Were to buy an anodizer

Nathan House

Nathan House

Joined
Feb 14, 2000
Messages
1,204
I am going to buy and anodizer,I have only found them at Reactivemetals and they are 439 dollars,are there any other
places to buy one from.
Thanks
Nathan
 
Nathan, the one from Reactive is a very good unit. My good friend, Kelly Carlson, has one, and he is able to achieve greens using a solution of water and sulphuric acid - hard to do with other anodizers I'm told. I made my own anodizer, using some of Bob Warner's plans and adapting my own ideas into it. Easier than building a gas forge imo.
 
I am looking to make/buy a power supply for this too. Based on some feedback I've had on how much current one needs to do larger parts like knife scales, the Reactive mini-anodizer seemed underpowered. That was just based on the numerical value for amperage that I was told.

Jeff, do you know if your friend is using the small unit effectively?? It's not that $2000+ beastie, is it?
 
I've heard from one guy that uses his DC motor controller for it. I'm not sure if that's a good idea, since the controller is expecting loads from a motor. Then again they monitor their output voltage which is a good thing. Hmmmm... I was thinking of getting a cheap DC controller and trying that out.

http://www.warnerknives.com/anodizer.htm

Then again, Bob Warner's plan use a variac. That's gonna give a consistent voltage regardless of load (something you can't do with a POT). Looks like a good plan, but I'd add a big electrolytic capacitor to smooth the output of the bridge. (Maybe one of the electronics guys here could tell me the size.)

FFT

Steve
 
Mike,

My friend, Kelly Carlson, does indeed feel his Reactive anodizer is top-flight. He does have the samll one, and he can really make darn near any color you can think of. By the way... Kelly was featured in the recent Blade magazine in the "Ones to watch" section. Nice guy, and a good friend.

On the other hand, you can use Bob Warner's plans and make a pretty kick-butt anodizer. I found a really awesome variac on ebay and built mine.
 
Thanks, Jeff & Steve. I am going to check out at the salvage area of my old company for an old Variac. Is there anything special I should look for in terms of specs? There are a slew of different Variacs.(I also want to look at a power supply for a device called an electrophoresis unit, the thingy the use for DNA "fingerprinting". That's why my question regarding current needs. I know they'll get the voltage but I'm unsure about the amperage they'll do.)

It's good to know that the Reactive Metals mini will work fine if I end up going the commercial route. Sounds like he experimented with electrolytes a bit.... sounds like I need to do more reading. Nancy wants to use this for doiong Ti jewelry, so perhaps I won't need as many amps as for liners.

Thanks, again.
 
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