is there a way to finish aluminum at home. After sanding aluminum even touching it leaves prints. is there a way to anodize it at home.

Thanks

Check this out.

http://www.focuser.com/anodize.html

i have some papers from popular mechanics i'll try to dig up ,the guys were using a sulfuric acid and water solution , i think it was one part acid to ten parts water , they made a coil using aluminum rod ,wrapped tinfoil around it and submerged it in the solution with one cable connected from a 12v battery charger ,the part was submerged above the coil (not touching it)with the other cable cnnected to it
it was left in there untill the part started to let off bubbles ,then the part was ready to absorb the dye , the part was put into a bowl with a cold tye dye solution(for clothes available anywhere ) , the part was left in there to absorb the dye ,then was put into boiling water to seal it ,
red dye made gold , black was purple , blue was blue i forget what they did for red

thats to the best of my recollection ,i may be missing some points though i beleave that was all there was to it ive been meaning to try it ,popular mechanics were saying it was pretty impressive for something so simple
the only problem i saw is you don t want to do this indoors , the process creates hydrogen gas which could spoil the fun if a guy blows up the workshop

thanks for the replies. Interesting stuff. Think I will research it alittle and give it a try.

There are a lot of small scale anodizers around (especially near you).
You should be able to anodize your parts for $10 - $20 each.

You can also try aluminum polish/sealer but fingerprints will still likely show too much for your liking.

Heres a site from my favourites Check out the links from this page too (http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/) hth

CHECK THIS

CASWELLPLATING.COM
LOTS OF KITS w/FREE TECH HELP.
JZ

I bought an anodizing system from Caswell a few years ago.Works great.You will also need to buy some battery acid and dilute it by half with distilled water.I would also suggest buying some titanium wire to make connections to your parts.I tried aluminum wire but,as soon as I got a good electrical connection....the wire would break.

I wrote an article about home anodizing on my website, check it out:

http://engineeringhobbyist.com/projects/completed/anodizing/

John, Are you sure that link is the one on anodizing you were intending to post?

Nope, that was definitely the wrong link, I corrected it right away but you were too fast for me.

John,

Thanks for posting the anodizing notes. I like the way you did the Cathode, but thought that the Cathode was supposed to be Lead?

The cathode doesn't have to be lead. If you make it from aluminum it will slowly dissolve away and you might have to change your acid more frequently due to the amount of dissolved aluminum in the bath.