The Shop > Finishing
Rust Removal
Darren:
John, Sorry if I sounded dismissive, it wasn't meant to be offensive, but rather hopefully informative.
You were referring to a small part, that could be done on the bench in a jam jar, 1/4 teaspoon of soda and either a car battery charger or an old mobile phone charger
(but this should be done outside because of the explosive hydrogen gas produced, so room really doesn't come into it for most people)
Smaller parts should take less time so it might be done in an hour.
But rather than spend £12, a 26p jar of vinegar would achieve exactly the same result and come with it's own jar. I also gave some other options.
I have over the years had the need to de-rust many parts, and as such tried most methods inc an awful lot of propriety products. I have even imported them from the US at great cost.
Of them all just one product shone above all the rest, (in fact the rest gave pretty mediocre results in my opinion) a product called "Metal Ready" from the US but don't expect it to be cheap as it comes in gallons. They all share one thing in common, they contain acids of some description that does the work. The rest of the goo is just a carrier.
The truth is vinegar or builders cement mixer cleaner are not only cheap but is also just about as effective. cement cleaner esp so. Heck it the same acid as the propriety products use and normally at a 16% concentration so it's stronger.
I have never tried electrolysis to remove rust before, but I have to say it beats all of the other products hands down. There is no question about that in my mind now that I have tried it for myself.
If someone can't rig together a small vat with the necessary parts then they really are not trying very hard are they?
Washing up bowl, water, washing powder, cleaning agent or even salt, (even just plain water will work, it'll just take longer), a piece of scrap metal, small power source being a car charger, phone charger or even a battery even if it's out of your car.
It's so simple I cannot imagine anyone here does not have this stuff to hand or can't pop to the store tomorrow to fill the missing pieces of the jigsaw.
Most people can set this up without spending a penny, like I did....it's not hard.
But if you'd rather make someone else rich then that's your prerogative, I really can't afford to cos I'm poor ...... :thumbup:
dsquire:
--- Quote from: Darren on August 24, 2009, 03:30:33 PM ---Dave that reminds me, I used to use Caustic Soda mixed with water and wallpaper paste to strip paint of woodwork, doors and such.
Make the goey mixture up, cover the door etc and then cover with wet towels and such. Caustic works 100 times better if it's warm. So if you can put the doors outside on a sunny day the results will be amaizing. You have to keep it wet though by sprinkling with a hose now and again.
--- End quote ---
Darren
In order to keep from drying out you can wrap with clear plastic to keep the air from drying it out. Then you can lay it in the sun to keep warm until such time as it has striped the paint. This saves the wet rags and sprinkling which tends to dilute the solution and slows it down. :med:
Cheers :beer:
Don
shred:
I've used the electrolytic process as well as a number of the goops.
We did a test with members of the metalworking group-- I took some 12L14 bar, noted for it's rusting ability, turned a very fine thread on it (to check on material removal and catch people jigging the test), degreased it and left it outside for a month. Chopped it into sections and handed them out to be de-rusted by the members' favorite goops.
Of all them, Electrolytic came in a close second, the winner being Evap-o-rust-- a non-acid solution available around here for ~$20/gal, and re-useable many times over. In addition to being slightly better on rust removal, it also sidesteps the hydrogen embrittlement that rumor has it can go with the electrolytic method if used on tools and the like.
Anyway, either far beats the rest of the competition.
Darren:
Thanks Don, a plastic sheet.....oh so simple....... :doh:
Shred,
I looked up Evap-O-Rust and although they don't give much away it sounds suspiciously similar to Metal Ready, could be the same thing?
With Metal Ready I found it ate surface rust in a flash, was really quite amazing to watch. The largest parts I de-rusted were some 8x4 metal sheets I was using to fabricate floor plans for my Lotus 7 build.
I found while it was excellent with tackling surface rust, anything in a poorer state was still a problem needing abrasive action needed to be taken first.
The one thing that has really tickled me with this electo method is that it strips paint off at the same time. That can be a time consuming task on it's own... :dremel:
bogstandard:
Darren,
In my very young days, I used to hang around with a budding archeaologist, and he had read about your process somewhere for cleaning artifacts. It might have been a different chemical used.
So he set the experiment up on the table, and using some very dirty and encrusted roman coins (they abound around the area I live, very close to Watling Street), and he gave it a go. It worked fine, until he got too greedy, and decided to leave them in a bit longer than suggested, to clean out the heavily pitted stuff. Came back a few hours later, and all detail was missing off the coins, just blank discs.
Now I think this might relate to you comment about removing paint. I don't think it actually attacks the paint, but removes a very thin layer of metal, so the paint flakes away because what it was bonded to, isn't there for it to bond to any more.
Might be right, might be wrong, but maybe another slant on the process.
John
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version