Painless rust removal at home.

[Chris Haynes]

http://www.davidbradley.net/ERR.html
I follow these instructions and it works well. BUT!!!! There is one very important thing he doesn't mention in his instructions. ALWAYS MIX THE SODA IN HOT WATER BEFORE DUMPING IT INTO THE TUB FULL OF COLD WATER. If you simply dump it in into cold water it crystallizes and you have a mess.

[c.o.]

I kinda like rust... but I guess it all depends where it resides. Thanks for the post Chris... I'll just have to try this sometime...

[sludge]

i know a guy uses a cooler full of molasses that he gets from an amish dude to remove rust from both the inside and outside of gas tanks, the results are excellent, takes a little time though, think he said a week. wont hurt paint either, it's a sweet way to go.

[droptopford]

My rusty spare '59 Skyliner exhaust manifold is going in the bucket as soon as I can get the supplies. (yeah, I know it ain't a motorcycle part, but niether is a tractor shovel.)

[Chris Haynes]

Ya can't use grocery store molasses. It has to be horse feed molasses. Mix 3 parts water to one part molasses, pour it in and wait a few days. Don't use the dried horse feed molasses either. It has to be the real stuff.

[silentgreyfello]

Apple vinegar

I have been using expensive chemicals for years. My Dad, who restores old cars, has been using apple vinegar to remove rust. He throws all the parts in and two days later, the rust is gone. The nice thing about it is that it is non-toxic and easy to get rid of. I wish I would have paid more attention 30 years ago! He told me my grandfather used it on parts for his old stationary engines. I just tried it with a set of JD tanks... filled them up, drained them and wow, clean as a whistle. The surface rust starts immediately, so parkerizing seems like a good way to go maybe. I haven't tried that yet, but intend to.

[rwm]

as a kid i used lemon juice and boiling water to remove rust from beer cans.

[gary.h]

ive got a 45,gal drum for doing that removel of rust,but i had about a half dozen iron bars clamped around the barrel a bar across the top with the part suspended by chain into the solution pos lead to part neg to bars around the barrel...discovered that it will start to lift chrome of the part if its left in there long enough.

[rbenash]

Just FYI - Electrolysis has been used quite well by vintage cast iron collectors for a long time.

Works incredibly well. A large number of these folks have moved to using scrap SS for the anode since they hold up much longer. With reasonable heavy sheet SS you can surround the whole tank with anode. Some are using SS tubs and drums that they find at scrap yards for better overall longer lasting anode performance than scrap iron.

I have a significant number of vintage cast iron pieces that I use for cooking. All of them were cleaned first through electrolysis before use.

Might be a worth to look through this forum as they often have photos or how to build discussion regarding electrolysis systems.

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi...board=Cleaning


I've been lucky to find someone near me that has a system set up so I just have him do mine. It is amazing how well this method works.