Id really like to see more lights available in colored HA...even as a premium or limited edition.
For example Id love a Fenix LD20 in a military Olive Drab. Or Khaki Sand.
Black is okay but its like a default color and boring after a while, when all your lights are black!!!
Problem is that I would probably "bake" it to see what color it would change to.
I’ve been playing around with that tonight as well (baking lights).
The approach I like is to take the 3 separate parts (head, body, and Tail cap) and bake them one at a time to get a multi-color or multi-tone light.
You have the option of keeping the body black or slightly baked with the head and tail cap baked for differing times.
They change color quickly so for a deeper tone you have to check every couple of minutes including taking them out and looking at them under a bright light.
this is the color I want
http://www.amazon.com/Streamlight-51058-Buckmasters-Flashlight-Batteries/dp/B001T7M0VA
Yeah I like colors for the smaller lights (Fenix E01, etc.), but I'd also like to see some larger lights with different colors too.
I'd be all over it if someone put out a kelly green 2xAA light.
Love the colors you put up there and I would like to see more options offered. Seems like when you do, they are very expensive. Black is classic to me, and is really offset beautifully with a few Polished Stainless bling bits, such as the tailcap and bezel on the Solarforce M6. I am also very partial to Grey and Gun Metal. Again, just don't see enough offerings with a good HAIII finish.
Here are pics of a flashlight I anodized for my wife. Here favorite color is purple. I took apart the flashlight and soaked the pieces is a glass with about a tablespoon of lye to strip of the old anodize. Then anodized it with RIT brand dye that I got from the supermarket. Yes it works! and is hard and will NOT come off. I had to then re-strip it off the threads to have the electrical connection in the body.
nice work!
I couldn't agree with you more, esrevenge. I prefer everything in earth tones. Mrs. Cone says I'm boring. But what does she know? Earth tone are COOL!
Nice work with the dye. I have a light I’d like to try that on.
I’ve heard of RIT but don’t really recall seeing it. What is it’s intended purpose and what section of a grocery store would I find it in?
I only have two thumbs to stick up and the assistant doesn't have any so I'm afraid it's only two thumbs up for this.
It deserves more :bigsmile:
Laundry aisle.
It's for dyeing or re-dyeing of fabric.
Can you add some details on how? I understood (only from reading many articles on websites) that the aluminum has to be put into a Sulfuric acid or Sodium Bisulfate bath with dc voltage, to anozide the part before it goes into a bath of the RIT dye. Did you use that proceedure or another method?
Thanks
I second Old-Lumens' curiosity. I can strip off the old ano but how easy is it to apply new anodizing at home. My wife has already started telling my friends I'm "in his labratory" when they come over. That's the basement to by the way, I think she's taken that tone because I'm constantly running between the basement to the garage carrying various files, drills, multi-meters etc. when I'm in flashlight mode.
If I start walking through the kitchen with rubber gloves and apron carrying a flask of smoking liquid I may cross a line. (By the way, she doesn't know about my baking flashlights in her oven and I intend to keep it that way).
Please, do tell.
you aren't actually stripping off the anodizing you are just stripping the dye out of it is my understanding. Thus you can re-dye the part without having to anodize it again.
I have a light that is just “silver” so it looks like it’s just bare aluminum? Anyway I tried the RIT dye thing but nothing happened. Which is kind of what I expected.
You must be doing something more.
There are plenty of how to sites on the internet. I had to study a number of them to get the whole story.
The method is like a recipe, and there are some gotchas that will get in the way of success. For me it was
important to understand EXACTLY what is going on during the process. BTW, Aluminum is a very reactive metal (it oxidizes very easily), however the oxidizing layer is colorless and protects the base metal from oxidizing further. It is also very hard, infact many abrasives are
made of Aluminum oxide.
From reading and my experiance, this seems to be what needs to be done.
1 Clean the aluminum.
2. Anodize it (oxidize it)
3. Stain the oxidized layer.
4. Seal (with mild heat) the oxidized layer so that the stain will not wash out.
now the gotchas.
The aluminum needs to be perfectly clean otherwise the anodizing will not be uniform.
The anode must be central to the cathode otherwise the anodizing will not be uniform (i use an aluminum cylinder for the cathode)
The acid solution can not be allowed to warm up too much, otherwise the anodizing will get sealed before you can stain it
The anodized part needs to be re-cleaned before staining.
The staining needs to start at room temperature, after the right amount of staining has taken place, the dye solution needs to be slowly raised
to about 140F. This will start the sealing process.
Afterwards the part is removed and put in hot water (about 180F) to finish the sealing process.
The detailed process can be found online (Proper acid concentration, current flow, timing, etc.)
I use battery acid ($3.99 for 1 quart at AutoZone)
I had to use Bare aluminum wire to connect the anode, other metals corrode and corrupt the acid
I use a 2 amp car battery charger for the current.
I use RIT fabric dye ($1.66/packet at Walmart) Supermarkets have more colors, but charge a litlle more)
If all goes well, you will have a nicely colored, anodized part.
One other gotcha, When we are trying to re-anodize a flashlight body, there may still be a sealed anodized layer on the body after we remove
the old color. of course this will hinder the staining process.
Thank you very much. I knew it was an involved task using chemicals I don’t want to touch. I just needed to know there wasn’t an “easier way” that I had missed.
Your light looks great and thanks for sharing your findings on the subject.
Sulfuric Acid is the reason I never tried this before.
Yes, thanks for detailing all that is involved. I think it’s a cool process that I don’t want to touch as well 
does anyone have a recipe (as in how hot and how long) ? i've been wanting to try it for a while. thanks.