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Sorry, it's not anything risqué..

Yesterday, I was stripping blue anodising from a pair of wing buttons with some Mr Muscle (Same as Easy-off) It comes off really quickly, but there was just a little stubborn bit, so I left the buttons in a tub with the Mr Muscle for 5 minutes... well five minutes turned into 8 hours before I remembered they were in there.

Here's what they look like now



They are completely black, and in some places crusty, but it will not come off. So, any suggestions on how to get them back to the nice raw aluminium look I was hoping for.

Paul.

I had a similar incident. Do you have a (metal) lathe? That's what got me in to trying home brew anodizing. Is that what you attempting?

Have you tried a scotchbrite pad or steelwool?

Maybe put a longer screw in the grub screw hole, and use that screw to hold them at the end of a drill to make polishing easier.

I was attempting to remove the anodising. The wing buttons were brand new before this

That's a good idea with the drill, I think that's probably the way I will have to go to get them back to raw metal.

Paul.

file, sand or machine the outer layer off. more importantly, if there are threaded holes, they are most likely shot, so it might be a losing proposition. sorry to tell ya that.

the easy way:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330917177313?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D330917177313%26_rdc%3D1

Will wet-sanding with some 600-grit sandpaper take off that black layer? About a third of the parts I've stripped anno from ended up really black, it came right off with a bit of wet-sanding. Then again, I didn't leave them in the Easy-Off for 8 hours, either.

Two of the Duratrax wheels I stripped looked pretty black; the one on bottom left is after wet-sanding with 600-grit, the ones on the right are after polishing.

Well that stuff is really corrosive. It's eaten into the surface of the metal, luckily not too far though.
The threads were ok once I forced a screw through them with the drill



I finished one of them off, I'll probably have to go back and give it a polish to smooth it down though. I used a grinding stone, then a sanding block to get it this far. I could have just bought a new set, but where's the fun in that Besides, I had to try and make up for my stupidity...



Paul.

Coelacanth wrote:Will wet-sanding with some 600-grit sandpaper take off that black layer? About a third of the parts I've stripped anno from ended up really black, it came right off with a bit of wet-sanding. Then again, I didn't leave them in the Easy-Off for 8 hours, either.

Two of the Duratrax wheels I stripped looked pretty black; the one on bottom left is after wet-sanding with 600-grit, the ones on the right are after polishing.

Those wheels came out well. I've got a set of Lohas wheels I contemplating removing the anno from. But after this, I might just leave it

Paul.

CAT3K wrote:

Coelacanth wrote:Will wet-sanding with some 600-grit sandpaper take off that black layer? About a third of the parts I've stripped anno from ended up really black, it came right off with a bit of wet-sanding. Then again, I didn't leave them in the Easy-Off for 8 hours, either.

Two of the Duratrax wheels I stripped looked pretty black; the one on bottom left is after wet-sanding with 600-grit, the ones on the right are after polishing.

Those wheels came out well. I've got a set of Lohas wheels I contemplating removing the anno from. But after this, I might just leave it

Paul.

Nah go ahead and do it, just don't leave it--for 8 hours! 5 minutes followed by toothbrushing off the anno is all that's needed.

Just a FYI, if you have a local shop that does anno they can strip it in the caustic soda for you usually at a nominal charge. I have taken them several pieces to strip so I can prep for the anno and it was always a minimum shop charge ($20). I trust a place that does it as a profession over doing it in my kitchen (plus the woman complains less!). I also outsource my dental work for the same reason!

I've never looked around to see if anyone does anodising locally. Maybe I should..

The same thing happened to me a few years ago with a paintball barrel after leaving it soaking for a few hours.

The inside was rifled, so there was no point in even trying to save it.

I'm glad your parts could be saved. One tip I use is to set a kitchen timer or alarm of some kind for maybe 15 minutes and keep checking the parts.

After reading the title I expected something a little more like this.

EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!!

[youtube]l0Nmeijq-Xc[/youtube]

I've been down the same road....