shimano crankset refinishing

Scotty said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura ace
crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of it. I
was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for any
help. Scott

"sweat etched"? that's unusual.

you could polish and clear-coat them, but be very careful not to abrade
too much material, particularly in the region of the arm/spider
transition. but unless you already have the gear, cost of doing that to
a decent standard will probably exceed cost of replacement.

hi scott,

You can get them anodized. They pretty much would look like new or better.
Check for anodizing service in your area. Every area in the U.S. has this
service. I don't know what the cost is you can call or email for a quote. On
the interior spline, I believe that you must coat it with something to
prevent the anodizing from changing the clearence. The anodizing will make
the surface as hard as diamonds.
greg 🙂
"Scotty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura ace
crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of it.
I was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for
any help. Scott

Scotty said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura ace
crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of it. I
was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for any
help.

If you have a lot of time before the snow melts where you are, sand off
the anodizing with 400 then 600 wet sandpaper, follow with a buffing
compound and then a Simichrome polish. You'll end up with a crank that
has a TA type finish, albeit heavier. An annual cleanup will keep it bright.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

"Scotty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura

ace

Quoted message said:

crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of

it. I

Quoted message said:

was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for

any

Quoted message said:

help. Scott

Rode hard and put away wet?

Most Shimano cranks had at least light anodized surface. If so, the old
anodizing would need to be stripped off before they could be re-anodized.
A competent facility that does anodizing can probably do that but check to
see how much material would be etched off before letting someone do the
work.

If the cranks are badly corroded they would need to be re-polished.

Anodized aluminum is composed of aluminum oxide and is rather inert. I've
seen so many pro bikes recently with rusted top tubes and other areas
under the location of the rider's face and head. What are you people
eating or drinking that's making your perspiration so acidic?

I sweat more than most people and when I used to have to take a lot of
aspirin my perspiration was really corrosive but not like what I've seen
lately.

Chas.

Scotty said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura ace
crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of it. I
was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for any
help. Scott

Look closely at my retro-Lightning:
http://home.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/photos/photo_3.html
The crankarms are actually old Campy BMX arms that were originally
blue anodized, just like this:
http://www.kingkog.com/kogshop/images/campychris.jpg

I sanded off the anodizing (by hand) with wet 600 grit sandpaper, then
smoothed them (by hand) with rubbing compound and them finished them
(by hand) with polishing compound. I used No.7 products, which are
available just about anywhere, but I understand that Mother's products
also have their following.

(All that hand work encompassed a couple weeks, part-time, of sitting
on the couch and working out the imperfections. If you start now, you
may have yours ready for riding season.)

Every year or two, I remove the cranks and polish them up. They don't
dull all that much, but enough to make the new polish worthwhile. Your
environment may be different- I don't know what harsh road chemicals
and sweat would do to the unanodized surface. I don't ride that bike
as much as it deserves, so YMMV.

Jeff

Yes the corrosion is my fault. To lazy to rinse it off. Maybe it not the
sweat, could be the apple juice/water thats in my bottles ?

"* * Chas" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Scotty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura

ace

Quoted message said:

crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of

it. I

Quoted message said:

was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks for

any

Quoted message said:

help. Scott

Rode hard and put away wet?

Most Shimano cranks had at least light anodized surface. If so, the old
anodizing would need to be stripped off before they could be re-anodized.
A competent facility that does anodizing can probably do that but check to
see how much material would be etched off before letting someone do the
work.

If the cranks are badly corroded they would need to be re-polished.

Anodized aluminum is composed of aluminum oxide and is rather inert. I've
seen so many pro bikes recently with rusted top tubes and other areas
under the location of the rider's face and head. What are you people
eating or drinking that's making your perspiration so acidic?

I sweat more than most people and when I used to have to take a lot of
aspirin my perspiration was really corrosive but not like what I've seen
lately.

Chas.

"JeffWills" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Scotty said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura

ace

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of

it. I

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks

for any

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

help. Scott

Look closely at my retro-Lightning:
http://home.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/photos/photo_3.html
The crankarms are actually old Campy BMX arms that were originally
blue anodized, just like this:
http://www.kingkog.com/kogshop/images/campychris.jpg

I sanded off the anodizing (by hand) with wet 600 grit sandpaper, then
smoothed them (by hand) with rubbing compound and them finished them
(by hand) with polishing compound. I used No.7 products, which are
available just about anywhere, but I understand that Mother's products
also have their following.

(All that hand work encompassed a couple weeks, part-time, of sitting
on the couch and working out the imperfections. If you start now, you
may have yours ready for riding season.)

Every year or two, I remove the cranks and polish them up. They don't
dull all that much, but enough to make the new polish worthwhile. Your
environment may be different- I don't know what harsh road chemicals
and sweat would do to the unanodized surface. I don't ride that bike
as much as it deserves, so YMMV.

Jeff

Bare aluminum instantly corrodes when exposed to the oxygen in the air. It
forms a thin layer of aluminum oxide which is exactly what anodizing is
except much thicker.

The tin layer of "corrosion" is why aluminum is so corrosion resistant.
I've seen some light corrosion of aluminum parts if I let sweat dry on sit
on them for a long time.

Chas.

Scotty said:

I have a low mileage dura ace
crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched.

If this is a 9spd crank, they are polished and clearcoated, and if you
get a scratch through the clearcoat they can corrode badly (in Hawaii,
mine sure did). I've seen some that were refinished to a mirror polish
and they looked very nice... but I have no idea if that shine would
last. I don't know about getting them anodized either... if that would
have worked well, I wonder why Shimano didn't do that to begin with.

The quality of crank refinishing is inversely proportional to the
amount of aluminum that you have to remove to refinish the crankset.

Start by using EZ-OFF or pure lye to remove the anodization layer.
wear gloves in a well-ventilated area and scrub oven cleaner onto the
crank to remove the anodization layer. This is the least-damaging way
to remove anodization. Then use 400-600/800-1000-2000 grit sand paper
(visit an autoparts store) to finish off the sanding. If you have no
wear to speak of you can probably start with 1000-grit paper. At that
point, polish with simichrome or nevr dull. You may decide to just
leave it as a polished crank - wax it or cover it with boeshield T-9
anti-corrosion compound.

Also available from www.vcgraphix.com are heavy-duty stick-on plastic
covers for your crank arms so that toe rub will not dig into your
crankarm surface.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

* * Chas said:

"JeffWills" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Scotty said:

Hello all Can a crankset be reasonably refinished some how ? Like
anodized or some other type of refinishing ? I have a low mileage dura

ace

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

crankset that I allowed to get sweat etched. I can't stand the look of

it. I

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

was thinking of replacing the arms. With the cost of new arms, I got a
brainstorm that maybe it could be refinished for less money. Thanks

for any

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

help. Scott

Quoted message said:

Look closely at my retro-Lightning:
http://home.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/photos/photo_3.html
The crankarms are actually old Campy BMX arms that were originally
blue anodized, just like this:
http://www.kingkog.com/kogshop/images/campychris.jpg

Bare aluminum instantly corrodes when exposed to the oxygen in the air. It
forms a thin layer of aluminum oxide which is exactly what anodizing is
except much thicker.

The tin layer of "corrosion" is why aluminum is so corrosion resistant.
I've seen some light corrosion of aluminum parts if I let sweat dry on sit
on them for a long time.

A nice thing about riding a recumbent- sweat usually doesn't drip on
the cranks. :-)

Jeff

"Donald Gillies" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The quality of crank refinishing is inversely proportional to the
amount of aluminum that you have to remove to refinish the crankset.

Start by using EZ-OFF or pure lye to remove the anodization layer.
wear gloves in a well-ventilated area and scrub oven cleaner onto the
crank to remove the anodization layer. This is the least-damaging way
to remove anodization. Then use 400-600/800-1000-2000 grit sand paper
(visit an autoparts store) to finish off the sanding. If you have no
wear to speak of you can probably start with 1000-grit paper. At that
point, polish with simichrome or nevr dull. You may decide to just
leave it as a polished crank - wax it or cover it with boeshield T-9
anti-corrosion compound.

Also available from www.vcgraphix.com are heavy-duty stick-on plastic
covers for your crank arms so that toe rub will not dig into your
crankarm surface.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

Never though of using lye (sodium hydroxide) to remove anodizing.

If the OP has access to a bench grinder, he can probably get a buffing
wheel for it and use some buffing compound to make the job easier.

Chas.