say a guy wanted to use a large plastic stock tank to build a reverse electrolysis tank.. something like this: http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=8&paID=1039&sonID=214&productID=9364 what would be the best way to power a tank that big.. would the battery charger work? I've also heard of using an arc welder??
I have used an electrolysis tank for some time now. With using a battery charger you can actually stick your hand in the water and not die. It would be pretty scary having an arc welder attached to a tank of water. I cannot remember the website but one actually describes what amps and what current you should have being pulled in the tank. It's the current that does the removal of rust. I do not think the larger arc welder would benifit you.
Whats the active ingredient in A&H "washing soda"? Can't find that product on the shelves up here but there are many others to chose from...unfortunately they all seem to have different ingredients or different % of the same ingredients and I don't know what to look for! Bought a tank last summer but didn't get to try it yet...
Check a pool supply store. Electrolysis works it just takes a while. do it outside,no sparks/smoking, BAD fumes
A&H Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate(not Sodium Bi-Carbonate like baking soda). Baking Soda does work, it's just that Washing Soda works better. I tried it with a welder, but it would not conduct because there was no metal to metal contact to start the amps flowing. the water wasn't enough to get it moving. A battery charger will still work just fine in a big tank, it may just take a little longer.
Wow that's slow. I've done it in a slightly different setting and on a smaller scale. Used a 1amp DC converter, distilled water, salt, three drops of lemon juice, and a stainless steel spoon. Zapped 2000 years of crud and corrosion off a small peice of bronze in about 20 minutes. Using stainless though produces a nasty by-product though.
I played about with electrolysis for years. Many things work on the system, but Arm and Hammer wash soda will do just fine. I never got any better results in using a 12 V vs a 6 V battery charger. The stuff is easy enough to play with and you can actually dump the residual goo into the flower bed and not create any real biological worries. I tried pool acid on cleaning parts and I have to admit that I really found it to be too caustic to keep around. The best product I have found so far though, is molasses and water. Yup, get a clear Rubbermaid plastic container and put in about 2-3 cups per gallon of water. Close up the container with what ever part you want cleaned. Sit the container into the direct sunlight and leave it for a week or so. The parts will be cleaned and you can wash them off and prime immediately. When done with the goo, your can toss into the flowerbed and it will not harm anything. Dried mollasses can be purchased at feed stores for about $10-12 bucks per 50 lbs. That is enough to clean a bizillion car parts. One thing though, the mollasses does tend to smell when it ferments, so when you take off the top of the container, hold your breath. It isn't caustic like acid, but it does smell like home brew. Whew! My container held about 2-3 gallons of water. When I used to do electrolisys, I found there were just too many parts to clean up. I even did a rear fender on a '42 Chevy by using this process in a cheap kiddy pool. However, when I moved the fender once, it cut into the pool and all the goo went everywhere. I found that the plastic cement mixing containers you can purchase at Home Depot or Lowe's worked better and were stronger. I went and bought a large stainless steel bolt to use for my electrolysis process. I also used some stainless steel pans that I had beaten down as well. It wa sort of like playing mad scientist at the time, but the mollasses procedure works very well in the hot Texas sun and takes no energy, and less clean up afterwards. I recommend it. If you go to http://www.ahooga.com and search the archives, you can find pics I posted on brake backing plates and old brake shoes that I did with this process. There are several posts on the molasses and electrolysis procedures there. (Hope this site is easy to access) For ease in knowing how to hook it up, go to http://royalcrossfarm.com/electrolysis.htm It is simplistic as all heck. I used a stainless pot lid today that the wife was going to pitch out. Man, you can see by the attached pics that the mixture in my plastic cement mixing box is really cooking very well. Positive gote to annode and negative to the part. In this mix I have springs, spindles and multiple parts for my A. You can probably see by the charger that it is really cooking the soup well. I used wash soap, but regular Arm and Hammer baking soda works as well. See attached pics of my soup bin at the front of my stripped down frame. Good luck on which ever process you choose to persue. Huey
Here are today's pics to show just how easy the process is. Moalsses is less involved though, but this process works well. Huey
I bring up this post as I was having a good ole time today cleaning several parts. Pretty soon it became a quest and I started cleaning up some old tools. I have used baking soda before, but this time i just filled a small plastic trash can with hot water and dissolved a couple of heaping tablespoons of coarse kosher salt I had. I think it worked much better than last time when I used the baking soda. I was amazed at the results. I used a battery charger. My electrode was a piece of clean 1/4" thick steel bar. By the time I got done, the bar had all kinds of gouges and holes and the bottom edges are knife edged now. The red/green/black goop is really some of the most disgusting looking stuff. I probably committed some cardinal sin cleaning rust off some antique wrenches I had. I had heard that vinegar or molasses treatments removed metal where as this method does not. Any truth to that?
This guy is a tractor restorer but he has a nice write up about electrolysis. I think it has been linked here before. I also think there's an electrolysis tech in the tech archives. http://fboerger.com/Restoration Tips/Restoration Tips Page.htm#Electrolysis
You need to use washing soda instead of baking soda. I get it at the grocery store (Kroger). BTW, this guy reversed the polarity and used it to create patina. http://engines.rustyiron.com/electrolysis/index.html
i have heard of people doing this and using a computer power supply. i am not sure the volts and amps that you would need to do this but it is another suggestion.
You really dont need many amps, although the more amps the better. The guage on my charger showed it was only pulling maybe 1-2 amps when set on the 10 amp setting. a computer power supply is typically just a 110VAC to 12VDC converter, so it should work as well as a battery charger. vinegar is an acid and will remove metal. However it is a very weak acid and will take a loooong time to remove an appreciable amount of metal. I don't know the chemistry of the molasses method, but i'd imagine its about the same as vinegar.
This guy does complete car bodies, so I did a story about him. He also did my car, and the results are pretty impressive. It takes several cycles (dip, rinse, dip, rinse) but it cleaned up nice and he's done many cars this way. http://www.precisionresto.com/nationalarticlepage1.html ~Scotch~
My electrolytic tank is 55 gallon. (a regular barrel) That allows me to strip the rust of most anything I have to work on. Powersource is a 30amp charger. I've never seen it draw more than 8 amps. normally it runs at around 2 amps or less, and I have a lot of cathodes around the outer edge. I really can't see you needing any more than a regular decent charger unless you want to get super big.
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