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H/D Electrolytic Rust Removal; Get it done in 2 hours!
So tonight I thought I'd try this electrolytic rust removal on an ancient and horribly rusty pipe vise. Ironically, Alistair has apparently done the same.
I used 5 gallons of warm water with about a 1/4 lb of ordinary baking soda. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate - NaHCO3, where washing soda is Na2CO3. Naturally washing soda works "better" since you get more dissolved ions for unit volume. Baking soda, however, will work just as well if you don't mind adding about twice as much. It was handy and it was 75 cents per lb on sale so i used that!
Dropped my pipe vice in a tidy-cats bucket along with an old axe head that was likewise horribly rust. Didn't even bother to brush them off - they went in covered in dirt. I used 12 gauge copper wire and three pieces of 3/4 black pipe wire-brushed clean. My power source was a schumacher battery charger.
This charger I hauled out of the dump for free on account of the fact it didn't work. Turned out the primary winding had blown a bit of copper wire. With a tiny piece of copper cut and soldered in to place, I was up and running, minus the timer. Set it for the "start" posistion initially. This puts out about 20 volts unloaded and is capable of sustaining a 200 amp current flow for about a minut before the thermal o/l trips.
It boiled the water
No i'm not talking about the fizzing, i mean it boiled the water. The electrodes and part were incredibly hot but the wires remained cool to the touch. Decided to turn it down to the 40 amp setting which is about 18 volts unloaded. The water remained at a nice steamy hot heat - just a little too hot to put your hands in - and fizzed along nicely. Came back two hours later and fished out the parts to take a peek. Low and behold, there was quite literally no rust to be found. Black, clean iron ...
This works wonders ... i highly recommend this to anyone needing to derust! I'm pretty excited and had to share my expierence with someone Tomorrow i will post the pictures.
Some final thoughts:
1) Don't worry about getting a hold of lye or washing soda if your store does not carry them (like mine) - baking soda works great and odds are that you've got a couple of boxes around the house anyway. Get the old stinky one from the fridge
2) The more power the better! Instead of leaving this go overnight on trickle, the 40 amp setting seemed to work great. The parts come out hot, but not too hot to handle and it removes rust at a prodigous rate.
3) Keep the electrodes clean - if you have alot of rust either have lots of electrode surface area (something like a 1:2 ratio for rust to clean) or be prepared to whisk the rust off of your electrodes every hour. In my case, after an hour my current draw had decreased to about 2 amps. I cleaned the electrodes and it was off to the races, drawing about 15 amps.
4) Note that these amp figures are from a crumby gauge on the charger!
I used 5 gallons of warm water with about a 1/4 lb of ordinary baking soda. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate - NaHCO3, where washing soda is Na2CO3. Naturally washing soda works "better" since you get more dissolved ions for unit volume. Baking soda, however, will work just as well if you don't mind adding about twice as much. It was handy and it was 75 cents per lb on sale so i used that!
Dropped my pipe vice in a tidy-cats bucket along with an old axe head that was likewise horribly rust. Didn't even bother to brush them off - they went in covered in dirt. I used 12 gauge copper wire and three pieces of 3/4 black pipe wire-brushed clean. My power source was a schumacher battery charger.
This charger I hauled out of the dump for free on account of the fact it didn't work. Turned out the primary winding had blown a bit of copper wire. With a tiny piece of copper cut and soldered in to place, I was up and running, minus the timer. Set it for the "start" posistion initially. This puts out about 20 volts unloaded and is capable of sustaining a 200 amp current flow for about a minut before the thermal o/l trips.
It boiled the water
No i'm not talking about the fizzing, i mean it boiled the water. The electrodes and part were incredibly hot but the wires remained cool to the touch. Decided to turn it down to the 40 amp setting which is about 18 volts unloaded. The water remained at a nice steamy hot heat - just a little too hot to put your hands in - and fizzed along nicely. Came back two hours later and fished out the parts to take a peek. Low and behold, there was quite literally no rust to be found. Black, clean iron ... This works wonders ... i highly recommend this to anyone needing to derust! I'm pretty excited and had to share my expierence with someone
Tomorrow i will post the pictures.Some final thoughts:
1) Don't worry about getting a hold of lye or washing soda if your store does not carry them (like mine) - baking soda works great and odds are that you've got a couple of boxes around the house anyway. Get the old stinky one from the fridge
2) The more power the better! Instead of leaving this go overnight on trickle, the 40 amp setting seemed to work great. The parts come out hot, but not too hot to handle and it removes rust at a prodigous rate.
3) Keep the electrodes clean - if you have alot of rust either have lots of electrode surface area (something like a 1:2 ratio for rust to clean) or be prepared to whisk the rust off of your electrodes every hour. In my case, after an hour my current draw had decreased to about 2 amps. I cleaned the electrodes and it was off to the races, drawing about 15 amps.
4) Note that these amp figures are from a crumby gauge on the charger!
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