Stripping paint from an aluminium frame, not so eay it seems…all commerail dippers refuse to help as their acid attacks aluminium. Does anyone know of a firm that can do it? Or something I can use to do it?

sand blasting?

youd be wanting and sandblaster

not uncommon, i know of a friend with one, and i know of a MTBer who had an alu frame commerically stripped with one for not an unreasonable price.

you could probably rent one!
its only a compresser, the gun attatchement, and a bucket of sand, iirc

not sure thats clever, as the fram is butted etc, plus the faces for bearings etc could be damaged I think..but I have no Proof. It depends on the hardness of the alloy used in the frame construction, I suppose

Basic grit blasting shouldnt be an issue assuming its done fairly carefully. By its nature alu is very reactive so any paint stripper is bound to react with it – take your choice – paint stripper damaging the surface or grit blasting damaging the surface…

blank off the faces with an Old BB, headset and some brake caliper bolts?

no harsher than sanding if your careful?

how about a drill and a wirebrush of debatable stiffness?

Used to have lots of engineering parts sand blasted, and it was down to you to plug up threads and tape over faces that wasnt to be blasted, if it was my frame I would want to be sure it was protected. Your right about the butting thing and its very thin might be best to just stick to hand stripping it.

Maybe you could protect the threads and faces, hand strip the tubes as theyre easy and just get the joints and welds blasted?

In the US they use walnut shells as they will remove the paint but not damage the metal. I reckon you’d have to be pretty ham-fisted with a sand blaster to go through an alloy bike frame, butted or not.

Just use nitromoors, might take an hour or two but it won’t cost much and i’ve used it with no (apparent) ill effects.

Linky Nitomors Technical Datasheets

I’ve used Nitromors general purpose (the green can) to strip my 5spot. Its a dechloromethane and methanol mix, which is fine on aluminium. If you apply it properly, you’ll need nothing more than a stiff paintbrush to completely remove the old paint. Most people on here seem to apply it too thinly and then end up wire-brushing their frames – this is even more messy, time -consuming and un-necessary. Just apply more nitromors and let the stripper do the work. Thats what its there for.

DIY blasting courtesy of Aldi this weekend!

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2867_8917.htm

I’ve also used nitromors quite successfully on an old frame. Although I daubed it on and left on as per instructions the process required about 3 applications and some gentle rubbing with a wire pad over most of the frame. A couple of bits required further elbow grease with the wire pad.

And if you’re using Nitromors, do it outside and don’t get it on your skin! The stuff is very bad for you…
Don’t flush it down the drain either.

cheers guys, Nitromors it is then. I love that science officer gave me the organic chemical componenets too. I will expect 2D model, showing valencies and activation energy thresholds next time!

Thanks again everyone!!!

Sorry.

Must do better next time. 🙂