# A guide to Anodize Titanium on a budget



## ChibiM (Jan 3, 2015)

This is a short and easy guide to start your home-made anodizing on a budget

I got the question of how to do the anodizing I did on my ITP A3 eos titanium here.

So this is my little guide.. 

Do this at your own risk. It could be dangerous, or harmful!!
There are probably better materials/ingredients to do this with, but this is just an easy guide. 
hopefully we can get some discussion going about TIPS and help.
 
*A basic budget guide to (paint) anodize Titanium!*​
Do you have a titanium light sitting on your shelf, and want to give it a make over...​You probably have most of the stuff already at home to do this....

What you need:




A bunch of 9V batteries 
Pepsi coke 
piece of cloth 
Alligator clips 
jar/can that will work as a bath 
rubber hand gloves 
And last but not least, something made of Titanium 


Here is what I did:

First connect some batteries together, in Series. 
once you start off with lower voltage, you can see the different colors when you keep attaching more batteries! 











2. Then connect 1 of the alligator clips on the farthest Positive of the series of batteries, and the other on the farthest Negative side of the batteries..





3. Now connect the positive Alligator clip to the titanium piece. In my case, an ITP A3 titanium.
(I took pictures after playing with it)





4. On the Negative side, attach a piece of cloth/sponge (see above)

5. Now put the piece of cloth into the Pepsi





6. Touch the cloth/sponge to the titanium, and keep it until the color has set..




7. and you are "painting" your titanium.

Please only do this at your own risk. It can be dangerous, and harmful!​Each color has its own voltage. 
I started with only 1 battery, and added 1 each time... Every time you will notice a slight change in color. 
Depending on the materials you use, you can use the following picture as a guide line.




Be careful not to touch the Negative alligator clip to the Titanium as it will result in a short.(bright sparks, and it will want to solder itself onto the material)
It happened to me about 3 times... nothing major. 
Please wear rubber hand gloves for your own safety.



2. Second way of doing it:

You can also dip the light into a jar/glass etc to get an even color all over. 
I have only done that for a short time... 
See the following picture; very shallow in my case





In that case, just put the wet piece of cloth, that is attached to the Negative alligator clips into the coke. 
This will give an more even result.


Here my results of my first try......










Another great thing about this style of anodizing is that it is reversible. You can bring it back to its old look, by polishing it or use a metal cleaner. 
 With my second attempt, I used tape.. you can use water resistant masking tape, but I used some of my heat resistant tape..

When you do this, you have to start with the highest Volt.. as the lower volts will not change the color of the higher volts! but visa versa they do.














I want to thank Guy from MBI for his great tips and ideas and of some helpful links. 
He is anodizing titanium professionally, and his stuff looks gorgeous, not done with pepsi. 

Hopefully you will find this helpful, as an alternative to baking aluminum lights 



USEFUL LINKS:



McGizmo link with video on anodizing titanium 
Another guide by member Tom Anderson, a little more complicated, and missing pictures 
Anodize titanium instructables 
Mr Titanium


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## RobinGonzo (Jan 3, 2015)

Did you disassemble the light? 
Glass, driver, etc


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## ChibiM (Jan 3, 2015)

Hi, 
no, I didnt.. because most of it was just "painting" with the piece of cloth.. so there was no liquid going inside the light. 
the painting is quite fun.. so you can get your light "painted" instead of just 1 color!.

only during the second technique (dipping) I put the head inside the diet coke, but it was from the front (with everything still installed), so again no liquid went inside the light.


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## wquiles (Jan 3, 2015)

Very nice! Thanks for sharing the details and photos 

Will


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## RedLED (Jan 3, 2015)

Thanks for the great instructions!

Why use Coke of Pepsi? Is it the charged water, or some other chemical in there that cause the reaction?

I may try this first with some beads.


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## DrafterDan (Jan 3, 2015)

Very interesting, thank you for sharing


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## Fireclaw18 (Jan 4, 2015)

Wow! Thanks for the awesome guide!!!


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## RobinGonzo (Jan 4, 2015)

Are other liquids also possible?
-Coca-Cola light/zero
-Sprite
-juice
?


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## ChibiM (Jan 4, 2015)

Hi, I've only done what people (Guy) recommended to do.. So I don't know why it works  I haven't done a whole lot of research. But I heard Pepsi worked better than Coca-Cola...but haven't tried it.

The only thing I personally had to buy were those 9v batteries and the Pepsi bottle. The batteries were from the dollar store..So you can get 10cells for $10.


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## dc38 (Jan 4, 2015)

Anything acidic should work...if you want to go hardcore, use sulfuric acid....definitely not indoor safe, but youll get somewhat a class 2 anodising


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## nfetterly (Jan 4, 2015)

Nice with the photos & links.

Neale


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## lunas (Jan 5, 2015)

Coke or Pepsi is not advised. I used distilled water and borax. In reality all you need is something to make the liquid conductive I was even able to use tap water. My suggested electrolytes are baking soda or borax (powdered soap). Depending what you use other byproduts may be produced during the reaction tap water has chlorine in it which would be off gassed faster during electrolysis so salt and tap water are ill advised for large batches. You really dont need much i would say a pinch or half a teaspoon of borax or baking soda or salt would work and not leave a residue just clean colored titanium.

The byproducts of the reaction is o2 on the positive and hydrogen on the negative since the pure positive charged o2 is generated on the titanium side the titanium oxidizes higher the voltage more o2 produced thicker the oxide layer.

When you do this I suggest making sure not to have any residue on the titanium it is not overly bad to have to go back and touch up since color depends on voltage you can re dip and spots will fill in. Amps only matter for the size so 9v can be used for painting or dipping of parts. It is also required that you do not use a substance that rusts for the anode and cathode aluminum titanium or copper work well.


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## RobinGonzo (Jan 5, 2015)

Wow, it's really pretty easy... But needs time 

Unfortunately my equipment just goes to 30V . So I can't get to the bright blue, golden,...








Olight A3T


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## ChibiM (Jan 5, 2015)

@Lunas: Thanks Lunas for the explanation. Although its a little over my head... but good to know some details. Maybe I will try to search for some baking soda. (We don`t have borax in Japan)


@All:
I hope that my picture guide could be helpful for people who want to try, without having to know the different processes that take place.
and I guess we can always "upgrade" to better "ingredients".. so its good to get to know what products are worth trying. 
But I have a hard time to find products that people recommend on the internet, because they don`t sell those brands/products in normal stores in Japan. This happens very often.

I think we miss these kind of simple Guides for beginners!! 

Many guides (in many fields(_photography/computer programming,name it_) on the internet) are just too complicated for beginners.


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## ChibiM (Jan 5, 2015)

@Robingonzo: great work! don`t you think its fun to do? 
What kind of equipment did you use? also 9V batteries? and did you use coke? borax? baking soda?

Maybe we can "SEE" the different results with different techniques/ingredients when people post them.. 
thanks for showing your work!


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## RobinGonzo (Jan 5, 2015)

Hey,
I used a laboratory power supply ( hope it's the right word for it) and Pepsi light.
Yes funny, and surprising... longer contact= darker color but can't determine what it will be.


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## lunas (Jan 5, 2015)

ChibiM said:


> @Lunas: Thanks Lunas for the explanation. Although its a little over my head... but good to know some details. Maybe I will try to search for some baking soda. (We don`t have borax in Japan)



You do have it but it is not called borax it is boric acid or sodium borate from what i could find it is kept at the pharmacies in japan. 

Baking soda should be available at any grocery store it costs around $1.50 usd so it should be among the cheapest. borax cost me 6 usd for a 5 lb box and i needed a pinch of it.

I wanted a mostly solid color so i dipped mine got the two pieces below.


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## ChibiM (Jan 6, 2015)

Lunas, can you please explain how you did that? 

How much of the borax did you put in how much water? 

How much voltage did you use, and how did you apply that? 

Do you by any chance have a comparision between anodizing with borax and other ingredients? 
Im very curious how much difference there is between the different ingredients.. 
thanks


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## lunas (Jan 8, 2015)

ChibiM said:


> Lunas, can you please explain how you did that?
> 
> How much of the borax did you put in how much water?
> 
> ...


I took a length of aluminum wire made a coil to sit at the bottom of a plastic cup it had a lead that ran to the top and over the side then i hung the piece to be anodized by another piece of the aluminum craft wire then i used about half a teaspoon of borax in water it dissolves easily in water. Then i clipped 3 9v together in series and connected the power.

I would recommend putting the split ring on first it leaves scratches...

the only other thing i tested with was tap water when i touched up some spots same color same voltage... 

you can also wrap a wire around a qtip and use it as a brush which is how i filled some spots that did not take from the dip...

the color on the flashlight is a bit uneven in rl it is lighter blue at the front then purple with hints of bronze at the tail cap.


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## ChibiM (Jan 9, 2015)

So you filled the cup with water till the top?

do you think the wire is better than alligator clips?

When you did the touchup with the tap water, did the color come out the same as with the borax?


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## lunas (Jan 9, 2015)

ChibiM said:


> So you filled the cup with water till the top?
> 
> do you think the wire is better than alligator clips?
> 
> When you did the touchup with the tap water, did the color come out the same as with the borax?



just below the top enough to cover the piece to be anodized without touching the coil i would recommend using a bigger cup and keeping the distance equal across the whole piece im guessing that is the reason for the color gradient i got on my light vs the skull piece

i would use the alligator clips going from the batteries to the wire and still use wire going from the piece to be anodized.

and the touch up the spots i touched with the tap water turned the same color as the surrounding metal. The color you get from this is voltage dependent so if your going for the color 27 volts gives it will be the same color i suppose if you left it sit for long enough at a given voltage it should slowly grow thicker through the full spectrum of color.

The higher the voltage the thicker the anodized layer and the thicker it is changes how it refracts the light. 

In the end i would say what substance you use does not really matter as long as it conducts electricity for the electrolysis by using water and borax i ended up with a solution i could watch the piece change color i know the main complaint about using pepsi or coke is you cant see the color change while it is going on.


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## ChibiM (Jan 10, 2015)

with the method you used, is the anodized color bright or rather dull?


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## lunas (Jan 10, 2015)

i would say it is bright it has a mirror like finish on the smooth spots.


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## ChibiM (Jan 17, 2015)

So you mean that it is as bright as these?





from this thread

just curious what the max vibrance is on home made anodizing.


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## lunas (Jan 18, 2015)

i would say yes but mine was singular in color the exception of the flashlight which has a gradient similar to the one on the far left and not as much of the purple and gold.

the other thing is i have been finding my finish is rather easily scratched my skull bottle opener pictured first has lots of wear spots all over it from being on my keys. I have not put the light on anything it sits in my pocket alone so it has fared much better as far as the finish goes. 

I would be curious to know if higher amperage results in a more durable coating I know voltage is what determines the color.

If i were to do it more often i would get a bench power supply that i can dial in amps and volts i would prefer to do 27-30v @ .5-1A rather than .15A.


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## ChibiM (Jan 20, 2015)

Interesting! 
Maybe I should sand my ITP a3 again, and give it another try. 
Just curious how much difference there is between different ingredients. 
(but I dont have the time to experiment)


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## Christoph (Jan 21, 2015)

Here is my latest first time using batteries my bolt action pen.
using washing soda dissolved in distilled water SS cathode.





Chris


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## ChibiM (Jan 22, 2015)

Thats not bad! Do you like it? how many batteries did you use?


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## Mr. Nobody (Mar 26, 2015)

Bumping this thread because this is cool !


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## more_vampires (Mar 26, 2015)

100% awesome. Thanks very much, everyone!


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## hbk_rey (Apr 2, 2015)

Chibi, that's really awesome. been watching the video. will take my shot soon.


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