Hey, my team has some time ready before the competition and we were wonder, what if we can make our metal a different color. I’m just asking if we have to order it or paint it because it seems like a really neat idea. I’ve also seen other people do it in the past.
paint
You can anodize the aluminum. It’s a legal decoration.
what about spraypaint
Spraypaint is too dank for aluminium
You would have to sand the metal or make the surface rough so the paint would stick on
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You can but it just makes the piece much heavier than it originally was.
Not if it’s aluminum and you anodized it…
I was talking about steel but ok
Spray-paint tends to flake off and end up looking pretty bad after a year or a few. My school had some of ours powder-coated last year and it looked awesome. Totally legal, as it’s just a decoration.
Does anyone know of an easier method of anodizing? I watched some videos and it was 7 steps and it seemed like a lot more work than it is worth. Has anyone had problems with the powder coating becoming too thick for parts to work?
We have our own anodizing line we set up this past summer. We use commercial grade dyes and chemicals and it is actually a 12 step process when you include all the rinse tanks. Don’t ever use the same rinse tank. Be prepared to use lots of deionized water and monitor the pH of each step before and after every batch. Setup is not cheap even for a simple home line. Please also don’t ignore the safety needed for this process. Between the etch (strong sodium hydroxide) fumes, sulfuric acid fumes from the anodizing tank, and the heat required in both the dye tanks and seal, safety is a must. While we use anti-fume for each step, it does not stop it all and adequate ventilation is needed. It has been a lot of trial and error for us, especially designing the proper rack for the VEX metal to maintain a consistent current throughout the anodizing process. Plus the seal on the VEX metal already might require extra etch time. We are still trying to develop a better rack for standoffs. Don’t ignore the need for agitation in your desmut, anodizing, and seal tanks. Get a pump that works well. We have consulted many experts in the field, so if it is something you really want to do on your own, I highly recommend doing your research first. We are currently anodizing red, blue, black, green, gold, and pink. We are about to try orange, gun metal gray, and perhaps a copper or bronze.
@Mr_L_on_Yoshi they sell them if I find the link I’ll send it they look really cool if I wasn’t broke I would totally buy them
We actually are about to. We have been updating people on the Facebook page, VEX Teams of the World. We have had to slow down to actually build robots for this season. Once 60X is ready and gives me the green light we will start. Right now we about to start building up a stock of colors. I must say that pink is amazing. My 60R team is running black and pink on theirs while 60X is in black, gold, and red. Right now he is changing the order system to something a bit easier to use.