DIY Rainbow Anodized Ti Stakes w/Diet Coke

Those are wild looking

Probably will be much easier to spot them in the ground now when you are doing your once over before leaving camp.

I’m fascinated.

Hum … wonder what my MYOG Ti snow stakes would look like coloured??

Cheers

That's so. . . . .cool, high-tech, totally unnecessary, but cool. I like it.

Mark them up 5x your cost and sell them as ear rings for punk rockers.

What if you used diet Pepsi?

I thought the plain blue looked a little dull so I decided to play around with the voltage (went too high with the stakes at the bottom of the image, which is why they turned silver at the hook) and ended up really liking the rainbow effect.

It'll really stand out in/on the ground.

I think diet Pepsi would work just fine as well. Just need a very weak acid, and I believe the citric acid or whatever in diet Coke/Pepsi works well.

@ Roger: your snow stakes would look awesome if you did it, you could make it look like a real rainbow since it's flat/bent.

"citric acid or whatever"

phosphoric acid

–B.G.–

Ah, yes, diet coke has both. But as you said, its the phosphoric acid that does it, thanks BG!

Here's a good chart showing the voltage/color differences between using diet coke and sulfuric acid. I'll have to try using sulfuric acid next time. Probably have some lying around the lab somewhere.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobden/bob_titanium.html

This is beyond geeky…love it :-)

"I'll have to try using sulfuric acid next time. Probably have some lying around the lab somewhere."

Some industrial supply houses sell automotive battery acid that is premixed and ready to use.

As with all use of sulfuric acid, safety is pretty important.

–B.G.–

You can do funky things to your titanium using a Pocket Rocket. I turned my Snow Peak fry pan into a real Peter Max tie-dye collector's item. Just brush the flame over it carefully, and you can fine tune the design until it suits your fancy.

Edit–some people remember how to spell sulfuric acid, some don't. My editor, -B.G.-, will be along shortly…

But playing with dangerous chemicals is half the fun!!

An-D those look awesome. Sorry my chart was a bit off, but I'll try and update the post with the more accurate one you mention. So great to see this is action so soon after sharing it. What's next…?

Looking at the stakes and what BG did at his blog I wonder if I could turn this Ti cup: http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16625&category_id=283 into
purple to make it look PURPLE like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Peak-Titanium-Single-Cookware/dp/B000ODVJ3K

What voltage would i need to get Purple color?
Thanks!

@ Velimir:

To get that purple, I believe about 70-75 volts is needed (maybe a couple more). You can refer to the chart on this page: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobden/bob_titanium.html

The purple on the hook end of my stakes were at about 70 volts.
Work your way up from 65-70 up to 75 or until you see your desired color, as you can always increase the oxidation layer, but can't go backwards (unless you physically sand the layer off)

I found that to be fairly accurate when I did mine. Remember though, if using diet coke, your results will be more like the bottom chart, a little muddled. If you're able, make a 1ml/L sulfuric acid solution as that'll give you clear color separation. Also, with such a large surface area, you'll need to dip for longer, probably.

You can also use the brushing method, where you clamp the + (red) end to the cup and the negative to the foam part of the foam brush and set your voltage and dip the brush into diet coke/acid and "paint" it on to the cup.

Like this: http://imgur.com/a/H1yhi

@ AN-D thanks for your effort to clear it up for me! Hopefully
electrician at the office will not give me that are you crazy look
when I ask him for help turning the cup purple.

Thanks again,
Cheers

Hate to resurrect an old thread, but I was wondering if there were any people/places that did this for you? The shade of green I wanted was getting near 120V, and I'd rather not mess with that level of electricity.