Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] re:DIY anodizing

ballendo@... wrote:

> P.P.S. I am not against the idea of home anodising, just against some of the "we WILL save money/time by doing it ourselves" situations as presented in this thread.

It's time, not money that's the issue. A minimum charge at the cheapest
anodizer I know is $60. That's more than my hourly rate and I suspect I
could anodize two parts in a hour. It would take me an hour to drive to
that plater and get home, and at best would have to wait two days to get
my parts back, for a minimum cost of $100. Minimums have a lot to do
with setting up racks, and the general overhead of paperwork.
If I could turn around an anodized part in two days vs a week using a
commercial shop, that gives me a big advantage.
The bigger issue for me would be the expense of setting up the power
supply and tanks or having the county find out I have some nasty
chemicals in a residential area (let alone the EPA).
I worked in a sheetmetal shop that put in it's own anodize line, and
made some of the stuff for it, like Ti cooling manifold and the copper
busses. It's a lot of work to do a good setup.

Jon