how do i remove anodize?

i wish to remove the ano on some of my lights. how can this be done without abrasive tools?

The old mountain biker's trick after "3D Violet" (*gack*) passed out of fashion vogue. I don't know how effective such a thing will be on the hard-anodized coatings used on some lights. This works for the more common decorative anodizing.

Oven cleaner, like Easy-Off. It's a mild sodium hydroxide solution that will strip through the anodized layer to the substrate in a sufficient amount of time.

My caution and disclaimer: I used to work with stronger NaOH solutions for cleaning aluminum vacuum deposition "overspray" from production equipment. I'd recommend wearing safety glasses or goggles, and good rubber gloves. HaOH is another term for caustic lye. You don't want to get this stuff all over you. If so, rinse quickly, rinse very well, and rinse again. In case of excessive contact, acetic acid (vinegar) can be used to help "balance" the pH of the NaOH and make it less harmful. Then, as mentioned, rinse. Alot.

Remove springs, switches, seals, lenses. Excessive exposure of aluminum to NaOH can have adverse effects on the aluminum, so go easy, spray-and-scrub, and rinse thoroughly. Take your time and repeated applications rather than to try to strip it all off at once.

That's just my experience and comments. Others may have other views or experiences.

Eagle 1 Mag Wheel Cleaner... Get the spray-on kind intended for use on sand-cast style aluminum mags. It's an acid so you'll need to use some caution - so don't say I didn't warn ya.

This is a"custom hot rodder's trick" we stumbled on to for removing the red & blue annodize from high performance AN fuel fittings. Once the annodize is stripped, the parts can easily be polished to a "chrome-like" finish. We would soak parts for only about 15 - 20 minutes, so keep your eye on your parts. You may need to use a dropper and some wax to mask off areas if submersing the whole piece isn't an option.

LOL! From base to acid. That seems to cover pretty much the whole pH scale, doesn't it?

Reminds me of a stupid commercial I saw recently. They were mentioning how most general-purpose cleaners have a pH of between drain cleaner (typically acid) and bleach (obviously base). Well duh. water falls right in that catagory too! Damn near everything falls between acid and base

Funny that they never mentioned the pH of their product. They just warn you of the hazzards of pruducts around pH 7

so what do i do to take care of a e2?

Send an email to Silviron. He posted somewhere about a solution to remove anodizing. Or do a search for anodize&silviron.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by phred:
Send an email to Silveron. He posted somewhere about a solution to remove anodizing. Or do a search for anodize&silveron.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I did? Can't remember that. I had a few posts about anodizing titanium in the ARC forum, but they were more on how to apply than to remove.

I do know of a solution that will remove TITANIUM anodizing (not nitriding) but it is really nasty- 70% Nitric and 30% Hydrofluoric acid- Concentrated Nitric is bad enough, but Hydrofluoric is really nasty and not something for non-professionals to mess with.

That solution might remove aluminum oxide anodizing too, but I don't have any here to test it with.

If the suggestions mentioned by others above work, that would be the best way.

If you have a friend with a sandblaster, I'd recommend using that with about 220 grit Silicon Carbide abrasive.

I just had to remove some anodizing from ARC LS battery holders for JonSidneyB's C & D cell holders, and just used diamond bits and ground it off- but that requires a lot of refinishing work and will destroy any knurling etc.

Silviron. Sorry if I went the wrong direction. Coulda sworn it was you. I do remember some post about it. I was going to recommend bead blasting. Many knife finishers offer this service.

I suppose it could have been me; but if it was, I was drunk and made it up!

Haven't had a lot of experience with anodizing aluminum; Mostly have worked with Titanium, Tantalum and Niobium in that respect. And the times I have had to remove Aluminum anodizing, I either just ground it off or sand-blasted if I had a blaster handy.

Most of the machine shops that rebuild cylinder heads will have a bead blaster. They use it for getting the carbon off valves. If it's a small shop & you talk to the guy in charge right, he'll probably let you use it. TX

I had an E2 and a Mag 3D sandblasted by a friendly local glassworker. He used 220 grade AlOx and it only took the machine seconds to do it.

I did this on an E2 in GM finish, and polished it back to the Aluminium.
The effect after sandblasting gives you a smooth but sugar-coated look, like "frosted Aluminium", very pretty. That effect is because it's a texture, probably with millions of small raised areas where the 220 grade sand has left "peaks" or raised bits of Aluminium. Unfortunately, it shows any contact, (even by a fingernail) as shiny scratches.

That surface can be polished - I used "Solvol Autosol" a quite aggressive polish. You then get a matte grey effect, which looks like bead-blasting. But, it still scratches *quite* easily (because it must retain some peaks ?).

If you then hand-sand it down, using ultrafine jewellers paper, you will cut out some tiny details, like the "sharp" microscopic edges of the knurling, but it just looks like a patina, no real loss. I've thought that the E2 treated this way looks like a 1940's lighter. Sanding after sandblasting before you polish up gives a shiny finish.

I also had a Mag 3D sandblasted - I wish I'd tried the chemical removal of the anodising instead. Polishing something that size back to a mirror finish is hard hard work.

lightlover

Unless you put some kind of sealer on it, you'll have other problems. The bare aluminum will get finger prints & stains. You could get more than you bargined for when you strip the finish. TX

Jahn, could you post any picture of that E2? I would love to know how/what it looks like.

Klaus.

Klaus,
Graham asked about that too. I've got to get my friend to do a digital photo of it, and then I will post it.

It isn't a shockingly different appearance or anything special (but I like it).

TX, it certainly isn't as practical and tough as the HA3, but in my experience Aluminium wears quite well. It automatically anodises itself, so if kept out of adverse conditions like alloy wheels suffer, shouldn't actually corrode.

I think if I just keep it clean and polish it occassionally it will be OK. There aren't any fingermarks on it as yet.

lightlover

Jahn,
You might want to get some anhydrous lanolin and rub that into the bare aluminimum. There's some stuff here in the states called Lanocote which is a specially blended lanolin. The stuff keeps aluminum from oxidizing and corroding. It is truely amazing. Clean the metal first and then put some on and rubb off all the excess. I had a black anodized mast that was starting to show it's 12 year age and I put some lanocote on it and it looked new. I sold the boat a year later but the mast still looked great. And you thought sheep were only good for one thing

Sheeps - you'll have to ask Welsh Chris M about that ......

Thanks for the advice Don, I've never heard of that stuff. Does it leave any residue - any idea how it works ?

Incidentally, the Inova X5 with the Titanium finish - that's just coloured up common anodising isn't it, not actually a Ti coating ? That's next on my re-finishing list.

lightlover

Jahn,
See: Lanocote
As I understnd it, plain old anhydrous lanolin will work near as well but may not hang in there as long, especially in salt water which isn't an issue in your case. Lanocote is like a very hard axle grease at 60 F and like melted butter at 100 F (I don't do C, sorry) Any excess can be wiped off. If you do a google on anhydrous lanolin, you'll see that you want some on your skin any way

The Ti on the Inova is just a color of anodize. Most Ti coating or plating i've seen is gold in color and prettty common now on cutting tools like drill bits, end mills and carbide inserts.

I get a kick out of how many items are now made to look like they are titanium. I think it would be cool to make a Ti part and finish it off as simulated walnut grain
I new a guy who popped for about $80,000 on a super high tech carbon fiber mast for a classic wood sailboat. He then paid a real artist, a few grand to paint the mast to look like spruce; down to scarf joints,knott holes and wood plugs. It looked like wood from any distance but the dry rot fungus was sorely disappointed.

The Gold coating you see on tools, drill bits etc. is not anodizing or plating strictly speaking- It is titanium nitride, and is deposited by a completely different process-

PVD: (Physical Vapor Deposition).
Usually done in a vacuum or an inert atmosphere, an electrode of the material is vaproized / ionized with an electric arc, attracted to the object by an opposite electrical polarity. An older term that may be used to describe this process is "sputtering".

Titanium (Niobium & Tantalum too) may be directly anodized to a gold color easily, but it is neither as bright or durable as Titanium Nitriding.

Going back to Aloom'num (see, I can spell it the American way).

If it self-anodises, why do people complain that it leaves black marks on your hands if touched ? Personally, I've never noticed that.

Don, if Lanocote turns to a liquid at 100 deg. F, it won't be much use on an E2 due to the heat produced. It'd work OK on a stripped Mag OK though.

lightlover