rusty76

Inquiring minds want to know -- actually I want to know, how well do the various non-commercial rust removal methods work. I've done some reading on the web and noted 2 methods I wanted to try, vinegar and salt and molasses and water. I chose to try vinegar and salt first.

I don't have much rusty steel laying around so I had to walk around the corners of the yard and finally found this. It's the rustiest thing I have. If you're interested read on, if not, "these aren't the 'droids you're looking for, you can go about your business, move along".

rusty76

I scraped the heaviest flakes off but didn't waste too much time since the point was to see what the vinegar and salt could do.

The vinegar was generic white vinegar I get from the grocery store and the salt was some kosher salt I happened to have in the kitchen cabinet. I really wasn't sure of the ratio but I recalled reading one thread somewhere on the web in which the guy said he added salt till no more would dissolve in the vinegar so that's what I did. If you look closely you can see the undissolved salt around the edge of the container bottom.

rusty76

Here is a picture of the cap after 24 hours. The reaction is just starting.

bazza77

rusty76

48 hours. Obviously something significant is taking place in there but I didn't want to disturb it yet to look.

rusty76

72 hours. Nice crusty scum happening at this point.

rusty76

96 hours. Nice and crusty now.

rusty76

Here are the after pictures. I took them outside so the lighting would be the same as the before pics. I wouldn't have thought there would be any paint left under all that rust but, surprisingly, there was.

bazza77

well that's impressive . Looks like it would take a while to get into the heavily pitted areas . But if anything's that pitted its more than likely no good anyway.

very impressed , I have done the Bi-Carb Soda one in water with a battery charger and while a bit quicker ,had a very similar result . Your way looks way less hassle .

Thanks for posting that.

treywhite

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Will have to keep this method in mind.

rusty76

I wanted to see if I could get rid of ALL the rust without using a lot of elbow grease so I waited 5 days. I checked the part after 24, and 48 hours and there were good results then as well. When I pulled the part out this afternoon I hit it with a wire brush on a drill but I don't think I needed to do that. I think a tooth brushing would have been enough. Yes this method was very easy, virtually no effort. Less rusted parts could probably have been pulled after 24 or 48 hours.

I'm really looking forward to trying the molasses and water but I have to wait till it's warm enough outside to promote the fermentation of the molasses. Vinegar and salt would be good for parts up to medium size but, with vinegar at about $2.50/gal., I don't think I'd want to buy enough to treat a really large part.

rusty76

I had read that. I had also read that adding the salt speeds up the process. I guess the only way to decide if there's any difference would be to have 2 parts that were exactly the same, compositionally, with exactly the same amount of rust submerged in separate but identical containers in the same room and the same moment and then measure the progress of each part over time. Doggoneit, if I'd thought about it I would have cut my part in half to test that!

bazza77

really if that's the case then its better than the way I did mine, the sacrificial steel has to be "line of sight "for it to work properly so I had to either weld up a frame of scrap steel to surround the item (a bare trailing arm ) or move the scrap steel around it to get it to work properly .

thanks again.

rusty76

Thanks for that feedback. It helps bring some clarity to one of the threads I read about electrolysis. The thread poster, not on this forum, used a 5 gallon bucket and he had it ringed with lengths of rebar 360 degrees with the part hung in the center. I didn't understand why he did that until I saw the comment about 'line-of-sight' in another thread and now this post from you brings it fully into focus.

bazza77

I have the opposite problem , my shed was 42* C (107F) a few minutes ago so I had to abandon my work until the sun goes down.

MAD IN NC

You can powder coat with that temp you all been having this summer in Oz....

rusty76

Yea, but it's a dry heat.

bazza77

I WISH , its the humidity that's making it worse here .

but its all good inside with a couple of beers

shenango

White vinegar is a very good cleaning solution. I cleaned a carb last summer with a 50/50 water vinegar solution boiled on my outside grill. I separated the carb into the 3 main sections and boiled each section for 30 minutes. A quick rinse with a garden hose and parts were clean, blow out small passages and you're done. The boiling will remove any oil or grease and the vinegar removes any corrosion and it is not flammable like some chemical carb cleaners. Make sure you remove any electrical or vacuum equipment first.
Jerry

Rescue Rogers

great thread, New project for me