Power supply for anodising?

[lilvfr400boy]

It's worth checking your connections (with a DMM set to ohms/continuity) - one probe on the connection to the PSU, one on the workpiece. In my setup (I use sodium bisulphate) I'd be expecting about 0.7...0.9A on 31in2 @ 20 deg C - always seems to be less than the 720 rule predicts, so I just run it for proportionately longer.

Thank you I'll grab a dmm asap I stood on mine just before I wanted to use it it's a shame though if I have a good connection but can't get the unit to get an amp reading at all, what would you suggest if that is the case ( good solid connection , small work piece 7sq2, no amps )

I assumed ( potentially incorrect) that you could set the amps to whatever you wanted ? ( I know you would only set it to the 720 rules suggestion anyway ) but would be nice to be able to push the unit to am exact amp to match the 720, for example I can get a reading from the workpiece when it's the 32 sq2 piece but only pushing around 0.6 amp which is half what 720 suggests for 0.2mm thickness do I just double up on time and it will give me 0.2mm?

Sorry if this is super basic stuff that should be elementary but I find some info online is overkill and others are futile in the basic nature they describe it .
I was hoping I could ditch the car charger in place of this but without being able to do small bits I'll need to keep it is my concern.

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[Boyan Silyavski]

If you have properly done your setup, you can set the Amps as you want but not more than the size of the setup, then slowly amps drop. Thats how you read at what anodizing stage you are.

If you can not reach the recommended settings, then your plate is too small maybe, or is oxidized or sth. I used aluminum plates and worked like a charm.


Why dont you connect your PSU to a real battery and check if it works properly?

[lilvfr400boy]

My plates are relatively new, and I've lightly sanded them in case any surface corrosion was the case , I've retested using my car battery charger and it works anodising just fine at 32sq2 but of course it's not ideal as can't see amps volts etc this is the result when using the car charger so it's stumping me why the better supply isn't working for me
I've tried a multitude of things to test being able to push amps etc and it's working I'll try a test on a battery when I can.

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[Voicecoil]

Under some circumstances you (or more correctly your PSU if you've set it to constant current mode) will only be able to push the current to what the 720 rule suggests if you have some reserve voltage available, which may not be much on a 15V supply - I've found that in my bath I need 2 or 3V extra to get the recommended current, so I'd always recommend a 20 or 24V supply now. As for what you'll get on your 7in2 workpiece I'd reckon only 0.2A with 15V, which might be below the bottom end of the meter on your PSU - I doubt if it's amazingly accurate down there. Now then, can you see any fizzing/fine bubbles coming off the workpiece/cathode? if so, then you'll be doing some anodising. If you want to check your PSU, get a couple of 10 ohm power resistors and connect one across the terminals - with the supply set to constant voltage it should draw 1A at 10V, 1.5A at 15V. If you set the supply to constant current then you should be able to set it to 1A (voltage turned right up) with one resistor - if you now add the second resistor in parallel the current should stay the same. If you want to monitor the current on you car charger you could simply add something like this in series with the bath:

https://cpc.farnell.com/hobut/f3pam6...548?st=ammeter

[lilvfr400boy]

This I guess is one issue with this ps tbh as it's not selectable the mode and it doesn't say which it's on either.
I'm considering sending it back as I'm certain it's not fit for purpose. I've set a limit of £250 to get something and looking at the Maas suggested above but any pointers would be hugely appreciated. I'll get £110 back for this providing they accept it back. It just doesn't seem close to accurate enough for small scale work like 5-7 sq2 which is a pain as the end caps I do are between them

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[lilvfr400boy]

Under some circumstances you (or more correctly your PSU if you've set it to constant current mode) will only be able to push the current to what the 720 rule suggests if you have some reserve voltage available, which may not be much on a 15V supply - I've found that in my bath I need 2 or 3V extra to get the recommended current, so I'd always recommend a 20 or 24V supply now. As for what you'll get on your 7in2 workpiece I'd reckon only 0.2A with 15V, which might be below the bottom end of the meter on your PSU - I doubt if it's amazingly accurate down there. Now then, can you see any fizzing/fine bubbles coming off the workpiece/cathode? if so, then you'll be doing some anodising. If you want to check your PSU, get a couple of 10 ohm power resistors and connect one across the terminals - with the supply set to constant voltage it should draw 1A at 10V, 1.5A at 15V. If you set the supply to constant current then you should be able to set it to 1A (voltage turned right up) with one resistor - if you now add the second resistor in parallel the current should stay the same. If you want to monitor the current on you car charger you could simply add something like this in series with the bath:

https://cpc.farnell.com/hobut/f3pam6...548?st=ammeter

That amp meter suggestions brilliant will solve my issue for the end caps.
I'm hoping I get time to have a play today and see what I can do. I did test placing a bolt as the anode ( work piece ) to check see if that got a reading which it immediately did v and A were both controllable

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[Voicecoil]

This I guess is one issue with this ps tbh as it's not selectable the mode and it doesn't say which it's on either.
I'm considering sending it back as I'm certain it's not fit for purpose. I've set a limit of £250 to get something and looking at the Maas suggested above but any pointers would be hugely appreciated. I'll get £110 back for this providing they accept it back. It just doesn't seem close to accurate enough for small scale work like 5-7 sq2 which is a pain as the end caps I do are between them

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OK, then looking at the front panel I guess for constant voltage you turn the current knob way up and set the voltage, and for constant current you turn the volts all the way up and set the current. It seems to me that something like a little lab bacn supply would do you well for you smaller pieces, needn't be too expensive, there's lots like this for example:

https://www.conrad.com/p/basetech-bt...uts-1-x-513812

[lilvfr400boy]

Well I've places approx 40sq2 into the bath now including the end caps in the hope it would just up the amp draw automatically so roughly 0.3 amp increase by adding them to a busbar style setup ( length of copper wire ) with 3 work pieces setup on this. I aim to be anodising multiple parts anyway so figured if I use a bigger work piece then add small ones to it I can sort of see the jump in amps between them.
Going to give it 1.5 hours for this lot hopefully should bring me to around 0.3mm.
Ps @voicecoil that ps looks interesting have you tried it ? May be of use for me to do all my smaller items.
I'm about to setup a 45 liter tank as hoping to anodise around 200 sq2 at a time save messing with things as much
Out of interest do you think this will be too thin to obtain a solid dye colour ? If so I'll give it 2 hours as the parts arent moving so interferance isn't an issue .

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[lilvfr400boy]

Well it wasn't terribly unsuccessful did a full other mod test unit that's been abused a bit. Thanks for everyone's input it's helped tremendously I've got some ally mig wire coming to help with lessen resistance

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[Voicecoil]

Ps @voicecoil that ps looks interesting have you tried it ? May be of use for me to do all my smaller items.

No I haven't - it was just the first such item of a suitable spec. that came up in a search! There's loads of such things available for sub £100, if it were me I'd probably get one from someone like Rapid Electronics or CPC as you've got good backup.

Out of interest do you think this will be too thin to obtain a solid dye colour ? If so I'll give it 2 hours as the parts arent moving so interferance isn't an issue .Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

I'm no great authority on things like thickness I'm afraid, being a bit of an anodising newbie myself. The parts I did for the CNC had about 10...15u according to the 720 rule and seemed to colour up just fine. BTW, you've some nicely machined parts there!

edit: Just had a look on CPC and they've a Tenma 30V/5A PSU for £60