De-anodizing...

Word of advise, be very careful when using caustic soda. Must have left it in too long, or used to much, but ruined both my campy seatpost and cinelli stem, it started to eat away at the metal taking about 4 - 5 mm off everything. lesson learnt I guess.

Gutted!

make sure you get the correct mr muscle.............just bought one (the can looked identical to the one my brother had) and the stuff wouldnt even take the laquer off..let alone the anodising.

I have just used caustic soda to completely dissolve a stem that was stuck in my forks. It took 2 days. Within 10 seconds the black laquer had stripped - so yeah. you left it in too long.

Incidentally caustic soda is sodium hydroxide - the oven cleaner chemical.

Word of advise, be very careful when using caustic soda. Must have left it in too long, or used to much, but ruined both my campy seatpost and cinelli stem, it started to eat away at the metal taking about 4 - 5 mm off everything. lesson learnt I guess.
the fact it was bubbling vigorously didn't make you think it was taking the coating off????

Need to do the cranks now. :)

Just wondering how these turned out as I have some I'd like to do. Was it painful getting in the bends etc? Any tips?

The bike got sold before I got round to doing the cranks, but I'm sure it'd be fine, just a bit fiddly.
Give it a go. The only tricky bit I can foresee is the back if you've got cutouts etc. making it tricky
to get into.

Do a before and after pic too.

And tips: Use Jol's guide linked above, follow it carefully and get lots of beer ready
for the polishing process. Autosol is the best polish, £4 from halfords or good car parts shop.

Ta.

Will pluck up the courage to give it a go...

This may sound silly- but if I polish up a seatpost (27.2mm) and a set of bars (31.8mm) am I likely to reduce the diameter if either item in a way that is meaningful?

I would hate to make both items shiny just to find that they no longer clamp properly.

Also would anyone have access to a bench polisher, as I think that would speed the polishing process quite a lot?

This may sound silly- but if I polish up a seatpost (27.2mm) and a set of bars (31.8mm) am I likely to reduce the diameter if either item in a way that is meaningful?

no.

Also would anyone have access to a bench polisher, as I think that would speed the polishing process quite a lot?

but watch out, with a bench polisher you might change de diameter if you go inadvertently mad.

would doing this to a pewter Goldtec hub be OK, seeing as much of this thread is about making silver things shinier. Would it affect strength or not?

would have no effect on strength