The Shop > Finishing

Rust Removal

(1/12) > >>

Darren:
I decided I wanted to try something different this evening.....so I thought I'd have a go at electrolytic rust removal..... :ddb:

Having read up on a couple of sites it looked simple enough so I had a dig around to see what I had to do the job....

The kitchen cupboard revealed these two ingredients.....a good start



The subject was to be the base plate from my pillar drill which I've had for many years...rather neglected you might say...



I rigged up a half barrel for the container with some sacrificial steel bars for the anodes....(the negative poles)
Along with my car battery charger...which turned out to be useless for this application as it stated the battery had too low a charge so wouldn't switch on. It does this for low batteries as well which is really helpful.... Automation...who needs it.....
:doh:



So I dug out a "proper" power supply from my collection....proper as it will give full control over voltage and current unlike a battery charger.
Apparently control over current is more important than voltage and we don't want too much of either.



The subject to be de-rusted is connected to the negative making it the cathode.

This is approx one hr later, the water was has gone from perfectly clear to mud in a very short space of time....



Some figures,

I decided to use caustic Soda as it's stronger and should help to loosen any paint. About 100g in this tub
(edit, that's a mistake....I used Soda Crystals not Caustic Soda)

Voltage is around 4.5V and current is 500ma

(the soda is to help the water become a better conductor)


Now to leave it overnight and have a look again tomorrow to see how it's getting on...... :)

Darren:
And this is what I was greeted with when I opened the garage door today.....looks promising..... :ddb:



That crud it about 2" thick





Time to dig it out and see where we are



A quick brush over (no hard work here btw) and it's nice to see what's left of the paint almost fall off



It's hard to tell from the pic, but this is down to the bare cast iron with very little rust left. Mostly what was hiding under the paint that was still attached.



So it's gone back in the tub for another blast.....I could do with a full size barrel instead of one cut in half to do the whole lot in one go...

Stilldrillin:
Very nicely done Darren!   :clap:

The gloop looks very similar to school dinner tomato soup.......  :lol: :lol:

David D

Stefan Pynappels:
Well done, are you going to paint it again or protect it some other way?

Darren:

--- Quote from: spynappels on August 24, 2009, 08:05:27 AM ---Well done, are you going to paint it again or protect it some other way?

--- End quote ---

No, I'm going to leave it outside to see how quick I can get it to rust up again...... :lol:


Yes, a re-paint in on the cards...prob be another thread  :thumbup:

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page