I have posted a number of restoration threads on this site, showing failures and successes. However, I did not show show my biggest failure, my epic fail, and I need to confess.
I had this Sugino chainwheel 44T for my Laserlite, but it was chrome plated. No worries, I haz de chemicals (if not the knowledge). I thought I could put it in Hydrochloric and 'bob's your uncle' raw chainwheel ready for paint.
Here is me with said chainwheel in a bucket of hydrochloric acid solution. I can not remember the dilution but I think is was in the region of 35%. This is nasty stuff, open it to the atmosphere and you get plumes of noxious gas as the water in the air reacts with the vapour - I can not describe to you how nasty this is, but it is horrible, horrible and horrible.
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Something was happening in the bucket but I was not not sure what but, in the spirit of discovery, I continued.
Here are the results:
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If I had left it in very much longer there would not have been any chainwheel left, just a slurry of poo.
Compared to another chainwheel I have re-anodised, it is 43T so a little smaller, without the need of stripping chrome!
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Anyone else care to confess?
