SpeedRanger

Has anyone here ever designed and CNC machined their own custom bike parts?
How did it turn out? Was it worth the effort? I am also interested to hear if anyone has tried anodizing at home.

fietsbob

Paul Components sells fine CNC produced parts https://www.paulcomp.com/

base2 

I've de-anodized plenty. 6oz per gallon ratio of food grade soaping lye/water. Soak the part 3 minutes & scrub. 50/50 it comes out beautiful with no further work required. Brambleberry soap supply in Bellingham, Washington comes to mind for food grade lye.

I've also anodized plenty, at home too. Chromium Phosphate (orange/champagne/gold/silver depending on strength & soak time) is readily available online or your local chemical warehouse. Henkel (of Loc-tite fame) sells it under the brand name Bond‐rite. Your local aviation maintenance supplier may have it on hand under Alodine 600, 1000, 1200...1200 being the strongest producing an orange in seconds that only gets darker with further exposure. 600 is weakest remaining silver or gold tinge, not quite champagne after a minute or more.

I prefer to deanodize, sand with high grit silicon dioxide wet/dry paper & polish with Mothers Aluminum & Magnesium polish obtained from the local Shucks/Checker/Kragen/O'reilly Autoparts...but, that's just me.
Polished Chaimring by Richard Mozzarella, on Flickr

Word to the wise: Some parts are either roto-peened or shot-peened. Peening is a process by which the surface is compressed by some measure with steel shot. Often 10/1000 inch or more. A part under compression will not crack. This is done for component longevity against fatigue. If you discover a part has been peened, do not, DO NOT smooth it out. You would be destroying the surface treatment that makes it a safe component. On the plus side, it's been my experience peened parts are a super shiney sandy texture after a 3 minute lye/water soak & usually require no further work beyond a carnuba wax application.

Germany_chris

I think someone could make a decent side business out of de-anodizing there are so many cool parts black or grey.

burnthesheep

I've not done CNC, but I have done stuff "almost by hand". You can cut alum with a normal miter saw with the correct blade.

I have an original Felt DA "superbike" for TT. I hated the original "spline stem" setup. It limited how low you could get your stack and you couldn't run an aero stem or more integrated bar/stem setup.

So, I bought some common size bar stock then cut a little block of alum to replace the spline assembly. Basically just drilled some holes for the bolts then bolted that down the same way but have a solid alum round stock on it to accept a normal stem now. That's connected with a massive high grade bolt and pinned.

Idea thanks to the UK TT forums legends.

unterhausen

I have made lights, if that counts.

I considered taking up anodizing. It's not that expensive. The issue for me was I didn't want to be in the hazardous waste disposal business. I know someone that does it, it's not that difficult other than the potential for acid burns.

base2 

I agree. Finding parts that aren't black has become quite the challenge in recent years. I can see why the manufacturers do it. Black hides poor surface texture from cost conscious manufacture that bright silver or polish accentuates. Simply put it's less work to make a black component.

I think the labor of reworking parts to be acceptable quality in either silver or polished would eat all the profits more than the waste disposal.

Sure would be nice though.