Technical What to soak rusted assemblies in?

I would disagree with the above. Electrolysis, because it only works line of sight, would be a poor choice for the task outlined by the O/P. Either an acid or an Evaporust type product would be a better choice, depending on which one penetrates better. The object pictured looks like it wouldn't be hurt much by the risk of a little base metal being eaten away, so acid is a reasonable choice.

 

Thanks all, I mentioned earlier after a few replies I ordered the CA off Amazon, then was at ACE HW just a bit ago and saw they sell it as well. Never would have thought that.
Hopefully it’ll be in tomorrow before I head to work and I can dump them in the mix and have results by the end of the week.
If no luck it does give me a needed excuse to get my Acetylene tank filled

 

You playing with Alice Chamblers tractors, now?






Bones

 

Lol, no. MF. My old girl needs some love

 

Kool, must be faded, looks orange! Good luck!






Bones

 

Citric acid. Most people think my tank is a smoker.

 

Hydrogen peroxide works pretty good

 

Citric Acid has become the go to for soal tanks

Molasses and electrolysis used to be, an distill have a good following. The specialty products are expensive for large scale use.

I use a lot of citric or oxalic acid.

Have been making a paste from phosphoric acid concrete cleaner and xanthan gum. Results are good so far for things like frames etc that cant easy be dipped, it would also work on vertical surfaces, I need to try spraying it.

The xanthan gum makes it gooey and clingy and keeps it from drying out as fast to let it work. It will dry out and needs to be cleaned well and neutralized - so there's a tradeoff.

Xantan gum is a food additive, actually an emulsifier, its in almost every ice cream and salad dressing, readily available on Amazon. It does require a blender to get it mixed. But it will turn basically any substance to a gel and keep it from drying out.

 

Those pics are over six months apart! Did it take that long to get those results?





Bones

 

I mixed the CA up yesterday around 1pm, looks like it’s been doing it’s job. When I get back from town I’ll take a pic to compare to the one I posted earlier.
I mixed it a bit strong I guess, about 1/2 the 2lb bag in 2 or so gallons of water.

 

It was really rusty. It was a 2 year old mixture so it was a little weak in strength. It had been out of the tank for a few months as well. I forgot about it in the tank as well. It more than likely got frozen in the tank over winter.

 

Yea, that's pretty strong, but it should work fast! Don't forget a water/baking soda rinse to neutralize as a precaution.

 

White vinegar from the dollar store.

 

Uh, all of these potential solutions are that....

 

I have been using Evaporust on my bicycle projects. not on painted surfaces by chrome and bear metal. kills rust very nicely. expensive locally but much cheaper on Amazon. I used it on rusty bike chains and they came out good.

 

In the long run I think citric acid is cheaper, and...... no sauerkraut smell!

 

Well I can say it worked, pics wouldn’t do it justice. I pulled them out last night, couldn’t turn the bolt so hit them with heat and this morning freed them up.
Been cutting the sliders out of the old wheels to weld them into the new ones. I’m bad at taking pics while working on something.
I’ll post in the Antiquated forum of the carnage and fix when done.

Thanks all

 

Cheaper than a dollar a gallon?

I think that I will be ok swinging a dollar a gallon!

 

Is the white vinegar as effective as the CA? Are the soak times similar; if I have two of the same pieces one of each soaking in vinegar and the other in CA will they be equally free of rust in approximately the same amount of time?

 

whatever you soak it in, using that in combination with an ultrasonic cleaner really does work well. Cheap ultra sonic cleaners aren't that much, I believe my 30 liter cleaner was around $250. no clue how long it will last, but it's been working great on quite a few projects so far. For small items, I use glass jars and just fill the tank with hot water. less chemical usage.

Probably not a very "traditional" hotrod way to clean things, but it works well.

 

OSPHO

 

No idea. I have never had white vinegar let me down. No reason to go chasing after anything else.

Same reason why I have not attempted a side-by-side, that and I own both blasting and pressure wash cabinets.

 

Evapo rust and reverse electrolysis do wonders. Lots of ways to skin a cat

 

Cheaper by far!! CA cost me (actually, my lovely personal shopper) about $9 for a 1 lb. container (approximately a 1 quart container). That will make at least 25 gallons when mixed. The beauty of CA is that you can mix it as strong s you want... vinegar is limited to (IIRC) about 7% acid, so it takes longer. Also, you can clean your coffee maker with it without stinking up the place.

 

Depends on how strong you mix the CA.

 

I’ve said before and I’m saying it again. To free up a movable part that is frozen a 50:50 mix of ATF and Acetone works really well. I really like REVERSE electrolysis for line of site stuff and Evaporust for dunking small rusted parts. I tried CA last summer and was not impressed. Perhaps my solution wasn’t strong enough...

 

Let's say it's 27-gallons for $9. That saves me a whole $0.67/gallon.

Still can't be bothered. With vinegar I don't have to do any mixing, or worry about concentration.

It requires no intervention, so soak time is irrelevant.

The time that it would take me to mix citric acid and water is worth more than $0.67 to me.

 

Double-emphasis on reverse.

Get the polarity wrong and there will be trouble.

 

As you all know Bonneville became a lake during SpeedWeek. But we still had to get our stuff out of our pits, so into the briny sea we drove… My lakebed vehicle is a Suzuki Samurai for three reasons. 1- it fits in my trailer so I can tow it up there. 2- it can tow my trailer out onto the salt so we have a place in our pits for shade, radios, and bbq for support of our crew. 3- it was free, so if it rusts into dust… well, it was FREE!
When we got home I knew I did need to see how much of the brine had gotten into the poor SaltySam. Drained the rear diff, transfer case, and the transmission. Somehow nothing got into those. The front end, not so much.
Salt water actually poured out of the front hubs. And the front rotors are rusted solid. So I figured these were the perfect candidates to try using molasses to de-rust, cuz… FREE!
So I got a gallon of molasses from the local feed store and mixed it with 6 gallons of water because that’s all the Rubbermaid tub would hold. Tossed the rotors in for 2 days, pulled them out, rinsed off the slime, tossed them back in for another 2 days, pulled them out, rinsed the slime off again. Then I used some red scotchbrite to scrub them, and also scraped the rotor surface with my 2” wide SuperScraper.

It works! I called a bunch of the auto shops in town to see if I could get these rotors turned. Every shop has gotten rid of their brake lathes. They just throw new rotors on everything these days. I’m just going to pad slap it and then drive it. It only gets driven about 100 miles a year and that’s mostly at Bonneville and into Wendover for dinner at the Salt Flats Cafe! So if you get something like this, maybe you can save some good old parts by using this concoction. Next thing in my brew is this, I found it in a old car…

Im interested to see if the molasses will free up the adjustment mechanism. I’ll let you know!