Sunday, January 25, 2009

Electrolysis rust removal

You need a battery charger, Arm & hammer "washing soda" a bucket, some sacrifical steel for the anode, wire to connect the anode, wire or chain to hang the part to be de-rusted, & water.

As you can see in my pics I used some 1/8" thick strips of steel & bent the tops over the edge of the bucket.I wired them all together with welding rod. Anything steel will work. Make sure it is kinda clean & not too rusty to start...

I used about 1/2 cup washing soda & about 2 gal water. Washing soda is easy to find at the grocery in the cleaning products isle...

Clean the part to be de-rusted of grease & oil first & then suspend the part in the solution. Don't let the part touch the anodes. I used a wooden rod & hung the part with welding rod.

Connect the NEGATIVE to the part & the POSITIVE to the anodes. Turn the charger on. I used the 12 volt regular slow charge mode.

Bubbles will start to rise from the part. hydrogen & oxygen. Do this outside. I did it right beside the window...

These exhaust clamps took about 2 hours....

Turn off the charger & take the part out & clean it. I used a nylon brush to scrub them in the sink with some dish soap. The rust turns black & needs to be cleaned off.

4 comments:

luke said...

sweetness.

Rob said...

data computed... thank you

By Hand and By Brain said...

but I like rust. Rad dude. I di this once with a battery tender. works prety well. Rob gave me the recipie for the molassass cleaner-worked great too!
good on ya mate!
J-

Moped said...

Double-check your ground, too. Ha ha ha ha.