This is the 7th video I've watched today. This process is a lot smoother than anything else I saw. People have 8 different baths and 20 different cleaning solutions and neutralizing agents... Thanks for making it simple.

I appreciate you going over your method step by step. I was pretty impressed with the outcome and your video was really well done too. Thanks!

Great video. Wish I had this a few years back when I had to do some aluminum anodizing. Some things I learned from my experience (for those who do not already know): The lye step is "opening the pores" so to speak, in the aluminum. It helps allow the dye in during the dye phase. (The boiling at the final phase closes those pores, locking in the dye). During the anodizing phase, make sure to keep the water cool. I had issues where the water got too warm, which starts to close the "pores". My parts did not take the dye well after that. It created cool effects, but not what I was shooting for. I remediated on subsequent parts by placing the anodizing container within an ice bath.This may or may not happen to you depending on your setup. Make sure you have good contact between the aluminum part and the wire/rod it dangles from, and that the wire/rod doesn't cover anything you want to anodize/dye.

Really appreciate the order you showed this in, makes the process very straight forward and easy to follow!

Great video. Your detailed step by step process with amounts & times makes it excellent. I'm Going to try this soon.

Good video. As you observed, the smoothness of the surface being anodized will affect the final color. We would intentionally texture certain surfaces with bead blasting to get a different shade.

It looks great, good job. It gives me hope for future projects.

Bead blasting definitely helps. I didn't realize how simple the process is. Anodized AR uppers and lowers here I come👌👍

i watched another video, after few minutes of watching i gave up anodizing at home, then came across this video, you made it look so easy, and it is. thanks for the video.

Nice work! This is the video that has pushed me over the edge... I'm going to start DIY Anodizing.

Looks seriously nice brother. This is a process that's always interested me.

I’ve watched several anodizing videos. After watching yours, I do not need to watch any more. Thank you for the detail!

I’m gonna go anodize every piece of metal I can find 😁 thanks for the video!👍🏻

Thanks! I have to Anodize and ship parts pronto... no time for shipping to Anodizers. On the Knurls.. you will have a lot better success with a cut knurler... I got one and love it. Clean, sharp and no surface problems. I can even knurl plastics... Thanks for the video!!! Very much straight to the point. Mark

This is a very very helpful video, thanks for this bud, the possibilities are going to be endless for me once I get a anodizing station set up in my garage. Thanks man

Great video. Love the garage, soooooo tidy!

Wow , this is a great video , very well edited and explained. I'm saving the video to watch again when I'm ready to start this on some of my projects.

Best, no nonsense, on point video on the subject. Thank you for this

That's a great tutorial video. I like the darker red personally. Red anodize fades in the Florida sunshine. My purchased truck emblem turned pink after 1 year. Have been wanting to redo it. This video makes that possible.

Thanks for making the video and sharing this online, it has helped me alot with some projects

A #1 video my man! I love skilled craftsmanship.

Thanks for an informative video! Not something that is nearly as hard to do as I thought. As a side note, anodizing is also a non-conductive coating. In electronics I have seen aluminum insulators for TO-3 transistors made from anodized aluminum. Mostly they use mica or silicone rubber as insulators. That fact fools a lot of new electronics guys!

Wish I was your neighbor. Not enough people out there doing cool stuff like this.

Wow! Thanks a lot for showing how to do this! This is great!

Great result on only your second part ever? Well done my friend. It looks great.

Very informative and easy to follow, great instructions

Oh great.. Another project I have to add to my shop.... Great job, Thanks for the tutorial

Awesome! I’m going to use this process on my home built kit aircraft.

Damn brother, you are spot on with your knowledge and the ability to execute. Your vids are extremely informative.

My guess is the bubbles from the etch process prevented a thorough etch in the deeper parts of the knurling causing the flaking in the knurls. Swirl the part in the etch bath enough to seperate the bubbles, or try to etch in an ultrasonic bath.

Well done my friend i heard how easy and cheap it is to set your own at home set up...... Wowwww easy peasy👋👋👋👋👋👋

Awesome video,now I can test this out on a few sets of aluminum knife scales

If you want more control over the density of the color soak it in the room temperature dye. It will take longer, but it allows you to add effects like gradation. If you don't like the result you can also "bleach" it out by soaking in a baking soda mixture, but this has to be done before sealing in hot water. The problem on your knurling may have also been caused by smut from the lye, consider using a brush to desmut in your bath before the sulfuric.

Nice work! It looks fantastic

Thanks man.. I'm making my own telescope mounting parts and plan on anodizing them black!!!

Great job!! I love this tutorial!

hey you nailed it giu.. just a quick tip that may save somebody an injury... Never Add water to sulfuric acid... you can add water to sulfuric acid slowly... but never water into acid.. hella crazy burny reactions happen.

I've been using RIT Dyemore racing red and getting great results. It's $3 at Walmart. Good video. Love watching everyone's different techniques people are using. Definitely subscribing. Thanks!

Turned out nice. Very cool process to anodize.

100% Fantastic! Simple, complete, nice.

Im ready to do this today. Thanks you saved me money by not having to take my stuff to a shop. You didnt mention the metal type of your part holder with the crank. Aluminum wire?

Amazing.. LOVE it.. great work

Done right thanks. Straight to the point.

Very cool. Thanks for the tutorial.

Great job, quick and informative

Excellent tutorial sir!

This is sweet man! I’ll definitely add this to my list of stuff I’ll do on my builds.

Nice work!

Thank you for this video. Will do myself

Great video... I'm hoping to anodize some large aluminum extrusion and parts. So, hopefully I can get it right after I test a bunch of samples. Thanks for the great How-to!!!

Great job ! incredible shop ! Regards from Rio de Janeiro.

Mice vid!!! Alot of other videos ive watched on anodizing make it seem so complicated, and results are never really that good.... You got a new subscriber, and im looking firward to satching more of your vids!! Also....i had an 01' black/silver/gold GSX-R 1000....dope bike!

Damn... Where has this been all my life??!! ~subbed

Clean and organized laboratory, and good explanation. Thank you!

What are the odds that entering "anodizing aluminum" into a youtube search world show me somebody I know personally?

EXCELLENT TUTORIAL

Really like the video. I am redoing a old Harley Davidson and I would love to do something different. Thanks

Great video Dave! It's crazy when you run across someone you know searching KZfaq.

I like, looks good, thanks also going to try

Thanks for the info, well done!

Looks great thanks for the post

Lye is for etching. You should desmut the part (get rid of the smokey coating) before putting in your acid bath. I find Dawn dishwashing liquid is the best with a scrub brush. Finish with a distilled water spray and store parts in distilled water until ready to go in the acid bath. Check out US Specialty dyes. Just because a dye is a certain color doesn’t mean the part will turn out that color. Dye particle sizes are taken into account with true anodizing dyes.

For gun blue the Polish done is polish u get. The etch will frost like blasting. Try moving the part in bath to stop blotches. Thanks dude,way cool

Nothing beats tinkering in the workshop. Best mental therapy one can get and a lot cheaper than paying a shrink.

Thanks bro...great work

Really good video! I was hoping this was do-able at home. Found your vid off goog thanks

very nice....good job

Nice shop. We should all be luck enough to have one this nice.

It looked like you had 2 lead plates in the anodize container with a couple of leads I wasn't expecting. Can you elaborate on how that's hooked up electrically? Great video, by the way. Thanks.

Thanks for this very useful video, gonna anodise my head cylinder purple now

perfect explaining......

good working men

Damn nice job bro !!!!!!!

Great video!

Thank you very much for the home do it instructions. I learned how to fix and repair everything with wheels after a couple or 60’s era lawnmowers but cut my teeth on motorcycles. Self taught, I later was able to become an ASE Master, but moved on 36 years later to teach. At 3:52 you mentioned “De-Ionized” water when referring to distilled water. The ironic part is, deionized water in mixed with modern antifreeze but used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. There are 5 types of these fuel cells and only the PEM type work great in a mobile conditions found in automotive applications. At a GM facility, 3 dozen of us spent the day and all questions where answered. The generate 180 VDC and feed into investors for 12-14 VDC, 42 VDC and converter to create A/C voltage for 3 phase operation to drive the wheels. The aluminum boxes generate heat and have a radiator, heater core and hoses. Deionized water has all of the metal salts removed to eliminate electrolysis and galvanic action inside the devices to last 5000 hours or longer, as this is 150,000 miles in vehicle life. Found it very interesting to be able to anodize parts at home. I wonder how they do clear on head light trim, like a 67-72 C10 and other exterior trim. Great job and very clear. ASE Master Tech since 1978 / Retired

You are missing the most important step! You must seal the parts when done close the pores created in the acid/electrolysis bath. The most common solution is a Nickel Acetate based sealer at 205 degrees. A desmut solution between your degreasing/lye, and acid/electroysis, will also help in the flaking/smudging problems. Remember, if a part does not turn out right the degreasing/lye solution, is also what is used to strip anodizing, so you just start over, there will be no damage to the part, but you can't use the stripping solution for anything but stripping!!

Great job looks better than the China anodizing on the parts I buy....

Great video!! How would you go about repainting a small cover and lever (1 - 1 1/2 inches) aluminum (anodized) color blue to black? The manufacturer only manufactures them in black.

Great work. its better than in lab scale.

Nice clean look

Great video, very informative! Thank you!

I'm your 3000th like. It said 2.9 and when I clicked like it changed to 3k. Great video, I didn't know anodizing was just dye on a super clean etched part.

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the tutorial, very well explained, I'm going to try to replicate your steps in my Workshop. BTW, what material was the metal sheet on the second Water container were the anodizing took place?

Pretty cool!

The Lye simply removes the oxide coating prior to anodizing - after that you need a 'desmut' agent (I use Caswell) THAT removes impurities left on the surface and stops any blemish or flaking even caused by said impurities

Really Awesome tutorial!! Thank you. Definitely Subscribed

Good job 👍

When I worked for Hawker Aircraft our anodising was done in Chromic Acid for 30 minutes, job done.

Good job. Thanks.

Nice work! Well done. Very achievable with common tools and materials. Also, thanks for not wearing me out with a bunch of excess warnings about how "dangerous" Lye and Sufuric acid can be. We all get that, and on behalf of myself and the other viewers, THANKS for recognizing that - and for getting right to the process.

Outstanding information, great video,thanks for sharing this .... your video is as professional as your anodized part! What if you did not want to dye the part, do you need to do anything else or just rinse it?

You know your stuff man!

Really interesting. Thank you

Nice work, looks really good.

My friend nice tutorial 👌👌👍👍

Dont need to put it in the lye. Only to strip anodizing. Just clean and then the acid bath. If you want it shiny polish it first. There are calculators on line for the size of the part and the amps needed. I paid 50 for a great supply that you can adjust volts and amps. Leave it in the bath for a hour no matter the size of the part. Great video . I done alot of anodizing and nickel planting and copper plating. Should mention on the way to hook up the power to the part that matters alot for it to work.

Great video, if I wanted to anodize a aluminum swing arm on my bike do I just skip the dye step to keep the aluminum appearance?

Very Cool!