El Beast - Initial design phase, comments and critique welcomed!

[Nickhofen]

Great work!

[Zeeflyboy]

Thanks - hopefully the effort will be worth it and I can get some good consistent anodising results.

The 3D printer I use is my old trusty Makergear M2. I think they have an M3 out these days but it’s been an absolute workhorse over the last 6 or 7 years.... work area is 200x250x200mm

I’ve always meant to replace it with a bigger badder printer (ideally self designed) one day but just haven’t found an overwhelming need as it works great. I have changed over to a duet WiFi from the old Rambo board, and it rocks an e3d v6 and Titan for hotend/extruder and I like to use printbite as a build surface, but other than that it’s remarkably unmodified.

[routercnc]

Nice work Zeeflyboy. That food dye test bodes well.
I’ve gone for eau naturelle finish but will be following with interest.

[Zeeflyboy]

Got a few hours to play this afternoon at long last!

Whipped up a little design out of some scrap plywood to finish off the anodising tank and cathode/anode setup.












Off on holiday now, so that little bit of work didn't last long.

[jarjar]

Awesome work and project Zeeflyboy!

Do you mind sharing some details about your Z axis? For example, what are its overall dimensions and what's the length of its rails and travel?

Still needs a little fleshing out but this is the current direction. Similar setup to the Z-axis really as that seems to have worked out nicely. For reference this is now using the extended HGH25HA carriages (I have the space now with the wider Z so why not) and longer HGR20 rails, both of which I already have in hand.

25 rails or HGH20HA carriages?

[Zeeflyboy]

Sorry, mis-typed there. The gantry is using HGH20HA carriages and HGR20 rails.

Travel is 178mm and the other dimensions I will grab for you later when I get a chance.

Got some time to play today and try my first ever bit of anodising!

First up I got to try out my new toy on the lathe to thread some titanium rod.






Then I thought for a first test I'd try one of the knobs. Cleaned, degreased, De-oxide and desmut bath, then into the anodising tub preheated to 20 degrees c and using 6amps per square ft for 2 hours.

The part after degreasing:




The agitation system I'm happy with... as you can see from the pic the surface is rippling but no bubbles and splashing which is what I was trying to avoid with air agitation, but no bubbles building up on the part and good mixing.






fresh out the anodising tub:




Dyed using caswell bordeaux red and sealed using boiling water with nickel acetate sealant:






Finished part (well, I might laser etch the top for fun). Very happy especially considering this was the first run.

[Zeeflyboy]

Just wanted to prove to myself it wasn't beginner's luck so quickly did up the second knob too... this is the other end of the rod that I cut to m4 thread. My plan is to have various threads cut on the ends of 6mm titanium rod and some 90 degree angled pieces to allow me to jig up various parts together to do batches of parts since it's quite a long process using the LCD method (2hrs just for the anodise bath, let alone the prep work!).


Anyway, second part came out well too:

[Zeeflyboy]

So moment of truth - moved on to a larger part and the eco-cast tooling plate. Wasn't sure how well it would anodise given that I don't really know what the alloy is (I believe some sort of 5000 series?) so easiest way to find out... Try!

I thought I would offer up the tramming plate as a sacrificial lamb to the anodising gods and keep my fingers crossed (don't have time waste on test pieces!).

Happy to say it came out way better than I could have hoped. The pics don't really do the colour justice - it's a nice metallic looking deep red and it's got a light brushed effect from the scotch pads I used in the prep... perhaps when I can take some daylight pics it might look better.

Here it is getting some little fun details lasered on with the wife's laser






Fitted (I'm one bolt short dammit!):

[Chaz]

Superb workmanship.

[Nickhofen]

Jaw fall!!!
Where did you purchase the anodizing kit from?