Hello there volks. Last night I did an experiment with my 9 year old daughter. We tried a few techniques to remove rust from som old parts. So are still in proress but I thought some of you might find these tricks interesting maybe helpful. 4 - Rusty, nasty Cyllinders. The first we submerged in a bucket of pure Vinegar. The second we sbmerged in a bucket of molasses diluted by water(1 part Molasses: 5 parts water). The last setup we used is a rubber maid plastic tub filled with an electrolite rich solution. The solution is water and Sodium Carbonate(Arm & Hammer Washing Soda/Powder found near the laudry detergents at the local grocery store). 1tbls. Sodium Carbonate : 1 gal. Water. Next we made electrodes 4 (one is all that was needed) out of a piece of "Plain" 1 1/4" X 1/8" x 72" steel (found at HOMEDE POT). We attached the electrodes to the corners of the plastic tub with clamps. Across the center of the tub we put a stell crow bar to hang the parts from. We tied the remaining two cylinders to the bar and suspended them in the solution. Using two sets of jumper cables we conneted all of the elctrodes in series. This took 6 of the 8 clamps, we had a cable left over and connected one clamp each to a cylinder. Keep in mind that the electrodes and the cylinders are in no way connected to each other. Next we added the electricity by means of Direct Current from a battery charger. Positive to the electrodes and Negative to the cylinders. In just a couple of hours the rust had been blown off of the cylinders and any remaining on the cylinders was converted to a black residue that was easy washed off with water and a little scrubbing from a "PLASTIC" scrub brush.
As soon as the others are finished I will report on the effectiveness of them. After an over night sit in the Molasses the clinder is definately showing improvement the, vinegar setup, not so much. Enjoy, Michael Knight '77 Westy Deluxe, "el Verde" '85 Vanagon GL, nameless http://photos.yahoo.com/electrictrain@sbcglobal.net |
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