and is also the most bio friendly (Titanium is also, but is an alloy) metal on the planet!
   
The body piercing and Tattoo business is how I know about different metals and their properties.

Anodizing does wear after a while

[big steve]

titanium is an element, not an alloy. it's probably used mostly as an alloy of 99% titanium though.

[Kilby]

Niobium isn't soft, it’s extremely hard. Ive got it in my ears!
It is just very hard to machine.

I was just going from bad experiences with niobium as I kept on losing niobium jewellery because it bent so easily (compared with Ti). Though when I say soft it's way tougher than traditional jewellery metals.

When I was discussing it with a jeweller he claimed that it was a bit too soft for some applications. But I am happy to bow to superior first hand knowledge (that's how we learn after all).

Although Ti dosn't anodise black they can do a black deposited Ti finish which is almost as nice as Niobium.

[aisuru]

that's all very interesting, but i doubt Epiphone make bridges and tails from Titanium  :lol:

it'll be Aluminium, i'd have thought. so how exactly do i go about stripping the chrome finish off, then getting the blue on?