Refinishing Painted or Anodized Mountain Bike Components

A. I've personally never heard of paint strippers having an adverse reaction on steel parts. Aluminum is sensitive to a number of things, so some paint strippers could affect it.

As to the oven cleaner, again I can't see this having any effect on steel parts. It's used on aluminum parts to remove the anodized finish, and it definitely will attack the aluminum base metal as well. The way to strip anodized coatings from important aluminum parts is with chromic-phosphoric stripping solutions which dissolves anodizing but does not affect aluminum. Good luck.

A. YES INDEED SOME TYPES OF PAINT STRIPPER CAN DAMAGE ALUMINUM. ESPECIALLY IF IT'S LEFT ON THE MATERIAL TOO LONG. THE BEST TYPE OF STRIPPER , AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC IS Tal-Strip [ed.note: this product is largely (60%+) methylene chloride; most users should consider substituting a less toxic stripper these days] AIRCRAFT STRIPPER. THE BEST AND MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO STRIP ANODIZING OFF OF ALLOY IS TO GO TO YOUR LOCAL RADIATOR SHOP OR PLATING SHOP, AS THEY HAVE HOT CAUSTIC. IT WILL WORK FAST AND EFFICIENTLY AS OPPOSED TO YOUR OVEN CLEANER, THAT WILL NOT STRIP CONSISTENTLY. EITHER OF THEM SHOULD BE RINSED VERY THOROUGHLY, AS THE CAUSTIC CAN BE CORROSIVE IF DEPOSITS ARE LEFT BEHIND, OR INSIDE YOUR FRAME , OR OTHER pieces. YEA