This is all very true, but lye is used in cleaning aluminum. When
I was a wee lad of 16, I did some anodizing commercially, and the first
step was to take the aluminum object, and put it into a 100F heated
tank of NaOH (lye). The concentration was such that it made your hands
feel very soapy. The aluminum objects went next into a rinse tank, and
then into a tank of sulfuric acid where a small current was applied.
After the sulfuric acid, the parts went straight into a dye tank, and
then straight into boiling water. The boiling water closed the aluminum
oxide cells, and trapped the color.
That said, never put lye, or any other alkaline, on aluminum. It will
do great damage if it isn't done in a very controlled fashion. You can't
do it in a controlled fashion to a finished piece of equipment like a scope.
Follow Stan's instructions, and wash with a mild detergent, such as Simple
Green, and rinse in deionized water. Keep the transformers out of the
water stream. Fashion a convection oven out of a large cardboard box,
and a heater, and a fan, and cook the scope at 50C (~120F) for 24 hours.
-Chuck Harris
Don Black wrote:
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Definitely don't put Lye (caustic soda) anywhere near aluminium, it will dissolve it. It was commonly used to clean cast iron cylinder heads of carbon, etc. which it does very well, however on aluminium heads it's a disaster. One case was an aluminium motor cycle head that was "cleaned" by looping a wire through the inlet and exhaust valve ports to support it in a lye bath. When withdrawn all that remained on the wire were two stellite rings (the valve seats) and a pool of sludge in the tank bottom ( the dissolved aluminium head). Ouch!!!
Don Black.
theardvark2003 wrote:
To bulk transport Aluminum it is dissolved in concentrated Lye. I
would NOT suggest cleaning aluminum with any kind of Lye solution
unless you want to dissolve the scope.
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