DK Firearms

Taught myself how to anodize today

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  • kidsoncoffee

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    I played around with some anodizing aluminum today. Started off with my kak can and a charging handle. Had to take the charging handle out of the mix because I forgot it had a steel roll pin and spring and wouldn't work in the process. Here's the before pic.
    anodize1.jpg


    Here's after the LYE bath that stripped the black anodizing off.
    anodize2.jpg


    Here's during the anodizing process. I used 2 lead sheets hooked to the negative side of a battery charger and hooked the positive side to the aluminum I was holding the piece with.
    anodize3.jpg


    Here's where I pulled it from the dye bath. I used RIT fabric dye and made a super heavy concentration and soaked it for 10 minutes. I then boiled it for 20 minutes to seal in the dye and anodized coat.
    anodize4.jpg


    And here's the final product.
    anodize5.jpg


    I've got some orange and blue dye I'm gonna be playing around with. I think I'm gonna try and upper and handguard next. I'll update the post once I do them.
     

    Rebel_Rider1969

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    That's cool. I'm guessing it only works on aluminum? Alabama themed gun parts are ok, but don't make any Auburn ones... couldn't you just tap out the pin and remove the spring?
     

    kidsoncoffee

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    That's cool. I'm guessing it only works on aluminum? Alabama themed gun parts are ok, but don't make any Auburn ones... couldn't you just tap out the pin and remove the spring?
    Yeah it only works on aluminum. At least the process I do only works on it. I tried removing the pin but broke my damn punch in the process. Guess I need to buy some better quality punches. I knew $50 for the set was too good of a deal. Got some blue and orange on tap next just for you friend. hehehe Gonna do a cheap handguard I have as well as a GI aluminum mag next. Just trying to play around with the colors for now and see how they turn out. That's the can you swapped me in the pics I did today. It matches up with my takedown pins and ambi safety selector already on my ar9. I've got some orange, red, and blue dye and some green on order. I'll be doing several of my fishing reel parts that have started to corrode and flake after I do the mag and handguard. It's just a fun little cheap experiment to kill some time in my unemployed life at the moment.
     

    Rebel_Rider1969

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    Looks like it worked good. I thought that can looked familiar, lol.
    That RIT dye works on sand colored pmags too. I'm guessing you could do a lower. Might have just figured out my " I cant find a grey lower" issue with my retro 604 build. I wonder if they have RIT dye in XM GREY. lol. Too bad it dosent work on steel, need a grey birdcage fh.
     
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    kidsoncoffee

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    Looks like it worked good. I thought that can looked familiar, lol.
    That RIT dye works on sand colored pmags too. I'm guessing you could do a lower. Might have just figured out my " I cant find a grey lower" issue with my retro 604 build. I wonder if they have RIT dye in XM GREY. lol. Too bad it dosent work on steel, need a grey birdcage fh.

    They do make a few shades of grey. It's hard to color match though. You kinda have to eyeball the color while it's soaking. I'd be more than happy to experiment for ya on your parts. Haha The good thing though is if the color doesn't match, you can give it a bath in lye and start all over again. I'm just digging the fact that this gives a protective hard coating to my parts and lets me make them any color I want. The can turned out with a much smoother and durable finish than factory.
     

    kidsoncoffee

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    How thick is the coating? Does the can still thread properly?
    It's back to being factory thickness, maybe a bit more. I didn't do a measurement of before and after. It still threads smooth as butter. I'll be doing another run of a mag and handguard tomorrow and updating this post with the results.
     

    kidsoncoffee

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    Haha. I stripped the blue off. I didn't like how splotchy it was. Gonna go with orange next and see how it goes.
     

    kidsoncoffee

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    I might try this with my little gsg 1911.

    Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
    All I can say is practice several times first. I still don't have a solid routine that turns out consistent results. I've stripped more anodizing than I've ended up with. I've got all my pic rails stripped back down again because I didn't like the end result.
     
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