deme wrote:

it will work. As long as they are not painted or powdered. Just follow the directions above. remove any plastic on the parts if possible.

what did you buy that has dry caustic?
If it is just labeled as dry caustic shouldn't have one single problem.

Since paint strippers didn't work, i don't know what kind of stuff they used to color it black.
It's probably the same material they have been using on their brake levers for years.

Yeah, i went to a shop that sells paints and chemicals specified for metal workers, i asked for Caustic Soda, and seller said "yes, i have dry Caustic"
I bough it for $3.2 per 1kg
Bought some gloves as well.

Last edited by Duke 01 (2009-02-13 2:43pm)

Thank you for the tips Deme
Without you it wouldn't be possible.

Costas.

glad it worked out...
show us some pics...

Well, i didn't make it to take some pics outside in the day light.

But here are some pics just to show the results.
All of the parts have been polished with mother's polish.
Sorry for the bad resolution, mobile pics

Tektro FX20 U-Brake>>

Diacompe 990>>

Diacompe Tech77's pulls>>

Diatech Tech99D's pulls>>

Redline hub & abused stem.1 (stem got polished with 800,1200,1500 grit papers. hub with 1500)>>

Redline hub & abused stem.2>>

ALL parts together.

At least you get an idea
I'm impressed by the results of Caustic Soda. I recommend it to anyone too.

Again, thank you Deme.

Last edited by Duke 01 (2009-03-05 3:41pm)

Wow they look great glad I could help.....

Notice the purple Hutch letter in my first picture. This is what was under the original Hutch decals. The sun & this process faded the hubs but left the purple under letter decals untouched.

A reminder when doing this process... Remove all decals, start off with min amount of crystals, then add more if needed.
My hubs got smoking hot, water was bubbling, hubs turned pitch black once removed. I was close by sink so I got lucky & rinsed right away.

Now back to sanding front hub & polishing them both. Thanks again for this awesome thread.
peace,
D

Too much crystals is bad... scary bad.

Right on, bucket full of water is perfect.
I should have re-read your thread before dipping them.
That's some serious chemical reaction when over doing amount of crystals.

Unfortunately I had some decal residue left on 1 hub. The chemicals did not touch the decal area & was actually approx 1mm higher than rest of hub. So I had no choice but to grind small area with 120 grit at first then worked my way all the way up to scotchbrite pad then will do all my polishing steps.

The smut came off right away with water and tooth brush as you mentioned. thanks again.

deme wrote:

The black stuff on the hubs is "smut" the easiest way to get rid of it is with a soft bristle tooth brush. Just wash part off in water while cleaning with the brush.
The smut will always come off but if you let the part dry with it on it will be harder to remove. Thats why I use a 5 gal pail full of water. once the part is stripped I drop it in the pail till all the parts are done and them clean the smut off at my leisure.

I am going to try this on a blotched set of NOS silver anno Araya 7x's and polish them after.

Maybe this weekend at least to strip them...want to get them done 4 Florida in March.  If they turn out good...I am gonna sell both sets of my chrome 7x's.

deme wrote:

The black stuff on the hubs is "smut" the easiest way to get rid of it is with a soft bristle tooth brush. Just wash part off in water while cleaning with the brush.
The smut will always come off but if you let the part dry with it on it will be harder to remove. Thats why I use a 5 gal pail full of water. once the part is stripped I drop it in the pail till all the parts are done and them clean the smut off at my leisure.

glad I read this...looks like the tub will be filled so I can clean them 2 nite.

No black stuff and the silver anno is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy harder to remove than colors.

Pa bmx1 wrote:

try to polish.If you polsih and your cloth turns black your through the ano. You will not polish ano.
If you solution was strong enough 15 min per section** should do the trick

+1 on the polish.
should be good after 3-5 min in the bath.
milky stuff is smut.
like PA said try to polish if you are getting black residue on your cloth you are good to go.

i need to do this to araya rims that have clear ano on them any ideas on how i will know it's done?

Well I learned an important lesson here...leave the item in too long and this solution too will pit the aluminum too.

When doing SILVER RIMS rims learn from my mistakes:

1st get a container large enough to cover them in one shot.  The problem I found was find something flat.  In the end I used a storage tote and ended up with 18-20 gallons of solution.  Thats why I tried the rotation technique.  This maybe fine for colors but for clear/silver anodizing this is NOT the way to go as it is next to impossible to see what you did and did not do.  This also leaves an uneven finish on the item...some parts polished BLACK and some did not.  This gave confused me as how long I was really doing it.  Also CLEAR DOES NOT GIVE OFF THE BLACK SMUT.  That is why I thought this might be a type of hard anodizing.   There for it is very hard to figure out when you're done.  I made a wrong assumption when I saw a charcoal silver coating come off after a prolonged time and assumed this was the anodizing.  It was not...it was aluminum being eaten by the caustic.

2nd Don't assume and don't try something late in the day.  It may bite you in the ass.

3rd When someone tells you it should only take 15-20 minutes to work don't overthink the process...they already did that.

Well looks like I have to lace a set of chrome 7x's as if I try this again is doesn't make dollar sense right now.

Regards,
Scott

Sorry about the unfinished results as I was looking forward to this project.  However, I hope this helps those trying this.

Last edited by JS-44SDS (2009-02-27 9:37am)