P3D Re: Thank God for Olympus XA Twin Rig

[George Gioumousis <georggms@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Boris Starosta wrote
> 
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> 
> It's going to be a beautiful rig!  Mounted base to base, the two cameras
> will form a lovely, symmetrical 4 x 5.5 inch black "square."  I expect it
> to be very stylish.  Hmmm, now where can I get my aluminum bracket black
> anodized?
> 
The Yellow Pages is a good place to start.

However, it does not take too much equipment for do-it-yourself
anodizing. I vaguely remember a setup from my high school
Industrial Chemistry course. [However, I didn't get to do
that; my lab partner wanted to make cold cream for his girl
friend instead.] It takes a low voltage DC source (say an auto
battery charger) and, I think, a dilute salt solution. 
The aluminum goes to the anode, of course, while a carbon
electrode from a D-cell (or a scrap of metal) is the cathode.
This is allowed to run for a while (30 min, hour?). Then 
the aluminum is dipped in a strong solution of a black
household dye (Rit, most likely) for quite a while (hour?).
Finally, the aluminum is boiled in a strong salt solution
to seal the aluminum oxide.

All in all, might be simpler to have it done, but if you want
to play, I could look up a recipe. Right now I have to go back
to grading finals, alas.


                           Fallen                Fallen
George Gioumousis           /---\        |       /---\ 
                             o o         |       o o  
georggms@xxxxxxxxxx           |          |         |   
(650) 494-6276              \===/        |       \===/ 
                          Chemist               Chemist  


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