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We did some lab excersizes with anodizing in engineering school - there's a rule of thumb when removing ano as to how many seconds per micrometer of anodizing - I think we did between 20-30 seconds in a highly concentrated caustic soda solution.
I could probably dig up the tables we used to calculate the times.
But it definitely shouldn't be left unattended!Removing black ano is pretty easy, as the colour lifts off the item quite quickly for visual confirmation.
MisterMikkel-
Ha I’d be interested to see those numbers.
I’ve stripped the ano off a good few bits using costic soda. Like you say, black ano runs off into the solution quite quickly so it gives you a visual cue. I have a black Thomson seat post I want to do but hesitate just incase it did fuck up the tolerance and cause slipping.@Josh Like Hulsroy said, doing it carefully in steps pretty much eliminates any chance of melting away any material. Once you’ve done it few times you start to get a feel for how much is too much. I done a seat colour once, the black ano started to run off really quickly almost immediately, that gave me a fright and I pulled it out and rinsed it off. It came out fine, but that event sort of taught me what it looks like if the reaction is too violent. So I tend to er on the side of caution with a weaker solution and use a small brush to help the removal along.
TotalShanner
Doesn't caustic soda eat away at aluminum though??
I used that stuff to remove a broken / seized quill stem out of a fork last year??