Where to buy color anodized aluminum rod?

[Nickle]

I'm in search of 1/4" color anodized aluminum rod for some custom links. McMaster carries hard anodized rod stock, which is what I use currently, but wouldn't be opposed to a little color. Does anyone know of a good source for this?

[krazykrawler]

I used to have an article in car magazine about how to anodize at home.You use battery acid,12volt car charger and some rit dye.Other supplies are aluminum ground wire,aluminum foil and a bucket.Other than diy,i have never heard of a supplier for aluminum already anodized.Would be a cool marketing idea though

[EddieO]

You can google how to anodize. Its fairly simple to do, but does take some effort and money to do. Basically some acid, some power, followed by a soak in a dye and then a rinse....(this is VERY simple was of explaining it). There is a guy that sells a how-to book for like $25 and he also sells starter kits of all the chemicals and such....

I would check around for an RC anodizing business unless you do a decent amount of parts. I know there is a guy who advertises on RCtech.net, not sure on here....

Later EddieO

[Gimp]

What about axial links? They come in a bunch of sizes/colors...

[SMR 510RR]

Find an anodizing shop in your area...For small stuff they do it cheap for cash and just throw it in with other stuff they are already doing. You will have to wait until they do a batch of whatever color you want but it is cheap.

[Nickle]

KrazyKrawler and EddieO, that's a good suggestion, but I have no interest in working with the chemicals necessary in my garage. I have even less interest in going about disposing of them correctly.

Originally Posted by Gimp

What about axial links? They come in a bunch of sizes/colors...

Buying their links defeats the purpose of making my own. I want to make custom lengths without the constraints of the lengths they provide in one of their kits.

SMR 510RR, that's looking to be the best option currently. It's not really ideal though. I'm really quite surprised that an anodizing company, RC company, or RC supplier has jumped on this opportunity and started producing color anodized stock.

[Headshok88]

The biggest problem with pre-anodizing your material stock will be the damage that is done to the coating before and during machining the links. I have found that local coating shops will do small batches or even throw your stuff in to a larger batch very cheap, sometime free. Just don't expect to get a big choice in colors (clear, black and gray will be common).

[Jer]

I powdercoated some aluminum parts on my jugg, it looks almost anodized in person. I used a clear candy blue over clean aluminum. I paid $30 for the powder, which covers WAY more than I could use on two trucks. I would find a local powdercoating company and ask them to do it. If the metal is clean it shouldn't cost more than $15-20 for everything you want on your rig to be coated.

[krazykrawler]

Another alternative is the faux anodized paint in the auto part stores.You spray it over a silver base coat and it looks anodized,but in your case,you spray right on the aluminum.And if it does get scratched,you can strip the piece and spray it again.One can would do alot of links or any other small pieces.