Some of you might remember me from some of the work I did powder coating, laser etching and doing some leather keychains. Well all the money that I earned doing that, and some of my tax return just purchased a really nice anodizing set up. If you are interested in my set up you can check it out here:
So here is the deal. I would like some yoyos to practice on and use as demonstration of my work. This is the same deal I did with the powder coating and most people were really happy with my results. If you mail me a yoyo and pay for the shipping to mail it back I will anodize it for FREE. Yes I know I must be crazy!
As always there are some catches:
You have to mail me the yoyo and pay for shipping to mail it back to you. (I canât lose money on this)
Your yoyo must be raw. This means it canât have any paint, anodizing, friction pads, o-rings, plating or anything else. You can look up how to strip a yoyo and do it yourself.
I am already ordered âFast Blueâ dye from Caswell. So if you want that color you are in luck. But if you want another color you will have to supply that dye. You can either order the dye from Caswell or any other anodizing supplier and mail it to me. Or you can go to any walmart and pick up a pack of RIT fabric dye and put that in the box when you mail the yoyo. I have used the RIT dye method in the past and it works okay. But the colors are not always the same on aluminum as they are on fabric.
I am only doing solid colors right now. I want to get that down first, then I will try some splashes.
I will update this post with what colors people send me. So if one person sends me a color you want, you can use the same dye.
This is the most important requirement. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY. So far I have never had a problem with the people on this forum, you guys are all really cool. But I am doing this for free to practice and get some examples of my work. I will document everything take pictures before and after anodizing. But sometimes this go wrong. I am like you guys and love my throws, and I take pride in my work. This means that I will do everything I can to get you great results. But I canât guarantee anything.
If you are interested send me a message and mail me your throws.
Just as an alternative, you might also ask people to donate a beater, so you can strip it and test out your equipment. Maybe offer them a discount on a job later, when you have everything down to a science. Give them a gift certificate for donating a throw. That way it will pay off later.
Even though you gave a disclaimer, and spelled it out, I just feel like there is always at least one who just wonât get it. The donations will allow you to mess up with no pressure at all. No running back and forth to the post office, and no one dissatisfied. Then, you can just focus on learning the equipment.
You can sell the anodized beaters on Ebay as a cheap lot, and use the proceeds to buy more dye. Itâs another way that everyone wins.
Yeah that is another good way. But I am pretty confident in that they will come out good. I built my own anodizing set up a few years ago out of cheap supplies. I was a poor college student and just wanted to try it out. It actually worked pretty well. I got really solid colors. But because I had built it all from I couldnât do anything but small parts and it was slow and messy. When I moved and got a grown up job I decided I would buy a much nicer set up. I believe good quality tools pay off. So once I get it I am gonna do some test pieces on scrap aluminum and post the photos.
Once I can do scrap pieces, I want to do some yoyos to show off. So Iâm pretty confident that the yoyos will be fine. Plus I like seeing the reactions of people when I mail them back stuff.
Thanks for doing this, I may just take you up on this offer! One thing though, would you be able to do a clear anodize on a soda blasted yoyo (no ano)?
I got the shipping details and the kit should get here on Friday. So I can set it up and hopefully do my first test pieces on Saturday. Hopefully I will have some awesome pictures to show off then.
I think my mind is slowly take a turn towards the âforgetfulâ side. It would not be my place to say you may be setting up a set of your own anyway but I did actually forget.
Whenever I read forum posts I always want to see pictures. So when the two huge boxes arrived today I took some pictures of all the equipment that arrived. I also went out and got 22 gallons of distilled water and 6 quarts of battery acid. I am hoping to try anodizing my first part tonight. But it depends on how long the set up time takes. http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Gear-1024x768.jpg
And I also picked up some fabric dye to experiment with. Personally I think the actual anodizing dye is going to be much better. But I have seen some decent results with the fabric dye. So I thought for a few dollars it would be a good experiment.
Here is a little update. I got all the tanks set up and mixed all the chemicals. I am not super impressed with Caswellâs directions. One page will say mix with 4.5 gallons water, the next page will say mix with 4 gallons water. I noticed that almost all the packages have slightly different amounts to mix than the instruction book that they sent. My guess is that it is probably not super critical. None the less, it is annoying.
Yes. A clear coat would just be skipping the dying step. So it is actually less work. But you should keep in mind that whatever the surface looked like the anodizing will not hide it. Even with dye it does not hide much. So if you wanted a clear coat I would suggest polishing the yoyo first.
I know you can do solid work so if anyone is iffy Josh is the real deal.
