Pete Deal
Stainless
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2007
- Location
- Morgantown, WV
My shop is for now and the foreseeable future a one man show. I make some stuff as products to sell and do contract work. Most everything I make to sell gets anodized. I have found getting stuff anodized to be a real problem. The first guy I used ruined about 30% of what I sent him. The outfit i currently send my parts to is a first class outfit and does a great job. The problem is they've gotten so busy that their turn around time is 2 months+. My volume is a few thousand golf ball sized parts a year. I'd to continue to add to that though with new product variants. I called another anodizer that I heard has good quality from a reliable source and they are to busy to take on new work. Another local shop has the same issues.
So, I'm thinking maybe it would be smart to start down the road of setting up to do this myself. Thinking I could for starters just do my stuff only. Pretty much just black is all I really need and would be good for 98% of what I need now.
I have a lean-to off the back of my shop. I would need to close in a bay or two of that for the space. Install some ventilation. This would all be DIY and would not happen quickly.
I looked at the Caswell 20 gallon starter kit and I think that would be a good size to get started with. I think I could do all of my parts with that. Most of what I see on anodizing, free internet info, is all hobby oriented. I'm really more after very small scale production. I can see getting setup and anodizing a few parts is pretty doable. How hard is it to maintain the baths over time, How hard is it to deal with the waste? Thinking maybe I could setup some sort of evaporator to evaporate it down so the waste I need to get rid of is minimal?
Anybody got some words of wisdom for doing this sort of thing? Crazy idea?
So, I'm thinking maybe it would be smart to start down the road of setting up to do this myself. Thinking I could for starters just do my stuff only. Pretty much just black is all I really need and would be good for 98% of what I need now.
I have a lean-to off the back of my shop. I would need to close in a bay or two of that for the space. Install some ventilation. This would all be DIY and would not happen quickly.
I looked at the Caswell 20 gallon starter kit and I think that would be a good size to get started with. I think I could do all of my parts with that. Most of what I see on anodizing, free internet info, is all hobby oriented. I'm really more after very small scale production. I can see getting setup and anodizing a few parts is pretty doable. How hard is it to maintain the baths over time, How hard is it to deal with the waste? Thinking maybe I could setup some sort of evaporator to evaporate it down so the waste I need to get rid of is minimal?
Anybody got some words of wisdom for doing this sort of thing? Crazy idea?
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