NotSoBigBen Posted March 21, 2009 Share Hello folks, I have some silver FSA Gossamer cranks but the crank arms are somewhat marked.I want to polish them up, whats the best polish/paste to use? Can I do it with just a cloth or is a buffing wheel on a drill/grinder needed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted March 21, 2009 Share two words: so g..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turtlek Posted March 21, 2009 Share BB i once used one of those sanding disks with "Fine" grain but it left grooves in the crank i would rather suggest a very light water paper and a bit of brasso and some good elbow grease Happy working!!turtlek2009-03-21 10:37:22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotSoBigBen Posted March 21, 2009 Share two words: so g..... Bit rich from an oke standing in a field with a pink boa and buck nekkid eh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed Posted March 21, 2009 Share two words: so g..... ? Bit rich from an oke standing in a field with a <FONT size=7>pink boa and buck nekkid eh that's confidence... as a very wise girl told me recently, if you try too much to look the part, you don't look the part dude, you even embarass the specialized range. mr sinyard is concernerd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtbreath Posted March 21, 2009 Share Gossamer cranks? You want to be safe on your ride? Where's that little pinkie and thumb? There is an xtr crank for sale here. It has been polished. Google the mod and it comes up with some info. Sorry I'd find it for you but battling a bit with navigation and menus at the moment. I would think a dremel is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big H Posted March 21, 2009 Share I tried to do it once and it really is difficult. Not really worth it. I eventually had the crank powder coated in black. That worked very well. I suppose with a large cloth buff and the correct buffing compond or rouge and judicious work and patience you should be able to do it. I used to do it with gun parts to polish them before they were blued. Aluminium or alloys are just much softer and care must be taken not to remove material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Bornman Posted March 21, 2009 Share Hendrik is right, it is difficult. But, persist and you'll do it. The coating that keeps the crank silver is anodising. It is as hard as hell. However, it can be removed by using fine water paper. Sand it in a bucket of water or keep on splashing water on the sandpaper to give it some extra bike and extra life.Once all the anodising is off, you can quickly polish it with some Brasso - that'll go quick compared to taking off the anodising. However, within hours it will go dull from reacting with the atmosphere. Now you should have a strategy in place to keep it shiny. You can anodise it again or just put some clear lacquer on. This is much softer than anodising and will quickly show scrapes. Keep on touching it up until you get tired of it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted March 21, 2009 Share Dont waste your time sanding off anodizing... will take forever and make marks... Just take it to an anodising shop and let them hard anodize it... OR... Use some drain cleaner in water and submerge the anodized sections in a bucket with drain cleaner/water... it will take 5 to 15 minutes to completely dissolve the anodizing and will leave you with a pretty bright and clean alu finish... when the water/drain cleaner mix is right... the arms will start fizzing after a few seconds... I use about half a cup drain cleaner per 2 litres water... If you leave the arms in the drain cleaner too long, it will start etching the arms and give a matt finish... The initial appearance will be grey like... but just rinse in water for bright silver/clean alu look... I use drain cleaner to clean alu before anodizing and it works perfectly... NB.... be careful... add little amounts drain cleaner to water at a time while stirring... wear goggles and old clothes + rubber gloves... will dissolve your fingernails without gloves... ask me... anything the drain cleaner drips on will be dissolved in time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javadude Posted March 21, 2009 Share My other favourite forum, vintagebmx.com, has a handy polishing tutorial. These guys take their restorations quite seriously: http://www.vintagebmx.com/community/index.php?showtopic=4005471 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted March 21, 2009 Share Nice examples in the link above... Some examples of my own restoration work... In most cases corrosion is removed via abrasives until fine grade (or untill marks removed) Then polished (buff, flex shaft/dremel, mini wool buffs, impregnated rubber wheels etc.) and then gold or silver plated... Alu polishes a lot harder than Bronze but with the right buffing compound it's not that hard... http://www.jgerber.com/otto-link.htm http://www.jgerber.com/serviced/lelandais_super/index.htm http://www.jgerber.com/serviced/link_hole/index.htm http://www.jgerber.com/serviced/link_master/index.htm Good luck! Easiest still would be to just get it hard anodized.. they'll remove existing anodizing and do the magic... I've also seen very pretty examples of ceramic coating on cranks on eBay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudsimus Posted March 22, 2009 Share I polished a set of chorus cranks to a mirror finish using jewelry polishing machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Bornman Posted March 22, 2009 Share Nice examples in the link above... Some examples of my own restoration work... In most cases corrosion is removed via abrasives until fine grade (or untill marks removed) Then polished (buff' date=' flex shaft/dremel, mini wool buffs, impregnated rubber wheels etc.) and then gold or silver plated... [/quote'] Damn, that's nice work! I have several brass carriage clocks that show some tarnishing. I was thinking of polishing those up and gold-plating them to keep the shine. Is that a good idea? But back to the topic...I like your tip of removing anodising with caustic soda. I'm going to try it immediately. I want to remove it myself because my experience with re-anodising something wasn't good. I thought that either the old anodising wasn't removed consistently or, the job was somehow not given the TLC that I would have liked and think that if I control the base layer I'll get a better job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted March 22, 2009 Share I have several brass carriage clocks that show some tarnishing. I was thinking of polishing those up and gold-plating them to keep the shine. Is that a good idea? Johan, I think it's a good idea. Amount of effort needed will be determined by the amount of intricate detail... some face plates have lots of detail, seems like the outer parts will be easily polished. Can brush plate surfaces without submersion in a tank. Let me know if you need help, I do 24K gold plating. Topic: Did you manage to try out the Caustic Soda/ Drain Cleaner? With some parts I had to leave the part in the solution much longer to get all the anno off. With others a lot less time... I did the re-anodizing at home with battery acid and power supply... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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