My first Electrolysis

[rmuell01]

My foot pedal for the Trinco Media Blaster froze up. No surprise, it was pretty rusted. Since I'm in the process of moving equipment around the garage the blaster was out of commission. Looks like it's time to try electrolysis.

In the beginning:


It was very ugly:




The 5 gal bucket with 4 gals of water and 4 Tbls of washing soda. 4 sticks of rebar with copper wire attached to each piece. Electrolysis, from what I've read is line of sight, who am I to argue.

[rmuell01]

after 24 hours: not so impressed. the light rust came off and was very smooth. the heavier rust probably needed another 24 hrs. too bad, since it wasn't fully submerged, I turned it over w/o adding add'l water of soda. and I didn't clean off the rebar.


this is > I turned over the pedal and another 24hrs in the nasty gunk. still pretty bad, but at least all the hinges now work. So I took it out, sprayed it down, and ran a grinder over it.


hmmm, not too bad, just a light grinding.


and > I sprayed on some permatex rust inhibitor (nobody carries POR-15 around here)

[rmuell01]

Primed and painted w/dupli-color: works for me!



What did I learn?
1) I need a bigger bucket
2) when there is rust inside of a part, rig up some rebar on the outside and the inside)
3) clean the rebar, change water, add more soda after 12 hours (especially on heavily rusted parts)
4) Let it do its' work by letting stay in the mixture for longer periods of time.
5) go to my buddies house to use his media blaster when mine is down.

[Lew Hartswick]

I think I'd have just made a new one. :-)
...lew...

[Andrew_D]

What did I learn?
1) I need a bigger bucket
2) when there is rust inside of a part, rig up some rebar on the outside and the inside)
3) clean the rebar, change water, add more soda after 12 hours (especially on heavily rusted parts)
4) Let it do its' work by letting stay in the mixture for longer periods of time.
5) go to my buddies house to use his media blaster when mine is down.

1.) Yup, works best when the entire part is submerged.

2.) If the inside is narrow (ie passage, pipe, etc.) use a cloth wrapped around a piece of rebar of chain. The cloth will keep it from shorting out.

3.) I leave the part in for anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks depending. Each day, pull the rebar and the part in question. Scrape the crud off of the rebar, wash off the parts (rinse with garden hose), submerge again. If you remember to clean everything every 12-24 hours, it doesn't take too long. I usually forget...that's why the "up to 3 weeks" part mentioned above!!

4.) Yes, let it cook, but it also needs to be cleaned off as rust/paint/grease/grime gets loose.

5.) Well, that's no fun!

Andrew

[Rosco-P]

You can cover an electrode in plastic window screen material and place it inside an item to derust its interior.

Shoot! Andrew D beat me to it.

[BigMike782]

Maybe more power.I was using my 6 amp battery charger and found 6/12/24 volt charger with higher amp output and I have had plane bodies warm enough the water was starting to steam.

[gnm109]

Hello,

I'm curious about the polarity that you used in your electrolysis with washing soda. Articles that I've read, state that the negative is connected to the part in the mix. I recently did some chrome removal in electrolysis with a cup of muriatic acid in 4 gallons of water and used positive on the part based on several articles that I read.

I've looked on the internet and can't find the reason for the oppositve polatrity unless it is due to the difference between the alkaline washing soda and the muriatic acid.

The chrome was removed from a Harley part in less than an hour. I used a the 6 volt 6 amp setting on my 6/12 battery charger. I first tried 12 volts, 2 amps but it kept opening the internal breaker in the charger. I suspect that there was too much current on 12 volts. In any case, 6 volts was fine. It removed the chrome down to the nickel, which was what I wanted since I was able to bead blast the nickel sufficiently for powder coating preparation.

I'd provide pictures but I don't want to steal your thread. It looks like you did well. I am curious about the difference in polarities in any case. For the record, I tried negative on the Harley part and it didn't do anything.

[armedandsafe]

The difference in polarity is because of the pH of the liquid. Acid wants one polarity and base wants the other. I can never remember which is which, and always have to look it up.

Pops

[gnm109]

The difference in polarity is because of the pH of the liquid. Acid wants one polarity and base wants the other. I can never remember which is which, and always have to look it up.

Pops

Great! Thanks. I'm certain that the part takes positive in acid chrome plating removal so it would have to be negative on the part for electrolytic rust removal with waching soda.

I wonder if acid could be used to remove rust......?