anodizing removal question

[edmccloughloch]

Per the instructions in the tutorial, it says to use red devil lye to remove the anodizing. I have been back and forth with the stuff....I've brushed it on (I'm doing the whole front grill, I've put it on towels and laid the towels on it....it just won't get all of the coating off...its all blotchy with anodizing here and there now. I tried doing it in a big trash can...and when I went back to check on it the can fell over. Any suggestions on how to do a big grill...the total cost of lye used is escalating and its starting to piss me off....

[edmccloughloch]

Well, I got a different trash can and more lye...its working really well now...except that the can I got was too short to do both sides of the grill...so now I'm going to get some easy off heavy duty oven cleaner for the middle...which contains lye and will adhere to the surface better than a solution of lye and water. hope it works...

[2bocat]

I tried the ol' EZ Off method and that's what led me to lye....seems as though the new EZ Off is more environmentally friendly or some other issue (or maybe operator error) but I couldn't get it to work at all. Let me know if it works out for you.

You're right about stronger = faster with lye. I've concentrated my solution up a bit more from what I originally got together for the tutorial. Hotter works faster too.

[GT-Racer]

Ok AFter the Lye bath am I missing a step? Do you need to rinse or just wipe down? You mentioned how toxic the stuf is so I am assuming you need to rinse it really well? Thanks for a great tutorial 2Bocat

[2bocat]

Told you I wasn't much of a teacher...That IS a very good point. You need to rinse the lye solution off. Sounds like people are having a tough time with just one can of lye in the water. I forget how hot my solution was after setting in the sun all day here in the desert...you might need two cans or so. Any caustic solution will work; stronger is better.

[edmccloughloch]

The easy-off worked really good actually....I got the easy-off heavy duty oven cleaner...took the anodizing right off about as good as the lye bath...but oven cleaner sucks to get off...if you wait too long it dries kinda bubbly. Hotter is better....but it should be mentioned that you probably should not heat up the water for the lye bath....cold tap water works just as good and if it happens to heat up outside..well thats okay. I would think that it would be a little toxic to have the lye in hot water.


Another question though....where did you find all the different parts for the die grinder....I got an arbor and attached some buffs to my drill but I can't find any attachments like the scotch brite pads...ive been doing that by hand...

[GT-Racer]

Thanks again bocat I cant wait to see my stuff all shiny.!!!!!1

[Brett]

Would a plastic media blast or sand blast work to get the coating off of the parts?
Brett

[2bocat]

Never heard of media blasting to remove anodized aluminum. I'd think it would be tough to keep from ruining the part though since aluminum is so soft.

[green70]

eagle one mag wheel cleaner will strip anodizing of clean and easy,its the one with the old western wagon spoke wheel on the bottle,spray on,let soak and rinse....

[hardtailjohn]

My daughter just did her sliding rear window and ran out of oven cleaner about 1/2 way through, so she got some Easy Off "fume free" and said it didn't work as well as the original, but if you waited until just before it was dry, it worked pretty well.
John H.

[2bocat]

That's been my experience too with the fume free version of EZ off....doesn't work so good. Now I use lye/water as described in the buffing/polishing tutorial.