Removing anodizing with oven cleaner

[jesseyo13]

Well, I was sitting in bed admiring my gun when I noticed that I have a color theme going. Dark blue and chrome. They look pretty sweet together, but I want to make the detents on my a4 chrome. But since I don’t want to buy new ones, I will do the next best thing and make them bare aluminum.
Now, are you wondering what oven cleaner has to do with my detents? I once read a few months ago the lye will remove anodizing. I was reading the directions on the back of the can when I noticed that it said "WARNING-CONTAINS LYE". I was wondering if anyone knows if lye really will remove anodizing? It seems like a cheap and easy way to remove anodizing on small parts such as detents.

so cool> :dance:

BTW I was refering to "Easy Off oven cleaner"

[Fatjon]

Yes go get some some draino(lye) and put in in a PLASTIC container or small bucket. Take the ball out of the detent. ANd place in the lye. You will have to pick it out with a pair of plyers or wear gloves. Then rub quckly do it over again until you get all of the anno off. Then buff it up with a dremel and it will shine like chrome.

[Magz_rule]

Yea, oven cleaner is what I used. I wasn't to sure about it but it turned out great :clap:

[jesseyo13]

so basically all I would have to do is spray some oven cleaner in a small zip lock bag, then stick the detents in. Leave them in for about 1 minute and then wash them off. Then basically repeat as necessary right?

[The Spanish Inquisition]

I FEAR LYE.

wear goggles.

[Fatjon]

I guess you could do that but i would make sure not to get any on the ball in the detent.

[FlameboyC11]

One problem w/ leaving raw aluminum is that it will start to oxidize which makes it look kinda gray, you will need to polish it often for it to stay shiny.

[vf-xx]

You might try dropping the aluminum in distilled boiling water. Pull it out and let it cool before drying it. I don't remember but I believe that will reseal the anno.

[Prezents]

When done right you can get a really good result. You will find that some anodized parts are harder to remove than others.

If you do not have the means to polish your material I do offer a polishing service HERE (http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?t=141111)
Good luck all :cheers:

[spyder_technician]

Naw this works great. I didn't do it myself, but my entire gun is bare aluminum. It won't oxidize, at least not very fast. It will maintain a shine for almost forever. Well, thats an exaggeration. I didn't even worry about it on mine 'til I played in a scenario and it started raining cats and dogs. It did start to oxidize some after that, but all you do is polish it. Takes 5 minutes and then its back to its original shine. Its even better than anodizing! Why? because I'd like to see you polish a 1 mm deep scratch out of an anodized gun! My gun has a mirror shine no matter what it goes through.

I need to do the same to my reg, but I was unsure about it. See, I never did it to my gun, somone else did. Now I need to figure out how to do it myself. So... you say Drano does the job. Hmmh...

[Lurker27]

Heavy duty easy off oven cleaner is the way to go. Spray it on, wipe it off. I used it to strip my in progress angel of mass destruction.

If it says its safe for your skin, or is anything but deadly when swallowed, tis too weak....get the RED can. If took tar off my driveway, ate thorugh the newspaper i used as bedding, and removedf the fingerprint off the finger i used to remove my lye-soaked plugs that kept the stuff out of my marker....thats right, one finger was noticeably smoother than the rest.

DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH LYE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

[jesseyo13]

Thanks, I have the yellow can. I got a little in a very small cut on my finger yesterday :cry: . Ill be more careful today. Ill try to get some pics of my detents before and after!