How about a Orange Dry with a brown center :) Tutorial as well!!!

Anyone try using a fryer yet? Or maybe quenching in old motor oil? I’m just wondering if it would pick up carbon and have an effect on the final finish. Just a thought.

Also, has anyone figured out a way to keep some parts very cool while heating others, to achieve a more distinctive difference than the regular fade?

These look awesome. I’m still waiting on my first project or two to arrive, so I’m looking around to see what I can do to make it “my own.”

I harbour the belief that body builders putty may allow the destinct design. It’s a putty used to control heat to prevent panel distortion whilst welding. I’ve just not got hold of some to try it yet, or know how to use it - internal or external.

I was thinking of a clay, like the ones some swordmakers use when going for a differential tempering on the blade (think of the jagged appearance of a katana blade). I don’t know if it’s the same type of stuff, but I know that a good, high-temperature clay can be made just from kitty litter.

I forget what the clay is called, but it’s used in most litters, and is the only ingredient in the really cheap litters. Just grind it up really well, mix with water, and apply. Some people use it to make their first forge. I really think it has potential. If I had a bag o’ lights, I’d be willing to be the guinea pig. As it stands, however, I’m still waiting for my first ones to arrive.

PS: Here’s an image of the type of blade I was talking about.

It sounds like similar stuff, as I understand this putty, it acts almost like a fire break, trapping the heat, but I need to look into it. There’s a well known British body repair suppliers named frost, I believe they keep this stuff in.

This is the stuff, £40 is a bit steep, I’ll have to read up on it.

The problem is (as I see it) that aluminum is a good heat sink. It takes heat well and spreads it to the entire piece. While I don’t doubt it’s possible, I’m thinking it will take some combination of methods; and it will have to be pretty precise. Some kind of heat-trapping agent, a method to heat quickly, and a method to cool very quickly. If it was steel I could tell you exactly how to do it, but I am totally ignorant of working with aluminum.

Then again, maybe I’m wrong and we’re on the right track with the putty or clay routine. I think the key would be if someone can figure out the exact temperature at which the anodizing begins to change color. Then all we have to do is come up with a method for heating certain sections to that temperature (and no more) while keeping the rest of it cool — again, a balancing act. Is anyone capable of measuring the temperature of the piece while it’s being heated?

ETA: Anyone have one of those cool touch soldering irons? I’ll bet that it would work at least for creating a camo pattern…probably.

ETA (again): Or I nearly forgot about this: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/367095-resistance-no-resistance-wire-welder.html Rather than using it to join wires, it could just blast an arc through a small piece of aluminum, quite possibly getting the anodizing hot enough to have the desired effect. May be controllable, to an extent. Again, at least probably good enough for a camo pattern.

ETA (final, I think): Has anyone tried brushing their light with a regular soldering iron? I would think it’s hot enough to change the color, at least if you move back and forth or stay on one spot. I would think the pattern would be more controllable than an open flame or oven.

Ops, why did I read this post? A c8 is heating now…

Boris, the clay used in kitty litter is kaolin (also the active ingredient for Kaopectate), which comes from the coastal plain states in the SE United States among other places. A technique many have used in place of the oven is to use a gas torch to selectively heat parts of the light.

My first thought. Who thought up this "Baking Lights"

What a crazy idea ........ BUT ....... the results are simply amazing.

Those are BEAUTIFUL. The color is very different, variations are very unique.

Please keep "Pushing the Envelope" and post more pics.

On the kitty litter - it’s bentonite clay that I was thinking of. At least, that’s what it used to be made of. However, a rudimentary search does show that kaolin is the basis for kaowool, which is used as a liner for industrial forges, home propane forges, and some wood-burning stoves and the like. The basic recipe for a clay forge liner is kitty litter + sand for a mix that withstands forge-welding temperatures (above 2k F). Again, my own experience/research is centered on steel, not aluminum. So that may be a bit extreme, and it may not actually help to draw heat out. In fact, the sword clay method is used to quench the steel. The clay insulates the section of steel it’s applied to, slowing the cooling, which creates a harder steel. For a blade like the katana up there, you would apply the clay everywhere except the edge of the blade, heat, then quench. It makes for a softer spine (more strength) and a harder blade (stays sharper, longer).

On the selective heating — when you use a torch, you get a fade between the heated and non-heated sections, and the difference is often barely noticeable at all. It’s caused both by aluminum’s heat-dispersing, the torch’s inability to produce precise heat, and probably the user’s inability to hold a perfectly steady hand. Ideally, I would like a crisp line between some shade of orange and black. It may not be possible because the aluminum is so good at spreading the heat around, but I think there’s got to be some way. That method may prove to be impractical because of cost or labor required, but I may want to give it a go anyhow.

One more thought - take a cord (maybe cotton or even paracord) and wrap a section of the tube with that; just one wrap. Then either pull each end independently (in turn), making it spin around the tube back and forth at that point, or make it a loop and connect it to some kind of motor for hands-free spinning. Some people use a similar method for cutting glass. You can heat up one line on the glass then dunk it in cold water and it will break apart on its own. Doing this may heat the surface (the anodized surface) but not produce enough “heat volume” for it to spread very far.

I promise I’m willing to try any and all of these crazy methods as soon as I get my first delivery. I can see it now - I’ll have the first realtree camo light, completely by variations in experiments. :bigsmile: And I hate realtree camp. That, and John Deer seem to be on everything out here…

ETA: Found a really old thread on a paintballers website that discusses baking anodizing at great length. I skipped reading most of it, being comprised of asininity and general juvenile behavior. Apparently, it was a big fad about 5 or 6 years ago, and there was a lot of experimenting. Here’s what I gleaned:

Because paintball gun parts are much thicker, they took a lot more time in the oven. The results vary based on who did the anodizing, and the color of it. Seems a bit unpredictable, except that everything gets lighter. Basically, you’re burning the organic compounds in the dye (what gives anodizing color). They learned a few ways to make patterns…including stupid stuff. The best results I found (supported by some of the very few pictures that exist in the thread) were from Sharpie markers — black works great, but dark blue is better. Apparently other colors work too, to a lesser degree. I also read that someone used an o-ring lube common for paintballers (dow 55), and even mustard with some results (however, no pictures). You draw the design on, bake, then clean off the Sharpie (or lube, or mustard) and your pattern will be there. There is also some kind of controversy about baking weakening the anodizing (specifically, tiny cracks), or the aluminum itself (slight change in size). The science looks reasonable, but ultimately, there was zero evidence of any negative effects. The negative effects would theoretically be increased by repeated hot-cold cycles. A slow cool also seems to be favored to reduce the chances of such effects. I’m still thumbing through a massive thread but thought I’d post this in case anyone wants to give it a go before I learn more. Oh, and here is the single before/after shot of a Sharpie’d barrel (hard to see especially in before because of small size):

Before:

After (note - all those smudges were his deliberate design):

And here’s the original thread: "bake" your marker, steps and tip's thread

Justin, if you quench it enough times it will get brittle... if you heat it in given areas too many times & quench it there is a liklihood of some warping. Just heating and slow cooling will soften the aluminum. Anneal it if you will. This is all however gradual under most circumstances and other than the warping if it should occur quite negligible.

Dan.

just the middle of it actually :slight_smile: but i like so much that i will surely do more
did it on gas stove in less two minutes :slight_smile: taking it apart takes longer than that

I used an oxy propane micro torch on Dales m10, and cooled it in a puddle between sections. It was much much quicker than the blow lamp (much more concentrated heat available) but still not quite what I’m after. That putty I linked is intended to control welding heat for steel, as I say, it may or may not work, and at £40 a tub, I’m not rushing to try it, I have an idea oxy acetelene may work better (more heat available) but it still won’t give the tight effect I’d like to achieve. You also need a host with mass, a c8 would go gold very very quickly under oxy acet.

…and I kinda regret it. That color is fantastic and I would love to have the whole bezel that color. The Sharpie may have worked, but it just looks like I drew on it with a Sharpie. I cleaned it afterward with alcohol, hot water and soap, and then some very high-grit sandpaper. I should have stopped before the sandpaper, or gone the distance with it. The result, again, looks like a faded Sharpie drawing. Pardon the shoddy photography. Decent enough camera, with no macro setting I can find.

Final thoughts on the Sharpie: I’m not sure whether it’s supposed to be the oil in the Sharpie ink, or the actual dye (again, baking supposedly just burns the natural dyes in the anodizing). If you’re going to do it, do what I didn’t. Use single, bold strokes. Monitor the heat — pull it out when you want it and toss it in some cool water; it may help the parts you want uncooked remain that way.

I may continue sanding it, in hopes of removing the Sharpie. Or I may just go over the Sharpie again. Maybe even boil it or something afterward (I believe that’s the last step in anodizing, so it may set the dye?). Just spitballing.

Update: I just spent a lot of time with a fair amount of acetone. Acetone is supposed to be the single best solution to removing Sharpie (something about polarity). It didn’t phase it one bit. So I’m convinced the Sharpie works for crisp lines; I just did some horrible artwork on mine. Also, it doesn’t totally prevent the color change (hence the diluted look), it just slows it a bit (or, again, ingrains the ink so deep that it won’t go away). I read that blue Sharpie is supposed to be best, so my next try will be with a blue one (used black this time) and I will try to mask my design using either some kind of tape, or plasti-dip or something else. Then stencil on the Sharpie (as evenly as possible), remove mask, and bake. Suppose I’ll do the body that way, once I get hold of a blue Sharpie (and come up with a better permanent design!).

Here is my latest result from fire, it took about 5 minutes. Compared to the previous FandyFire C8, which was above fire almost two hours, I put these two directly into flames, heads down and they changed color only slightly. Probably too high temperature changes the structure (?) of anodising and then “in the speed” will not change color so much. On Convoy M2 remained head little as if annealed. UltraFire WF-602C has smooth transition between colors. Sorry for bad english :wink:


nice job, I dont think the fire can get that heavy head hot enough tbh, as I say, I use oxy propane to flame lights now, it allows me to stripe them if I have a bucket of water available - intense concentrated heat. The difference in colour is down to the difference in mass between head and body tube. I flame the head till the colour starts to shift then move up to the tube and tailcap.

I do like the tan inside the fins under the black of the head though, thats very cool. 8)

So the difference in weight? I had no idea, but apparently it’s true. Thanks for clarification. I’ll try to finish Convoy’s head. :slight_smile:

weight is the wrong term, my bad on that…

its mass, the same mass that’s good for soaking up the heat of a well driven emitter is bad for changing anodized colours, you need to put more heat in to get it up to the temperature required for a colour shift in the anodization, that’s why the body tube went gold whilst the head stayed pretty black.

I would. perhaps get another host, keep the head but lightly heat the tube to give a dark copper light, then really heat the new head to turn it goldish to match your current body tube. :slight_smile:

It’s just about time for this thread to be resurrected I think, especially since my latest effort was inspired by accidentally stumbling upon it again:

L2T body with a [baked] L2T head (+ B3 bezel) and a [baked] S11 tailcap/switch.

Sacrilegious? Perhaps. Fun? Definitely.

It took me almost two years, but here it is: