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The Renaissance Man said:
@CRASH , do you know what the thread size is for that barrel adjuster?

I'm hoping that I can extract what's left and replace it.
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It depends. Some were larger than others. So me checking one of mine may not be correct. But we can try. It’ll be a day or two before I can get one to a hardware store to check.
 
No worries. I thought you might know off of the top of your head.

I took the jam nut off of the barrel and have it soaking in vinegar. I'll check the thread pitch after I get it cleaned up. I've found some online, but I just need to confirm the size before I order one.
IMG_6082.JPG
 
The Renaissance Man said:
No worries. I thought you might know off of the top of your head.

I took the jam nut off of the barrel and have it soaking in vinegar. I'll check the thread pitch after I get it cleaned up. I've found some online, but I just need to confirm the size before I order one.
View attachment 247096
Click to expand...
Threading on Shimano is pretty standard but double check
 
Here's a trick that I came up with several years ago for making an OA bathtub for frames. Some people use kiddie pools but that would take a LOT of water! The bike frame has a very small surface area compared to the overall shape. So to help minimize the amount of water required to submerge the entire frame, I first lay out a parameter and use whatever is on hand to fill in voids.

First I do a dry run to check everything. The box needs to be at least an inch or two taller than the frame. Also. because this frame is narrow at the head tube and wide at the rear, I placed the box on a sloped area of ground to save a little more water. The shallow end of the pool gets the narrow headtube end of the bike. I also check to see if the frame will fit the pool laying on either side so that I can flip it from time to time.
100_8052.JPG

I actually filled in more of the spaces around the edges after this photo.

After the test fit, I covered all sharp edges with towels and laid some plastic sheeting into the space. The water will push out most of the voids as it fills up. The overall size of the plastic needs to be about two to three times as wide as it is deep around the edge so that it doesn't pull over into the pool from the weight of the water.
100_8054.JPG


The space in front of the seat tube could have been blocked out to save more water but I left it open for other parts after the frame was done.

100_8056.JPG


In the end, it took around 9 gallons of water.
 
CRASH said:
Did you measure the amount of QA ratio to the water you used? I don't. I just throw some in and hope for the best. :D Maybe that's why mine looks like nuclear waste after a day or two. o_O
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Yes, I put one tablespoon per gallon. It's also vital to get the water as hot as possible for the best suspension. I heat mine till it starts to boil (one gallon at a time) on the stove. And then take it outside to pour it into a plastic bucket for mixing with the OA before pouring it into the pool.

As it cools the OA starts settling on the parts and is difficult to remove from painted surfaces. Chrome parts can stand up to more aggressive scrubbing so I do them last if I'm using the same solution for multiple parts.

The water was still around 100 degrees toward the end of the day and starting to get a lot of junk mixed with it when I put the last round in. These parts stayed in overnight and it still did a good job. Notice that I lifted the plastic and removed the cinder block spacer so that I would have room for the wheels.
100_8057.JPG


I didn't think to get a morning-after shot but the water was completely clear and all of the solids had settled on the parts and on the bottom of the pool. I used a soft scrub pad to clean them with clean rinse water mixed with baking soda.
 
I didn't intend to make a tutorial on Oxalic-Acid Baths, but since I have already posted some info I thought it would be useful to summarize all of the process that I can think of. I've only done this a couple of times and I had to do some research again to remind myself of some things this time. So having it in one place is as much for me as anyone else in the future.

First though is a disclaimer: I'm in no way an expert on any of this so proceed at your own risk!

Here's what I've learned from others and from my own experience.



1) Disassemble your parts and clean them thoroughly before everything else.

2) Make a plan for what parts are to be done and in what order. I chose the most fragile painted parts first to give them the best shot.

3) Build a container around your parts while minimizing the amount of water needed. (See previous post above) Place it in direct sunlight if possible to help maintain the heat as much as possible.

4) Before starting the OA mix, have everything ready such as rubber gloves, safety glasses, plastic bucket, scrub pads (I used the white non-scratch pads), old toothbrush, etc.

5) Heat the water to the boiling point if possible, transfer it to a plastic bucket, and add 1 tablespoon of OA powder to one gallon of water. Pour the solution into your pool. Pouring from the bucket to the pool is sufficient for mixing.

6) Once the pool is full and the parts start soaking, help it along by taking the piece out after 30 minutes or so and scrub it lightly with a scrub pad and clean water to remove loose scale. Rinse and repeat until you're happy with it. This is more important on paint than chrome to make sure it doesn't stay too long and remove the paint. Taking parts out to clean and rinse keeps the solution cleaner and more effective.

7) After removing the part for the last time rinse and flush thoroughly. (I actually took my frame in the house and submerged it in our bathtub with cool water and baking soda to neutralize any AO left on the inside of the frame.) Dry everything and blow out the inside of frame tubes with compressed air if you can. Then spray WD-40 liberally inside of the frame tilting and rotating to cover as much of the tubes as possible to prevent flash rust. Lastly, spray and wipe WD-40 on the outside.

8) Place any other parts in the bath as soon as any space opens up. Add more hot water and AO as needed.

9) Chrome parts that are easy to scrub clean like chain rings, cranks, handlebars, etc. can be left unattended for longer without as much concern about the 'yellow film' that will collect with time.

10) Emptying the water out into the ground is not harmful from what I understand. However, if you are concerned about it, dump some baking soda into the solution first to neutralize it.



If anyone else can think of anything else, let me know and I'll add to this for future reference.
 
The Renaissance Man said:
I didn't intend to make a tutorial on Oxalic-Acid Baths, but since I have already posted some info I thought it would be useful to summarize all of the process that I can think of. I've only done this a couple of times and I had to do some research again to remind myself of some things this time. So having it in one place is as much for me as anyone else in the future.

First though is a disclaimer: I'm in no way an expert on any of this so proceed at your own risk!

Here's what I've learned from others and from my own experience.



1) Disassemble your parts and clean them as much as possible before everything else.

2) Make a plan for what parts are to be done and in what order. I chose the most fragile painted parts first to give them the best shot.

3) Build a container around your parts while minimizing the amount of water needed. (See previous post above) Place it in direct sunlight if possible to help maintain the heat as much as possible.

4) Before starting the OA mix, have everything ready such as rubber gloves, safety glasses, plastic bucket, scrub pads (I used the white non-scratch pads), old toothbrush, etc.

5) Heat the water to the boiling point if possible, transfer it to a plastic bucket, and add 1 tablespoon of OA powder to one gallon of water. Pour the solution into your pool. Pouring from the bucket to the pool is sufficient for mixing.

6) Once the pool is full and the parts start soaking, help it along by taking the piece out after 30 minutes or so and scrub it lightly with a scrub pad and clean water to remove loose scale. Rinse and repeat until you're happy with it. This is more important on paint than chrome to make sure it doesn't stay too long and remove the paint. Taking parts out to clean and rinse keeps the solution cleaner and more effective.

7) After removing the part for the last time rinse and flush as much as possible. (I actually took my frame in the house and submerged it in our bathtub with cool water and baking soda to neutralize any AO left on the inside of the frame.) Dry everything and blow out the inside of frame tubes with compressed air if you can. Then spray WD-40 liberally inside of the frame tilting and rotating to cover as much of the tubes as possible to prevent flash rust. Lastly, spray and wipe WD-40 on the outside.

8) Place any other parts in the bath as soon as any space opens up. Add more hot water and AO as needed.

9) Chrome parts that are easy to scrub clean like chain rings, cranks, handlebars, etc. can be left unattended without as much concern about the 'green snow' that will collect with time.

10) Emptying the water out into the ground is not harmful from what I understand. However, if you are concerned about it, dump some baking soda into the solution first to neutralize it.



If anyone else can think of anything else, let me know and I'll add to this for future reference.
Click to expand...
This is great and something that comes up quite often should move it to it's own thread so we can find easier.
 
There were enough threads left on the broken barrel adjuster to check and M5 seemed to check out.
IMG_6096.JPG


So I drilled the barrel just enough before reaching the threads making it thin enough to chip out with an awl. Thankfully it was aluminum so it was pretty soft and fairly easy to gouge out.
IMG_6089.JPG



I followed up with an M5 tap to clear it out completely.
IMG_6090.JPG



It's ready for a replacement barrel. :)
IMG_6094.JPG
 

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