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Been looking online at how dipping Anodised bike components in caustic soda removes the anodising, any reason not to dip my saint cranks before polishing?
It dissolves aluminum, that's what anodizing is, it's color in the surface of aluminum.
It's incredibly nasty, be very careful handling it, thick gloves, well ventilated area and ALWAYS add caustic to water, never the other way around if you value your good looks, and have a bottle/bucket of fresh clean water to hand in case of emergencies.
I put a seat post in that stuff, dissolved most of it away.
So it will be ok providing its in for only as long as is necessary to remove the paint?
I will be extremely causious with goggles etc, will household marigold gloves protect me?
How long was the seatpost in for?
I soaked some parts in mr muscle oven cleaner for a couple of hours and they came out spot on
I did some tatty black middleburn RS 7s, as mentioned above its very nasty stuff. I only left them in about 10 to 15 mins and used a scourer to help get it off. You should be fine with marigolds.
You'll know pretty quickly if you get any on you 🙂
Rinse them well then varying grades of wet n dry to remove scratches and the polish with Autosol or something similar
I did a set of XT cranks a couple of years ago. In the solution for a couple of minuted till they all went black. Took them out, rinsed and polished. Looked ace and no children were harmed in the process or in their use afterwards.
I found out about the caustic soda (lye as the call it in the us) on PB, there is a guy who had a set of SLX polished, but Internet appears sceptical of the use around aluminium, quite a few clip on you tube though.
I'm going to go for it, I've got some autosol too, will try and sort photos when done.
Clean and degrease 1st to ensure an even finish
Slow. Works well. good for getting grease out of your hands. Stings like hell but effective.
caustic soda is what you use just in the right consentration, I've stripped and re-anodized loads of bits.
I can vouch for oven cleaner too, I think OvenBrite? Used it loads of times to remove anodizing. It does leave the surface dull, but some elbow grease afterwards with wet and dry paper, starting at 240 and working your way to 1500 works well. If you have an angle grinder handy, get yourself a 3M Roloc backing pad, 75mm with a fine Scotchbrite disc.
Quick spray of WD40 and this takes off anodizing too, plus gets the surface back to a point where you can go straight to 1500 grit wet and dry, ready to polish.
Less dangerous mess, but do wear a good mask!