I know I saw people advising how to do this on the old forum but not being very searchable, not sure this has come up on this one.
I seem to recall baths of oven cleaner and wire wool / scotchbrite pads (and gloves) - is that a fair summary. Don't suppose PeterPoddy has written one of his excellent guides on this too?
sounds like a good excuse to buy a dremel!
take it to an anodising company, you'd be less likely to damage the metal finish that way.
Wet and dry plus elbow grease
dishwasher should sort it
yes. oven cleaner for anodizing.
also works well on black shot peened alloy components.
doesn't work on black cranks tho.
sulphuric acid..
Anodising companies use caustic soda to remove old anodising. So oven cleaner would work but are you sure they are anodised not painted? I had my painted cranks shot blasted, powder coated and lacquered.
Mr Muscle oven cleaner. Give it a good soaking, rub off with a pan scourer, (Repeat soak/rub until it's all gone) then polish with one of those soap-inpregnated Brillo pads. Takes a fair bit of scrubbing, but it looks fine afterwards, and you can polish it up anytime with a new Brillo pad
Took about 45 mins to do these LXs -
[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=yrzvun&outx=600&=1&nostamp=1 [/img]
Muc-off
I soaked my pedals in a bath of soda crystals + boiling water for 20 mins.
I use my heels. Works pretty well on the crank arms
I'm sorry, but Muc-off won't shift electromagnetic plating. Muc-off may tarnish the finish, but you need to use an abrasive with plenty of elbow grease. If you use a coarse grit emery or wet and dry, you will then have hours of rubbing down with progressive finer grades and polishes to restore the shine.
I reckon blast cleaning would work best. Walnut shell being the best abrasive for the task assuming the original finish was highly polished. Sand is way too coarse but bead would give a shotpeened finish.
Or sand by hand and get them powdercoated.
BTW, anyone know a blast cleaning company in the South East region that can do aluminium frames without trashing them?
Caustic Soda is the way to go. It cost about £2.00 for a 500g bottle from your local hardwear store. It comes in dry powder form. Fill the bucket three quarters full of cold water. Slowly mix in the power to the water and stir with a stick or cane. The water will heat up due to the chemical process taking place. Dont leave it in too long as it starts to work straight away. Works well if you tie a piece of string around the item to be stripped as it saves plunging your hand in to the bucket. Have a bowl of clean water ready to rinse the item straight away. Wipe over with a cloth and re-dip if it needs more stripping. In hard to strip areas an old toothbrush works wonders to loosen it up a bit.
A couple of warnings:
* Do it in a well ventilated area as the fumes given off are strong and caustic
* Wear some eye protection.
* Wear gloves as the mixture will take off the skin from your finger tips in seconds!!!
* Wear some old clothes when you do it.
Matt
My method is a lot safer than Caustic Soda, which can actually dissolve alloy....
My method is a lot safer than Caustic Soda, which can actually dissolve alloy....
I don't know what's in Mr Muscle but I suspect it's caustic soda or something similar. The anodising is a chemical compound with the alloy. Anything that removes the anodising will also dissolve the alloy, if you leave it on for long enough.
Spongebob
If you're in London I'd recommend these guys:
Cheers andym!
Maybe so, but caustic soda is truly nasty old cack....
🙂
...or send em to me & I'll get them shot-blasted for you.
An hours work with a drill mounted polishing pad & a tube of Autosol will see them gleaming.