New projects for 2016 - Anodized Niobium and Anodized Titanium

I am making my list up of projects I want to learn to do this year


#1 - Niobium  & Titanium Metal Anodizing
I bought the start up kit over 12 years ago and it sat - I've lost a few items so today I reordered - nothing major but could not find the anode or the resist tape  so I ordered from Reactive Metals Studio  so I would have for the weekend - they have an online catalog and they have start up kits

If you dont know what niobium or titanium anodizing is - its this !

You have to use a reactive metal -

both Titanium and Niobium starts out as a silvery grey metal in sheets, rolls, rod, wire -  works out about the same for coloring



then you dip in the  electrified water  and you get this

I bought the SMT micro annodizer from Reative Metals
the cathode is a stainless steel annode (its only about 1.00/ft )
a plastic mesh to keep you from touching the cathode when you dip

you get a range of color dependant on the voltage


You can dip - and get a rainbow effect dependent on the voltage,
use a sponge, (not my earrings)

a paint brush (all have to conduct current and easy to make ) I cant find the sample I saw but I'll post when I do it

this may give you some control on where to paint a certain color at a certain voltage


its actually one of the easier anodizing procedures to do

Niobium is a more expensive metal and you cant solder so you do a lot of cold connections  - I love these earrings (not mine )
 but so want to make these

 Titanium  is also a reactive metal - less expensive if you want to play
(not my earrings)   so you can see  you can get the same color ranges

I love that it comes in thin metal like 30g for both  so I can use for  microfolding

#2 on m;y list is soldering anodized aluminum with copper - just investigating this - to make mixed wire colored collars -  just finding out the right fluxes and solders - I'll post when I get to that as I have yet to find suppliers to ship to me in Canada