Now here's an interesting article.
It appears that anodizing aluminium isn't much more difficult then etching your own boards. But here comes the cool part: You can choose the color too!
First you anodize, then you color (using fabric colors) then you seal it by boiling the part in distilled water. Result, a complete rock solid durable finsih.
The hard bit will be obtaining the acid (sulphuric)
Sounds like a cool summer project, building an anodizing station
Here is all the info you need:
http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml
you can get sulfuric acid at any auto parts store, commonly known as battery acid
Here's a whole kit:
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/aluminum.htm (http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/aluminum.htm)
Apparently, cast aluminum is pretty hard to anodize, at least to get a good appearance, due to high silicon content. I've been dragging my feet on prepping a cast aluminum view camera frame for that reason. Experimenting on a pedal enclosure seems a good way to see what really happens.
Quote from: derevaun on January 03, 2011, 11:40:51 PM
Apparently, cast aluminum is pretty hard to anodize, at least to get a good appearance, due to high silicon content. I've been dragging my feet on prepping a cast aluminum view camera frame for that reason. Experimenting on a pedal enclosure seems a good way to see what really happens.
Now I did try anodizing a pedal enclouseres, I had no success. I first tried an a piece of sheetaluminum and had good results, the pedalenclosure on the other hand did not work.
/Krister
Did you toss it in a sodium carbonate solution first? to get rid of prior anodizing and oxydation?
On the other hand, for just a few bucks more you can already get powdercoated ecnclosures, so if it's worth the effort I'm not sure. But it is valid in the spirit of DIY :D