Anodizing aluminum

[Joe Jarski]

That's awesome work Jon! I've thought about silk screening and things like that, but that's a really cool idea and I like the result. I'm gonna have to give that one a try sometime.

Doug - yeah, I didn't mean to sound overly optimistic when it comes to frying things. I'm sure I'll let the smoke out of a plenty of things along the way.

[Bill Fain]

Hi, Well, since you're chemically messing with metal, I found these sites the other day: http://www.stephenhobley.com/blog/2011/ ... e-formula/ Guy makes his own etching solution. http://www.greenart.info/galvetch/contfram.htm. Another artistic use of electrochemistry. -bill

[Doug Coulter]

I've been looking for a decent photoresist for a long time here, because it has a lot of other applications (faux engraving and PCB etching with cheap board stock). Where'd you get yours, Jon?
I've been trying to come up with a PVA/dichromate resist out of desperation, and results are mixed to say the best I can about that.

You can do all sorts of cool things with anodize before its sealed. The Caswell book has instructions to do color fades by a clockwork mechanism that pulls your work out of the dye tank slowly (then you reverse it and do the other color) and so on. One very convincing demo is to just draw on it with a sharpie, then seal it. You can no longer remove what you drew with acetone, where you can just wipe it right off before sealing. I tried most of those things, but as I didn't actually need that for anything, kind of forgot about it when I got into powder coating, where you can do similar things (but it takes different tricks of course).

[JonathanH13]

It's bog-standard aerosol photoresist solution from RS (Stock No. 198-9651). It's OK, not great - it does not age well, and care needs to be taken with getting a uniform layer. It also has limits for detailed work and tends to lift off small tracks. Not a fantastic recommendation, but the best I've found so far...