Comment by compounding_it
12 hours ago
I’d suggest if you are going to do this to your MacBooks to get the silver one. The silver one is actually aluminum and no one would notice.
12 hours ago
I’d suggest if you are going to do this to your MacBooks to get the silver one. The silver one is actually aluminum and no one would notice.
I’d actually be interested to see it on a black one. It might look like “brassing” on an old, well used camera.
Whilst I like that it increases the “tooliness” of the Mac it’s not of me I think.
I like mine pristine. ”There are many like it but this one is mine”, yada, yada.
“Many like it there are. Mine this one is”, Yoda, Yoda.
Worn anodizing on aluminium doesn't look anywhere as good as brass under lacquer.
They’re all actually aluminum, anodized to the color you choose. The silver one is the only one not anodized.
Filing off the anodized layer is indeed bound to look awful.
Not to well actually your well actually but they’re all anodized to prevent corrosion and scratches (the oxide layer is harder than the underlying aluminum) - the silver one is just undyed.
And in the pictures you can see a clear color difference between the anodized silver body and the exposed aluminum. It's subtle from a distance, but if you zoom in a bit its pretty obvious
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Well actually, your not well actually to the well actually was actually a well actually of the well actually. Just sayin’.
What tools are needed to redo the anodized color? Is it doable at home?
You have to grind off the existing Al2O3 protective layer using sandpapers/sandblasters and/or power tools, then ultrasound + acetone wash the parts, then dump it into an acid bath while running electrical current through the pieces. Special dyes can be added for color. Then the pieces are boiled in regular water to further improve durability. The combination of the acid and electricity then boiling cause Al to form beehive shaped surface micropores, and dyes - actually inorganic, so pigments - gets electrically jammed into the pores. The whole outer surface become thick insulating layer of highly chemically resistant and mechanically rigid white/transparent Al2O3 once the process is complete. Voltage, current, waveform, temperature, solution acidity, etc etc affect colors and oxide thickness and shapes and sizes therefore aesthetics as well as durability. "Anodization" refers to this process of electro-acidic-heat formation of the oxide layer, not the coloring. The coloring powder is an extra.
Technically it can be done in a garage, but spot and/or intact application might be difficult. Strict color matching against Apple made things would be impossible.
How comfortable are you working with chromic acid and boric-sulfuric acid in your home?
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Yes it’s doable at home, even with fairly primitive tools. You need several chemicals and (if you wish) colored dye.
Anodizing works as follows:
1. Take the MacBook apart
2. Clean it
3. Chemical bath to remove old anodized layer
4. Clean it again
5. Chemical bath with power supply attached. applied voltage+current and duration will determine hardness and thickness of the anodized layer.
6. Clean it
7. Dye it.
8. Seal the dye in a hot water bath.
It’s fairly straight forward to do.
12 replies →
To echo the sibling comment: approximately not, it's a strong acid bath which precludes operating electronics in it, and it's electrochemistry.
People do home anodizing all the time, but colored home anodizing on electronics is very rare.
The way to do it would be wrapping it in, say, a wet paper towel with your strong acid solution (but not sulfuric, because that would turn the paper into pure carbon foam) and running outside current from the laptop through the paper to a cathode, or vice versa.
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