Home Anodizing Set-up

[TomG]

Yes Bill, the thought had occurred to me that I may have misnamed the thread, although it is "my" home anodizing set-up. Once the bench is finished, I'll concentrate more on the process, which is pretty basic and can be done with nothing more than a few hot plates and some stainless stock pots.

Tom

[Mayhem]

Don't you listen to Bill - if it is worth doing it is worth doing at a semi industrial level

Wiring looks good Tom and this is where a variac comes in handy, along with an ammeter. That will find those shorts at low voltage before you release the smoke geni

[TomG]

Good idea Darren, I believe I have a Variac around somewhere. It's probably 110V, but I guess that would be ok for testing purposes. I'm pretty sure it is fused as well which is another good thing.

Tom

[Mayhem]

I do have my moments Tom

What supply does your control box require? Either way you should see shorts as a high current draw at low voltages.

One problem I have noticed in the US is the lack of switches on power outlets, so in a lot of situations you guys are "hot patching" whenever you plug in. If there is no power isolation switch on the box (which I am guessing there is) you should wire up an in-line switch. In fact, it never hurts to have one with a braker just for testing.

A mill or a lathe may take a finger but power will take everything given half a chance.

[TomG]

Darren,

The heaters each require 220VAC at 8.7A and as many as four of them will be running at any one time. I've split off 110VAC inside the controller box to power the PID temperature controllers, air pump and the power supply. The temp controllers and air pump are switched, the power supply is not but it has it's own power switch. Everything is thoroughly grounded, including all of the tanks through the immersion heaters. I don't like surprises.

Tom

[Bill Gruby]

I didn't say anything against it and yes it is your set up. Didn't mean to raise a ruckus. Won't happen again. Your plates are finally in the mail.

"Billy G"

[TomG]

(04-15-2013, 10:32 AM)Bill Gruby Wrote: I didn't say anything against it and yes it is your set up. Didn't mean to raise a ruckus. Won't happen again. Your plates are finally in the mail.

"Billy G"

You didn't raise a ruckus, I was agreeing with you. It would have been more obvious if spoken, but apparently not so much when written. Written posts are like that sometimes.

Thanks for the sending the plates. I haven't mentioned them for a while because I heard you had your hands full at home. Hope everything is going well.

Tom

[TomG]

Thanks for the Variac suggestion Darren. I hooked it up, substituting a light bulb for the ammeter and everything powered up and operated as planned. It's ready for a full power check, but not until I get water in the tanks to protect the heating elements in case of unplanned activation. Time to start pulling wire for the new outlet.

Tom

[Mayhem]

Greetings from Frankfurt airport!

Tom - good move, given the voltage and current draw of the heaters I would have first tested with them out of circuit as you did.

Bill - sorry for my tongue in cheek comment, which obviously didn't come across as intended.

[TomG]

This week was fairly productive. I managed to get the 50A line run without electrocuting myself and did some rewiring on the controller with minimal smoke. After some testing, I realized the solid state relay output of the controllers was only nine volts which wasn't enough to operate the LED indicators on the switches. Consequently I had to add a 12VDC supply and rewire the controlling side of the relays. Somewhere along the way, I had a brain fart and wired something up wrong. When I turned it on, all of the SSR's turned on even though the switches were off and when I turned the switches on, the SSR's turned off. After several hours of troubleshooting, I found the problem and corrected it, but when I turned it on, there was a loud pop and lots of smoke...never a good thing in electrical work. It turns out that all the jostling around loosened one of the 110V controller power wires and it nestled up against another 110V terminal and arced a bit. After I changed my underwear, I buttoned everything up and it all worked as planned so I filled up all the tanks with water and did a wet test. Tomorrow I'll mix up the chemicals and do a little anodizing.

Tom