How To Anodize Titanium

Houston Tactical · Nov 27, 2006

I was doing some research on how to anodize titanium and came across the following reference: http://mrtitanium.com/anodizing.html

Also on this page is a link on how to build an anodizer for "chump change": http://mrtitanium.com/anodizer.html

I thought others here might find this reference useful.

M Wadel · Nov 27, 2006

ive been experimenting with heat coloring ti instead, it will create a hard surface (ti oxide possibly??) and you can get really wild colors. anodizing will only give the color not the hardness..

what i did:

grind the ti to the shape you want, dunk it in ethanol (hold the part with a steel wire or similar. no fingers/fat on the ti!) remove it and wipe it down with a clean cloth, dunk it again, now remove it and blow compressed air on it (make sure your airsupply does not contain oil!) til dry. make sure its no dust on the surface. now fire up the torch and experiment. with what flame and time you should use etc. ive found that "less is more" here, if the colours become to light/boring (gray seems to be the endstation) just grind it off and redo it. youll get the hang of it pretty quick

Don Robinson · Nov 27, 2006

Houston Tactical said:
I was doing some research on how to anodize titanium and came across the following reference: http://mrtitanium.com/anodizing.html

Also on this page is a link on how to build an anodizer for "chump change": http://mrtitanium.com/anodizer.html

I thought others here might find this reference useful.

Thanks a lot for the link on how to build an anodizer.

Houston Tactical · Nov 27, 2006

Don Robinson said:
Thanks a lot for the link on how to build an anodizer.

Actually thank you for producing two books that I am devouring! I've been meaning to get in touch with you on a couple of questions from the books, I hope you don't mind.

Don Robinson · Nov 27, 2006

Call or email me any time. Glad to help you with anything.:thumbup:

TexasNativeDRJH · Nov 27, 2006

Hey thanks for the links; I have used the 9V battery in a series method with decent results, but I want to get different colors like green with a constant DC power source.

These were done with four 9V batteries-the exact color is hard to photograph

Houston Tactical · Nov 29, 2006

Don Robinson said:
Call or email me any time. Glad to help you with anything.:thumbup:

Thank you for the kind offer Don, I'll give you a shout befoe the end of the week.

JCaswell · Nov 29, 2006

M Wadel said:
ive been experimenting with heat coloring ti instead, it will create a hard surface (ti oxide possibly??) and you can get really wild colors. anodizing will only give the color not the hardness..

what i did:

grind the ti to the shape you want, dunk it in ethanol (hold the part with a steel wire or similar. no fingers/fat on the ti!) remove it and wipe it down with a clean cloth, dunk it again, now remove it and blow compressed air on it (make sure your airsupply does not contain oil!) til dry. make sure its no dust on the surface. now fire up the torch and experiment. with what flame and time you should use etc. ive found that "less is more" here, if the colours become to light/boring (gray seems to be the endstation) just grind it off and redo it. youll get the hang of it pretty quick

Care to post some pics???