What’s the best and safest way to de-ano a yoyo?
I’m wondering how too.
I’ve heard people use oven cleaner and drain cleaner, but I’ve never tried myself. I used sandpaper, though. Safest, I don’t really know how safe oven/drain cleaner is. Sandpaper, I guess is fine if you don’t inhale to powder.
there are a couple vids on youtube telling you to use this stuff called drano gel which chemically removes the ano but the vids also say that if you get the gel on your hand it can erode your skin lol
Oven cleaner works
What’s the oven cleaner method?
A lot of substances that you can use to ‘de-ano’ a yoyo contains lye, a highly caustic chemical.
If you really have to ask, you shouldn’t be doing it. And if you must, be sure to have an adult’s supervision (and for gosh sake their permission as well).
Alternatively, you could send it to one of the nice fellows on the forum who will gladly strip your yoyo for a small fee. Two names that come to mind are mullicabob and yoyospirit.
What I do is I spray a bunch of oven cleaner into a old container then water it down and dip a old rag in it and rub off the ano.
Couldn’t help myself, I will try not to, CAN’T RESIST- everyone’s got it wrong (sort of).
Since ano comes off when you ding it on concrete or whatever, obviously something coarse like concrete- Sandpaper.
Buy a extra axle for the yoyo you wish to strip, get a drill, some sandpaper ranging from 500+ nothing to coarse.
You put the yoyo on the drill and get your sandpaper, start with the lowest to highest - 500-1000-5000 anywhere in that range.
Let the yoyo spin on the drill at the highest speed, then touch the sandpaper to the yoyo, you should see the ano getting scratched, and slowly going away that’s when you change SP. Once you get most of the ano off and you can see the metal you need to change again. And keep changing slowly. The purpose of getting higher grit towards the end is so the yoyo doesn’t look all scratched up.
If you plan on polishing the yoyo, put the yoyo on the drill, spin, and rub some of the polish on. Then if you can see some scratches (wich you will) get some Scratch Remover. Car scratch remover by 3M was recommended to me by Dingo54.
But as Link mentioned, if your not that kind of person that likes to do things and possibly mess up- we recommend “Mullicabob” and “yoyo spirit”
No one here is “wrong”. Oven cleaner is the quickest, easiest, not to mention, least expensive way to remove anodization. It is ~$1 for a spray can of it from WalMart.
All you do is get a bowl of some sort, put on some protective goggles and gloves. Place yoyo halves in bowl and spray oven cleaner on them. Leave for only a few minutes then remove halves and wipe clean of chemicals with a rag. Assess the ano removal and repeat process as necessary.
Do not leave the yoyo unattended or it is likely you will forget about it and then the aluminum will be destroyed, depending on how long you’ve left it.
Do not get chemicals in your eyes!
Oven cleaner!
Take your time first and foremost. I don’t soak mine but rather spray it on and use a small stiff brush and scrub throughout the process. It guards against pitting from allowing it to soak, much more controlled. Once you get to the point that the ano is gone make sure you rinse the piece off so to stop the reaction. I like to use a detergent and generous amounts of water for this.
Do it outside and use eye protection and latex gloves. Be careful and patient you get what you put into it.
This thread is funny cause I use most of the stuff you guys are suggesting in my chemistry labs 
^^^ Chemistry is a very useful. 
I have to agree, it is a very useful!
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A word of warning… Stripping a yoyo properly to the point of being able to flawlessly anodize it again is a painstaking process. It is sometimes more work to strip the yoyo than to anodize it (depending on the colorway of course).
If you embark on this process, be prepared to put in a significant amount of time and effort.
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I did put, “a very useful class” but then changed it and forgot to remove the “a”.
Yes, it really is lol. Don’t think it’s harder than anodizing a yoyo though. I hate stripping it more than polishing the yoyo.