Can anyone help with hard anodising?

[Liveonce]

I've got 2x newly machined aluminium picatinny rails for my rifles.

I've had some expensive quotes to have them hard anodised and dyed.

Can anyone recommend me somewhere that can anodise them cheaply? Failing this I will likely paint the rails.

You may need to check the grade of aluminium you used as not all grades can be anodised successfully.

 

[takbok]

You may need to check the grade of aluminium you used as not all grades can be anodised successfully.

Thanks - It will be 6082 or 7075, which can be anodised.

 

[takbok]

Or make them out of steel and then blue them.

Sacrilege

 

[Gaspode]

Obviously they're not local to you but, since the parts are easily postable, perhaps you could give these people a call and ask if they could do them ?

Metro Plating - Sulphuric - Chromic & Hard Anodising - Alochrom - Aluminium Finishing

Metro Engineering & Plating Ltd, based in Uxbridge Middlesex, offer anodising and alocrom finishing services to industry including the aerospace, motorsport, marine & medical sectors.

www.metroplating.co.uk

Their website certainly implies that they will do single items. I've actualy been meaning to drop in there myself, as it's roughly on my route to work, to enquire about getting an XLR chasis re-anodised, but just haven't got around to it yet.

 

[ruger77]

A while back I was milling base plates for the pilkington kite also rails for the T3 the reasons I stopped was no one would anodise them unless I had. Batch of 50 plus’s

 

[takbok]

Thanks guys, I've given up after contacting about 10 places. I've ordered paint.

 

[AlexD]

Thanks, but it's no cheaper than anodising, and I've got the kit to spraypaint as good as cerakote.

Cerakote is extremely sensitive to shortcuts in the prep.

For Cerakote:
The part must be soaked in CLEAN acetone for at least 30 minutes, not wiped.
The part must be shot blasted with CLEAN grit of the right size, and all grit blasted off with a CLEAN airline.
The part must be heat soaked at 120C to 148C depending on whether it is E or H series.
The part must be examined for any oils after heat soak prior to coating.
The coating must be mixed precisely AND the filter used
The coating must be baked for the specified period at much higher temperatures than other paints.

I have lots of photos of Cerakote flaking off things, from simple mistakes such as a clean acetone dip after blasting.

On cold anodising, many companies do it in the UK but the colour choice is grey or black, AND the black then runs if you soak it in water. If you want pics, PM me. You may as well use standard anodising and give it a coat of PU varnish.
Flexible surface technology in Livingston are good, though slow. They do a proto batch for £100 fixed cost and have a range of colours. I get small runs of coatings done frequently, and use 6061-T6 mostly.

Or, make it from titanium where anodising is really easy and you get nice pretty colours.

Or as someone has suggested, and what I would do, is make it out of steel and blue it. Ali rails never seem to stand up as well as a proper steel rail.

 

[takbok]

Thanks @AlexD

Cerakoted is snake oil as far as I'm concerned - it's 2 pack epoxy paint at the end of the day and is only so tough. Aluminium is perfect for the rails and paint will do what I need - will update this thread when I've painted rails.

 

[J_Bar94]

I use A1 Anodising for all of my components - small family run business.

 

[DesG]

I had a go at home anodizing a few years back and found it to be surprisingly easy. Getting hold of the sulphuric acid in this day and age of 'don't let anyone have anything that might be dangerous' but I got myself a five gallon drum of battery acid which is watered down 1 to 1 to give the approx 18% needed. I got some dyes from a model supplier which worked well, but computer printer ink gives good results as well. A mate from the shooting club has done all of the ally bits on his airguns to very impressive standards.

If it goes horribly wrong you just strip it off in a caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) and do it again.

It becomes quite addictive. I still do odds and ends from time to time.