I want to get my black Midge bars shiny silver, so I'm trying to get the anodizing off. Mr Muscle appears to have started the job, but its not making very good progress. Any suggestions?

Hard anodize is really tough to remove. Its designed to resist chemical attack so you'll struggle with anything over the counter. Also if you do remove it the base metal bars will start to oxidize and will also leave black deposits on your hands unless you get them laquered.

you can fatigue metal by applying chemicals like that – I don't think its a very good idea on a part like a handlebar……..

Try some neat 'traffic film remover', if you can get some. Places that have jet washes should have it but your local supermarket petrol station probably won't let you have any! Small local garages might though.

(I wouldn't use it on bars either cos I saw what happened to a blue Middleburn chainring I had)

I've heard of lots of people doing it using oven cleaner (caustic soda) with no ill-efects.
Mr Muscle doesn't actually say on the can that it has caustic soda in it.

anyway, anodizing is a surface treatment to harden the aluminium and aslong as its polished up (ie remove any scratches), removing it won't affect the material properties.

yip- caustic soda crystal (drain cleaner) dissolved in some water took the ano clean off my cranks in a matter of moments. Make the solution nice and strong and you can tell it works as your parts fizz and bubble… Cannot comment on any damage to the base material but it works…

anyway, anodizing is a surface treatment to harden the aluminium and aslong as its polished up (ie remove any scratches), removing it won't affect the material properties.

So you'll also know that anodizing penetrates the surface of the aluminium by up to 0.002" so by removing it you can't not effect the material properties however slight. Lots of back street chemistry going on here. Get in touch with a treatments house if you want a job doing properly.

Used caustic soada in the past to remove aluminium seatposts seized in steel frames. The seatpost completely dissolved.

Think about that before introducing caustic soda to your handlebars…

I remember removing the paint off,of my Yamaha 250LC front brake caliper with caustic soda when was a young un.
Lots of caustic soda + water in a goldfish bowl, add brake caliper, come back in twenty minutes and no caliper to be found, completely dissolved it!!
Beware!!

ir_bandito
[quote]anyway, anodizing is a surface treatment to harden the aluminium and aslong as its polished up (ie remove any scratches), removing it won't affect the material properties.[/quote]

Not correct, no idea where you got that from. RaveyDavey is right, it's not a surface treatment (like paint) but a controlled corrosion process…. and hardening, while it may be a side effect, is not the main aim of anodising(edit/ I take that back having just looked it up, surface hardness is increased, but only in such a way as to increase wear resistance), it's a corrosion resistant aesthetic finish, not a hardening process.

Take care, I would not be attacking aluminium parts with chemicals especially something like a handlebar. As suggested, go to a finisher for advice or leave well alone

but it's clear that

a/ you're doing it on the cheap, and
b/ you've already started

so frankly you're on your own, sorry but I think you already ruined your h-bars.

Ouch thanks for the heads up.

I was going to polish up some cranks. Will use a scourer then metal polish and good ol elbow grease.

A mate who basically anodises for huge international companies suggested caustic. Couldn't see an issue. From experience I know you need to work in seconds not minutes.

cheers Matt, that what I thought.
If you all read my original post, I've been using a foaming oven cleaner which is very diluted caustic (and not bl00dy working)
I'm going to dip the bars in caustic soda for a few seconds, rinse off, and do it again until the black comes off.

Raveydavey – removing 0.002" of an inch will reduce the sectional properties of the bar by, erm, bugger all to use the engineering term. Think about it, 25.4mm bar – 0.002" WT = 25.2984mm new OD. E reduction in second moment of area of approx 1.6%
Given this bike is being built for riding mainly on the road, and I'm 12st, I'm not worried.

Bunch of bleedin' naysayers. Wish I'd not bothered.

All the bmx boys over at Radbmx.com recommend "Oven Pride" as the annodising remover of choice.

Saw the finished product on your other thread. What did you polish it up with? And I presume you only bothered with the exposed section?!

I stripped some cranks very easily with Mr Muscle, but that failed when I tried to do my brake hope lever blades (ended up filing / sanding those). For polish I've used some stuff designed for saucepans etc but it's not been very good.