carving the centri

Couple months ago I posted about carving up my Centri and Halo. Some things came up and I never had time until now. Carving/Engraving is somewhat like tattooing in that there are no mistakes and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
So, first order of business is stripping the Centri of its anodizing. Mike, the inventor of the Centri said that this anodizing was a harder anodizing and would be a little more difficult to remove. Looking at it, im guessing a type 2 anodizing. Some people here suggested easy off oven cleaner or lye which is what pro anodizing shops use. Well, I found out(from online forum so may not be correct) that easy off contains about 5% sodium hydroxide which is in fact lye. I dont know if that is a high enough percentage to strip type 2 anodizing. I found out that drain cleaners contain over 90% sodium hydroxide(the percentages i got from online and may not be correct). I had some drano laying around the house so decided to test it.
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This is the stuff I used to do this. Wire was so I can handle the parts. Drano/Lye/Sodium Hydroxide is nasty stuff and you dont want to get it on your skin.
Just got a container of water and put some drano in. Wasnt precise or anything. Shook the parts around a little and the water started turning black. Took about 5 minutes for the parts to turn into a smoky color.

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Took a tooth brush to it in a 5 gal bucket of water and the rest of the ano came off like nothing. Here it is, stripped of the ano except for some parts around the binding post which had residue of superglue.
Sketched an idea for the carving then brought it into photoshop to mirror it. The final carving/engraving will look close to this with subtle changes. Plan to do some carving within a couple days.I'll keep you posted.

I can't wait to see that finished, that is going to be awesome if you can pull it off.

Quite ambitious, can't wait to see the results. Thanks for sharing.

Ditto, this looks wicked cool, and great research and info about stripping the anno off. That will come in helpful for many people.

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Originally Posted by peezie

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Took a tooth brush to it in a 5 gal bucket of water and the rest of the ano came off like nothing. Here it is, stripped of the ano except for some parts around the binding post which had residue of superglue.
Sketched an idea for the carving then brought it into photoshop to mirror it. The final carving/engraving will look close to this with subtle changes. Plan to do some carving within a couple days.I'll keep you posted.

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fucking wow, cant wait to see it

That's going to be some intricate carving! Will it wrap over the sides at all or just on the top? I carved the hell out of mine but still have a lot of detail left...http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/29/y8uta4ej.jpg

Must be mod your Centri month. Did this to one last night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kh1xpavAg8

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Originally Posted by Cyberitual

Must be mod your Centri month. Did this to one last night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kh1xpavAg8

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Bad ass bro!

I appreciate the feedback and interest guys. Sage, I will be covering the whole machine from front, back, side to side. That carving looks cool as heck. I used dremels to carve my stuff when I first started carving back in 03. Those splintery burrs from using a dremel on aluminum are killer.
Mike, that light mod looks dope bro. Can't wait till the Centri 2.

Yeah, aluminum is not fun to carve with all those splinters! I actually did mine so far with only hand files. The first grind was I had a WTF was I thinking! moment but it was lots of fun. I used a sharpie at first and made the starting cuts with a small triangle file on edge followed by a 1/4" round and a few small round and oval files. I'll break out a dremel for the details, and keep the green until I can get it nicely anodized(probably deep purple). I shaved quite a bit off, it's like 110grams now with a needlebar tensioner (which took some time to dial but is awesome for this machine...I hope the new one will have them, I'm really excited to see how Centri has evolved! :)

Mike had photos he put up of an under side needle tensioner for the original centri. Maybe he will make and sell those.

There is a safer way to get rid of anodizing. Wash the part real good and hit with the torch once the aluminum hats up it's cool down and revert right back to straight medal with no coloring.

Thats how i remove mine no harsh chemicals.


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I am pretty interested in this project, I would really like to see other carvings you have done too.. Not to mention maybe some insight as to what tools you use.

I used dremel tool a metal round bit

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Thanks for posting this, looking forward to seeing more.

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Originally Posted by punisher

Attachment 17940 carving



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Photo doesn't show up for me.

Cool! How would you go about re coloring it though... Isn't anodizing like a tough process using current and stuff? Also, any possible damage to the aluminum itself from the Drano? Any neutralizer needed?

I would love to change the color of some with out painting or costing me an arm and a leg!

Hey Flatline, pro ano shops use lye to strip aluminum and to prep. Lye=Sodium Hydroxide=90% of drain cleaner(drano or red devil). Leaving it in there can corrode the aluminum so you must keep an eye on it. Can't just dunk and walk away. Took me 5 min to strip my centri completely even. Colored ano is easier to strip and you can use easy off oven cleaner which has 5% lye or even use paint stripper. Type 2 or type 3(only comes in black btw) anodizing would probably need the stronger concentrated lye. Reanodizing would cost a lot for a 1 off. Cheaper to go to a local anodizing shop.

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Started the engraving this past weekend. Been 4 years since I engraved anything. I shouldve did a practice plate first. Hands kinda shaky a bit. Overall though the engraving almost looks like a mirror image lol. Watcha guys think? Hands are hurting and this took me 5 hours. Printed the sketch on a transparency then traced it onto the machine. Didn't get to do the top of the design as it was taking to long. Ran over it with some scotch bright afterwards. You can see the details in the crosshatched shading. Took me forever to learn that. Really fine details. Hope you guys like it.

Actually, looking at the pics, can barely make out the crosshatched shading. It's there though lol.

Awesome brotha. good job, although the right hand side machine looks like if the engraving was photoshoped...is it me or you mocked it up on purpose?
Can't wait to se it finished.

Officially have started engraving today. First cuts done on the back and sides. No shading or background removal. Real pics, no photoshop on this.
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Im really digging where this is going bro. Can't wait to see it finished.
PS: My eye is sharp if I'm wearing contacts or glasses :) ;)

Looking sweet!

Found this pic on my phone today. This project was put on the back burner a while back. Thought I should update the status of this project at least. Needs more engraving and then more relief. After that, some sculpting to finish everything off. Was gonna do the whole frame but decided not too. Frame is real thin all around which does not make a good canvas for sculpting. Derailed from the original sketch a bit as the layout on the front is not really flat so it was difficult to match up the original design to the frame. Plan to finish the whole back when I get some time.

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