Removing anodizing

[nosepickben]

Does anyone know of an effective, comercially available product for fetching off anodizing..??
I have used nitromors succesfully on shimano dx's but it won't fetch off the coating on a sprocket i'm trying to get back to bare.
Thanks.

[pickle]

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php'topic=17958.0

[stidds]

Don't use Oven cleaner it is for wimps, get yourself some caustic soda and do it that way. 

In my opinion you are not a proper BMX restorer/collector until you have had a big lungful of caustic soda fumes and coughed your guts up. 

[Dannywhac]

X2 on the caustic soda - I like the 'sharpness of lung' it gives you if you do it in a confined space

[ED209]

HAMMERS...BIG ONES. 

[oldtired]

Don't use Oven cleaner it is for wimps, get yourself some caustic soda and do it that way. 

In my opinion you are not a proper BMX restorer/collector until you have had a big lungful of caustic soda fumes and coughed your guts up. 

yup tis the only way     ,  don't use your lasses marigolds either thats for real puffs and will get you barred from all future discusions about chemical abuse ..............

[nosepickben]

X2 on the caustic soda - I like the 'sharpness of lung' it gives you if you do it in a confined space

fantastic!! Thanks chaps   

[nosepickben]

http://www.radbmx.co.uk/forum/index.php'topic=17958.0

Cheers dude, I spelt anodizing differently so it didn't show up when i searched! 

[stidds]

I actually do find caustic soda a damn sight more controllable than oven pride though. With caustic you can see the anodising coming off instantly, dip it in clean cold water immediately after and jobs done.  I have seen with oven pride that if you leave it too long it can start eating into the metal.

[Dannywhac]

Same here - keep a knacked old toothbrush handy just incase you get any of that grey 'soot' forming on the aluminium, under the cold tap straight off and a good scrub.

[ultrasham241]

caustic soda is the tits!  but be carefull  on the bare ally!! like said above  get under the water

[nosepickben]

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice here, results as follows; will do my best to describe things, i have no camera.
I had a black anodized TREE sprocket & bashguard. 7075 ally.
On day one, I found some oven pride minus the proper bags in the garage. I slopped it on the sprocket in a supermarket carrier bag & rubbed away. The ano came off easily but left a weird, almost psychadelic mottled finish to the ally after I washed off the goo with water.
Day two, caustic soda granules bought from boots for £2.50, dissolved in water carefully and placed in the unstripped bashguard (came with sprocket - same material and colour) to see if the finish was better. It took 4x30second dip & rinses to get the ano off. I used 1 litre of water & 1/4 of a tub of soda. The finish to the ally after soda-dip was not really much better than the oven pride.
Day three, polished with autosol and wow! The desired effect was achieved. First polish got loads of the dirty/mottled finish off but left it looking a little water-marked. A second firm polishing and it's near perfect.
Tomorrow it's going on my S.T.A.   

[oldschoolib]

ive tried allsorts but oven pride seemded to work best for me ?

[russ j]

I found that with Oven Pride it 'looses' it 'potency' very quickly and your for ever applying fresh Oven Pride liquid especially if your stripping and good few items.

So for this reason i use caustic soda as i found that this stuff is just as potent from the first item to the last item

Even if you leave your alloy items in the caustic soda for a little too long and you get the 'tarnished' surface this will polish off easily enough on a polishing wheel with the correct polish compound