i just read a thread where someone deanodized a stem with oven cleaner and polished it up with metal polish, and i'd like to do this to an old crankset and chainring i have. will is compromise the strength of the chainring at all?

No, it will not compromise the strength. As long as you are just using metal polish, you'll never get the part hot enough to do any damage.

Oven cleaner?

I am looking for a similar product to remove the anodised layer on a cranck set. Somewhere I read it could be done with a product to purge bathroom tubing.

Does oven cleaner contain ammonia?

Oven cleaner is a strong caustic. Don't leave it on too long or you may have pitting to polish out. Anodize can be removed with 220-400 grit sandpaper, prior to polishing, also. With professional buffing equipment, it can even be buffed off with a coarse compound.

Those contemplating the removal of the original anodize and polishing parts should know that the polished parts will tarnish and corrode much faster than before, requiring periodic applications of polish like Mother's and/or automotive cleaner/wax products to keep the parts looking good.

Some alloys are more corrosion resistant than others. The 7075 alloy used for chainrings isn't nearly as tarnish resistant as 6061. Items like stems and brake will be made of other alloys suited to casting and forging.

Keeping them polished is not a problem. I spend a few minutes per month on all of my bikes. Just don't touch them and try not to let them get wet after they're polished.

Easy off spray oven cleaner works great for removing anodizing.

Just a friendly bit of advice, when polishing chainrings with a grinder use extreme caution or it will become a giant ninja star.

https://www.jestcoproducts.com/index....d&productId=20
https://www.fixedgeargallery.com/articles/polishing/

Both oven cleaner and drain declogger are lye. Caustic stuff, but predictable. It offgasses hydrogen, of all things, so don't do it in a little room with open flame or sparks. Hydrogen isn't poisonous or anything, and lye dissolves in water, so follow the safety instructions on the container and you'll be fine.

Anodization is a pretty excellent process, though, and you should probably consider having it re-annoed clear. Here's a guy explaining how to do it yourself, if you want to. Here's another description. Reading that, I sure want to.

Get a box of SOS pads remove the soap from them put some in water and squeeze it out let dry. NOTE: Only SOS pads work good no brillo pads or other fine steel pads I don't know why but it is!.
Polish them when done use Mothers or Never-dull to polish will look like chrome i've been doing this for years on many things will be glassy smooth and shine like chrome.

There is some speculation that using steel wool sets up an oxidation when used on aluminium(all those little fibers get lodged in the metal, I guess). So, some suggest using aluminium wool on aluminium parts. Steel and aluminium don't play nice together over the long run.

Well I have done this many times and its only done once with the wool after you just use polish and oxides no faster than any other raw finish the polish helps that process out, I have a stem that was done about 6 months ago and have yet to apply polish again and its still shiny but its also indoors when stored, but hay its just my way of doing it.