Removing annodizing has always been a long and nightmarish process for me. After reading a post here about caustic soda, I thought I'd try it. I did a few parts to test it, including this DK stem. I picked up this beater on Ebay for like $8 (probably due to the worn out green finish) GREEN..... anyway, here is the before and after. I'm not completely done with the polishing part of it because I don't have any finishing polish. I took a step-child of a stem and made it good enough for my current GT build.
It looks pretty good, but I have seen some of you freaks and the mirror like, 'looks like chrome, but it isn't' parts that have been polished. I have seen some amazing results from VBMX members. Hopefully I can get as good as some of you!

wow.. great job! I've been a fan of caustic soda for years. Always best to do it outside because of the fumes One thing you don't want to do is leave the part in the solution too long - you end with pits in the alloy that are real hard to polish out. Caustic soda is also great for clearing drain blockages and gunky deposits in pipes so I always pour the solution down the drain when I'm finished.

I'd imagine thats not the best way to dispose of it environmentally, but I guess if people use liquid plumber...

ummm...thats exactly where it is supposed to go since it is an industrial drain cleaner product. Worked great on the other parts as well.

yeah, so is liquid plumber and thats bad for the environment too. Sorry, always been a little environmentally concerned.

by the way that stem looks great

Allright, to be honest, this is the only time I have used such a product of this nature. I did all the parts in one shot, so I won't have to bother with it again. It is scary stuff, no doubt.

sorry don't know what got into me, I'll probably end up using the stuff too, and how else are you gonna get rid of it? At least you're killing two birds with one poisonous stone. Thats sort of environmentally conscious right?

VERY cool! I want to try that stuff myself.

Nice job on a cool stem!

Caustic soda is your friend

As long as you cover up - lo

dumb question - where can you buy caustic soda?

I don't know about the US... but in Australia any hardware store will sell it.

RyanC, caustic soda, sodium hydroxide= Draino/Liquid plumber..... bmxcurator, nice job ! this is one of the few easy do it at home processes.

Nice work!, I've heard oven cleaner works too!

Ive used oven cleaner...pretty good.

ive used oven cleaner and it sucks compared to caustic soda. caustic soda takes seconds. oven cleaner seems to take forever. pour a bowl of soda drop part in for a few, pull rinse, polish, done!

Looks really great curator keep it up!

I just put in a few cents worth on another thread here. Some secrets are for sharing, others....

...A lot of fishing going on here....LOL! Nothing like a good Muskie lure....


[ November 11, 2005, 03:39 AM: Message edited by: Ted Carl ]

Hey what are you guys using to polish this stuff and how are you doing it?
Great work. I have an old DK myself and an old ACS stem I'd like to polish that nice.

To get one like the last one, you need to start by buying a good sized vertical mill, a nice carbide fly cutter, a 500 dollar KURT vice, and an HDTV LCD screen hooked into the satelite TV for the workbench, preferably with a DVD player, and a good supply of movies...cuz you are gonna be there a while! Especially if the part is made of 6061 T-6 aluminum, because compared to 2024 T-3 and 7075-T6, there is so much less.....

Let me know when you get that far!.....LOL....

This thread is cool, cuz curator, and the others, showed you can do it with hand tools, and they look great, so follow what they are saying here and it will get you there...

...but to make a "flawless mirror with no distortions" is not about any one product or technique, it is just not a "buy this, sand, and rub" process.....and some of the stuff is from wholesale industrial suppliers, and other things are just......coveted secrets invented by the user to out do the next guy!

You know the old saying, "If it don't go, chrome it". If you ain't fast, you might as well look good.... Most of us are too old and fat to be fast anymore, but that does't mean we can't be competetive in our builds does it!?

I like to share techniques, but it is not really productive in this case for the average workbench. For example.....If you take a 7/8 inch collet, lower the table, and chuck up your seat post in the vertical mill's collet, and spin it at 240 RPMs and use a........Probably doesn't help much does it?.....

Sand and rub, the more you prep it, the better it finishes.

I've seen before and after pics of parts where oven cleaner was used to great success in removing annodizing from aluminum parts for remote control model cars, among other things. Never tried it myself. That DK neck looks darn good the way it is, without further polishing. That Pro Neck, well, that's just Beautiful!

ok, as long as we're talking about caustic soda...... what should I use to strip the paint from my aluminum frames? also, i've resigned to polishing them after the stripping, as powder costs are out of reach for me right now? what would work, as far as using those type of products?? I want to make sure everything is compatible.
oh BTW, the frames are a 2000 schwinn pro stock 24", and I'm getting a 2004 se team quad frameset. any suggestions?

one more ? about caustic soda, drano is like 5% caustic soda (Sodium hydroxide), most drain cleaners are between 5-20%. How potent is the caustic soda you're using?

Stripping PAINT? or Anodizing? We are talking about removing Anodizing using caustic soda here.

Zip strip is for paint and has nothing to do with caustic soda.

my question is about anodizing