Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
Adventures in Anodising
Avro:
Work on the parts for my Kuwahara Laserlite continues.
I have a nice set of Tech III levers which came to me raw, for the Laserlite they must be black, so a full rebuild and refinish was required.
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The old rivet was ground down to release the lever. I had already ordered a number of rebuild kits from Pork Chop. The kit includes the rivet, unfortunately not shouldered like the caliper rivet, but fine nonetheless, two plastic lever bushes and the adjuster spring and screw. The screw differs from '80's stock but no worries.
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Here are the parts prepped for the chemical cleaning and anodising. I have invested in a small bench grinder with polishing mops which has made things a little easier. That said, the lever bodies were difficult to get a good finish on. The metal appears to be very soft and also seemed to etch very readily which meant a final bright finish would be tricky. This is in direct contrast with the levers themselves which are a gift.
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Avro:
I have also invested in titanium wire. This should improve the electrial connections and eliminate any risk of spark erosion. The wire is also very much stiffer so easier to suspend parts from and keep them apart once in the tank.
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After dipping in Caustic Soda and Nitric Acid it is into the anodising tank:
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All was as before and here are the parts out of the tank, one of the bodies was patchy and I do not know why. I did not have the heart to redo it so I dusted it with paint, a cheat I know but the bodies were awkward from the start and I deserve a break!
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All back together, rivet remade and not too shabby.
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Avro:
As luck would have it I came across a 44T Sugino chainwheel at a really good price recently, it had already been polished so all the better for anodising....or so I thought.
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The metal looked so good that all I did was chemically clean in caustic soda and nitric acid before rinsing in deionised water, then another go at masking, and then into the anodising tank.
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The anodising looked perfect, super fine streams of bubbles from every which way. Pah! Masking failed again but the anodised black looked the beans.
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So, yet again, I had to clean the teeth with a fine brush and caustic soda. I am beginning to think that the masking is more complex than I thought, more research will follow. The end result is good although, given the shiney and near mirror on the metal, I was surprised by the blemishes. Serves me right for not hand preparing. That said, I am pleased and the Kuwahara will have it's 44T chainwheel. Maybe the 43T anodised in an earlier (and more successful) experiment will do for my Tioga Rhino Charge? I was hoping to fit a CD Tioga chainwheel but have only found concrete evidence that these are 1986 on?
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I could always re-anodise the 43T to another colour if one were needed?
oldschoolace:
Might be worth trying artists masking fluid (like a natural liquid rubber) or copidex glue. Both should peal off once you are done and should resist the anno
Avro:
I had wondered about that only this morning. I do have some 'Liquid Mask' (stuff you use on the cockpit glass or windscreens on models) that I thought would give a try. The bottle gives no clue to the contents but is smells like old inner tube. I would have to do a blind test in to see if the acid reduces the mask in any way. The mask just has to resist the anodising process and nothing to do with the dying phase.
Thanks for the input, it is good to hear peoples' thoughts along the same lines particularly when I was only discussing it earlier with my girlfriend here not 5 hours ago.
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