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.
I have an experiment at work that is generating gaseous hydroflouric acid at 800 degrees F. It's inside a triple containment system that takes a full day to set up and take apart, and we have all sorts of quality checks to validate that it is safe to access and has been fully titrated after the experiment has run. We accidentally ruined a very expensive ion chromatography machine a few weeks ago... Acid gasses are just no fun to work with.
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.
You really can't fully disassemble current macbooks and put them back together without major tooling - the chassis is not just a wrapper, it's structural to the way they're interconnected, lots of glue and things like that.
This made me smile because in my book this is at every effect impossible, especially if the goal is getting a functioning laptop at the end of the process.
To be clear, it's impossible for me because I lack the knowledge, expertise and tooling to even think about doing it.
Depending on the field you want to gain knowledge it can mean: “famous last words” or “missing body parts”.
Nothing against the spirit of learning and challenge one’s skills. But especially people on YouTube show of quite dangerous things and sell them as everybody can do it. My list here:
Metal / Wood work on a lathe with off center or unbalanced pieces in a 3 jaw chuck.
Playing around with lithium batteries to build bigger battery packs (DYI Perks did this and even though he mentions the dangers of doing that (fire or electric shock) it’s still inspires people to do the same in their living rooms.
Then is playing with chemicals.
Again I’m not saying don’t do it. But one should ease into things not just grab a random set of chemicals and disassemble a laptop and hook up a power supply etc by just following a list from the internet.
Well, it's impossible to me given my natural born level of habilites with this kind of work, and the time I would need to invest to learn how to do it properly. Because it's not just a matter of buying some device and do it, you need to learn by trial and error, add more and more physical tools to your toolbox, have the dedicated space where to store and try all of it safely etc etc
13 year old me who anodised remote control car chassis completely agrees the process is quite simple.
In the context of a MacBook, it’s not. Removing just the aluminium components and leaving everything that doesn’t like baths undamaged is practically impossible for amateurs. I’m not sure it’s something many professionals would take on.
I think it could be possible for the bottom half. The lid would be way, way trickier (unless you have one with a broken screen already and know how to put the new one together).
I’m wondering what custom colours you could do with that process btw!
Practically anything! Vibrant colours work best, and there are techniques to do transitions, fades, and masking to get multiple colours, though I’ve never done those myself.
> Why the dye? I thought anodising's colour comes only from the voltage used, with no dye needed.
That's true for anodization processes for some other metals like titanium and stainless steel, but aluminum is dyed. Also the process is material specific. Anodization for Al is only possible because Al does that unique self organizing micropore thing.
