Tried Evapo-Rust.... It's, well, "kinda OK", I guess.

[ed_h]

I use both phosphoric and ER. Phosphoric for most stuff, and ER for items I consider "sensitive", like if the part is hardened or there is plating I need to preserve. Compared to phosphoric, ER seems to get spent sooner, and is of course more expensive.

Because of the different chemistry, I don't believe that ER fosters either embrittlement or stress corrosion.

Ed

[lakeside53]

"shiny" depends on the resultant surface texture. If it's pitted with rust, after removal it will be dull like bead blasted steel.

[J Tiers]

"shiny" depends on the resultant surface texture. If it's pitted with rust, after removal it will be dull like bead blasted steel.

You might think so, but then it can LOOK pitted with rust, and actually it is not. This looks as if it is pretty bad. It was treated with phosphoric for 30 minutes (ran out of time, had to go somewhere).



The "after" photo looks much better than the before.... but the surface is better than expected. A few issues, but the tool is usable, which most would not expect from the "before" appearance. Exactly the same position in both pictures, as can be seen from the keyway.

.

[wierdscience]

I pull out shiny parts all the time. But... it depends. Evaporust will show the hardened high carbon steels as a darker color. Mild steels - shiny (after gentle washing). ER says it's the carbon you are seeing - it's not a coating.

As for the benefits - as we've all discussed a zillion times.. every technique has its place. I find ER works especially well with mixed metals like motor rotors, stators etc, or anything you don't want an acid near or residual coating on.

If you REALLY want ER to excel, put it an ultrasonic cleaner and keep it above 100F.

This, and it works a good bit faster. I use it mainly for getting rid of "shelf rust" off of tooling shanks and the like. Every other method is either very slow or removes metal.

[J Tiers]

It's for sure not the carbon, not on 1018 steel........

if it WAS the carbon, then the EvapoRust would have been removing metal, and leaving the carbon (I am sure they would say they were only removing the rust, but that would mean there was a LOT of rust.). Since they claim it does not remove metal, there is a disconnect between their claims and that explanation. And carbon should clean off easily.

I can see it as being the best for mixed metal items. Since it apparently does not have acid or base PH, it should not cause troubles with brass/steel parts. Phosphoric cannot be used with brass, as it will attack it, and then plate out copper on steel forever afterward. Once phosphoric has touched brass, you cannot use it on steel ever again.

However, EvapoRust is slow, I find that phosphoric does its work in 15 to 45 minutes. The EvapoRust was just getting started by then. They suggest 12 hours, and they are not kidding.

For that "shelf rust", phosphoric should take no more than 5 min. Maybe quite a bit less. You should try it, it won't remove metal, and I certainly do not find it slow.

As I said, there is nothing really WRONG with EvapoRust, aside from the cost. It's "adequate". It works about/nearly as well as phosphoric, and either of them is far less hassle than electrolytic. It is CLEARLY not sufficiently better that I'd have it as my go-to rust remover, not by a long chalk.

So between the ER and phosphoric, it should cover anything. Phosphoric for most stuff, and the ER when there is unremovable "other" metal involved, such as brass, etc.

[JoeLee]

That what the maker claim Evaporust it to be. On an un-pitted, non-rusted area of a ground of machined surface, I expect a shine afterwards. Instead, those areas of the moveable jaw that had a high degree of finish, a shine, were dull.

If it's rusted it's pitted.

JL....

[lakeside53]

Jerry... "time" is highly temperature dependent Below 50F it does almost nothing... a light bulb heating it to 90f make it nice; 110f - real quick. Not sure how high you can take it. As I mentioned before, an ultrasonic cleaner heated somewhat and you get the best results.

On the other hand, if you are not in a hurry toss it in overnight or for days. I have a 5 year old 5 gallon bucket of black gooey ER behind the barn. Still works somewhat. My real cruddy field-finds and farm junk gets put in - sometimes I forget to fish something out for days to months. lol. Time to spray that residue on the driveway moss - great instant results with that.

[Lew Hartswick]

I rinsed off easily with water & wire brush, nearly white metal was the result.

Some-how seeing those two bits in the same sentence (easily and wire brush) is an "oxymoron" to me. :-)
...lew...

[J Tiers]

In that statement, I found the "nearly white metal" interesting also, and agree about the "easily" and "wire brush", although I have seen cases where that is entirely true, and a stiff plastic brush would have done as well. Unfortunately that was with phosphoric, and not with EvapoRust or vinegar. The milling cutter above is one such. In that case, residual rust was "easily brushed away", and would have been do-able with a stiff toothbrush.

I can tell you that its very hard to read the labeling on reamers that have been cleaned up with evaporust. I got a bunch of them a while back that still had the flutes covered in wax, but shanks were rusty.

I found that the test taps I tried were very easily read if they were marked with stamped-in markings. Ones which apparently had been marked with laser-burnt markings were completely unreadable.

I did find that another item which had stamped markings was considerably less easily readable in parts, the shallower markings were present visually, but unreadable.

[Ringo]

Some-how seeing those two bits in the same sentence (easily and wire brush) is an "oxymoron" to me. :-)
...lew...

Well, I had a real two-fisted wire brush not a little wire tooth brush, and a garden hose not a cup of water, set up on crosstie outside, not a pretty inside varnished workbench.
Some of these qualifiers help define 'easy'

[lakeside53]

How readable were the rusty shanks before ER? One thing to be careful of is any black oxide treatments you wish to preserve. ER takes that off almost immediately.

[J Tiers]

How readable were the rusty shanks before ER? One thing to be careful of is any black oxide treatments you wish to preserve. ER takes that off almost immediately.

Interestingly, either the black oxide was not affected, or the black coating from the ER replaced it rather rapidly, because the black oxide items were just as black after as before, but without the rust.

The stamped text was visible but not readable before. In general quite clear after except in a case or two where the rust was actually pitting the surface and happened to be doing so in the text area.

The pieces that were laser etched were in general obscured at least partially by rust. After, they were completely obscured by the black coating.

[Baz]

Stamped markings are going to be at least 10 thou deep and one hopes it isn't removing that much metal. On the other hand if it removes an etched or laser drawn marking that shows it is working 'cos they are only tenths or less thick.
If you are wondering about the effects and end results wrt type of metal the sensible thing to do is some tests on brand new shiney degreased a) HSS, b)drill rod, c)bright mild steel or the end of a bar you just parted something off.