Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Best way of removing anodising?

[nelly]

I'd be very careful going down the caustic route on a DIY route. IMO, have a word with whoever is going to reanodise it for you and have them do it.
The anodising on the arm is more cosmetic than an engineering finish and won't be very thick. It'll probably polish off. It'll need polishing before refinishing so you'll be half way there.....
Alloy can dissolve at an alarming rate unless you're careful and know exactly what strength you need and/or are dealing with.

[Jasper]

Thanks Nelly.

[Col996s]

I have been looking at a method for doing small parts on my bike. In the end I attacked my side stand with some emery cloth and I was surprised how easy it was to get through to the alloy to be able to polish it.

[antonye]

Originally Posted by nelly

Alloy can dissolve at an alarming rate unless you're careful and know exactly what strength you need and/or are dealing with.

This is true, but an egg-cup per pint is a very weak solution so it will take minutes rather than seconds to do.

However, I agree that if you're not sure of what you're doing or if you're sending it off for anodising straight after, paying someone else to not f*ck it up is a good idea!

[skidlids]

I remember a rather pricey set of Mag yokes cracking when a set of nicely anodised forks were bolted into them, this was because the original anodised finish on them had been skimmed off by turning them down in a lathe and then re-Anodising them, the slightly smaller diameter that was left over stressed the mag yokes as they tried to clamp around them.

To me either skimming the surface or disolving it is still damaging the alloy So goes against what was called for in the original post