VINEGAR!@!~!!!! look tuck!

the active ingredient in vinegar is acetic acid. So its effect on metal shouldn't be a suprise. phosphoric, and mutiatic are abit more effective, but also stink more and need to be used outside or with ventilation, and proctive clothing/ safey gl***es.

 

HA, HA, HA, THATS GREAT

 

Anyone know how Vinegar would affect cast iron? I opened a gear box the other day that had a small amount of rust in it. It's not aweful, and I'm sure if I pulled all the gears and wire tooth brushed them, they would be spotless, but I thought about filling the case with vinegar for a week or so. Any thoughts if it would mess up the case or bearings?

 

I was just wondering where to find a pan big enough to soak an A pickup cab in...

 

Heres some info I have gained. Theres an old woodstain you make from vinegar. You take old pieces of rusty fence wire, bolts etc and throw it in a container with a lid full of vinegar. The rust is cleaned off in the vineagar and after about a month of furmenting up you use that as woodstain. Thats an old pioneer type woodstain.
You darken the mixture by adding more rusty metal. Also make sure you dont seal the container sometimes theres gas that developes and it could get under pressure if sealed. Well first off it really does clean the metal. I have thrown old barb wire fence in and its so clean it looks chrome. Now it depends on how long you leave it in. I have some stain I made that is from last febuary. I use it for staining flintlock rifles I build from scratch. Thats how I found out about it. If its not in some type of container you will have to add more vinegar for evaporation.

 

I've tried this vinegar-trick on some 97's throttle body. It really works, and what would be easier way to get rust away from linkage. Didnt leave them in vinegar for a week, but over night. Then just brushed 'em with wire-brush. Opposite for all these good things is smell. Therefore citric acid might be better.

That is true, yes. But bad thing is smell...
Normal woodstain from local hardware store is not expensive, and doesnt smell as bad as vinegar-woodstain-thing. (But if you're staining oak, all water based woodstains will not attach. Why? 'Cause oak has some kind of "acid" or such itself. (Translation problem...) Well, this was totally off-topic. )

Are there more (other than citric acid and vinegar) some acids or other liquids that will remove rust?

 

That works well on Oak,and Walnut.
Turns it Black,because the Iron Oxides,and moisture,
react with the Tannic Acid in the wood.

IIRC,this doesn't work nearly as well on Maple,Cherry,Pine,etc
because they don't contain Tannic Acid.

Steel wool,in Vinegar,works well for this.
Soaking for 24 hrs was usually long enough for me.
I think George Frank called it "Liquid Nightmare".
---------
Almost any acid will attatck rust,some more agressively than others.
IIRC Phosphoric Acid(sp?) only attatcks rust,turns it into Iron Phosphate;but it doesn't attatck the bare metal.
Street Rodder did a comparison a few years ago,between different types of acid.

 

I wonder how well it would work to clean out the inside of a Model A gas tank...

 

Metal Etch from a paint store, or even Ospho from Homo Depot is phosporic acid which can be cut with water to stretch it out, still highly effective. A 20% or so solution of Metal Etch will make a nice quick bath for a pot metal carb, such as a 94. Follow this with a good scrubbing courtesy of a br*** toothbrush and you have one shiny carb. Rinse, obviously, then you will have to coat it or it will tarnish.

Electrolyis is made better if you subs***ute powdered lye for the washing soda. The lye will remove the paint as the electricity removes the rust. Plus, should you choose not to wear gloves, your hands can have that nice warm, slick feel to them!

 

Try this; you are trusting, of course that I'm getting this right. Put your tank on a non-conducting surface, such as 2x4s.
Fill your tank with washing soda or lye mixture; 1 tbsp to each gallon of water. Place the negative terminal on a clean area of the tank.
Fix a piece of s**** metal to the positive terminal. Fasten this in the inlet hole, making sure it doesn't ground out on the tank itself. Maybe wrap old innertube pieces around the s**** piece.
Then, turn on the battery charger. I'd keep sparks to a minimum around the tank.

I haven't tried this, just read about someone who successfully tried it on a cycle tank.

 

The electrolysis sounds like a great idea for removing rust but I'm leary about using it in a gas tank because of the possibilty of a spark which is why the vinegar sounded so appealing to me. The tank is on the car. It would be easy to fill it with vinegar, let it sit for a couple weeks and simply drain the vinegar out of the bottom.

It's cheap and easy enough so I am just going to try it and will report back in a couple weeks about how well it did on the tank.

 

Some chemistry info regarding this.

Vinegar is as told Acetic acid and water. Also other acids work but the stronger acid the more dangerous. An other option is Oxalic acid which comes as a chrystaline salt. 4 s****s in one gallon is about enough to do the same as Vinegar.

What really happens?
The rust is as hopefully all of you know Ironoxide (Di-iron-tri-oxide to be correct, but also other ironoxidetypes in smaller amounts) when you dip a rusted iron clunt into acid the acid starts to disolve the ironoxide and it reacts to become Ironhydroxide which makes the Vinegar yellow-brownish at first and later concentrates into almost black. The Ironhydroxide neutralizes the vinegar eventually so it loses its power. You notice this when there becomes a slurry of brownish goo on the bottom.

The Oxalic acid can also be mixed into wallpaper glue and applied onto carbodies etc. and cover the surface with thinfoil used for w****** vegetables etc. (just to stay in the kitchen... ) After a day or two just rinse with water and dry with hot air and as soon as possible apply some primer, and paint or what ever finish you want on it.

These acid methods require that oil and grease is removed first to be effective though.

Edit: Oh I forgot that Aluminium does disolve in acids pretty fast so be careful with aluminium parts. Pure Iron does disolve too but way much slower, hardly noticable.

 

chelating

 

i tried this two weeks a go on a cam i bought that had some rust on the lobes, i let it soak a day and used a scrub brush most of the rust was gone. Let it set a week and the shiney surface on the lobes was a gray bare metal color no rust so it does work good , but my cam is trash from to many rust pits damn it.

 

Yes, Tannic Acid, that was the word i was looking for!

 

haha

 

Why not dig a hole and line it with a Wal-Mart goldfish pond liner? I'm sure you could find a place that sells vinegar as "Acetic Acid" in bulk drums if you let your fingers do the walking...

Like Herbster said, "Vinegar is as told Acetic acid and water. Also other acids work but the stronger acid the more dangerous. An other option is Oxalic acid which comes as a chrystaline salt. 4 s****s in one gallon is about enough to do the same as Vinegar."

That's something I'd like to see - you've got to take a picture of the results if you do it.

~Jason

 

You know, this would be awesome on brake drums, hinges, etc - Hell, I'd like to see somebody dig a hole, line it with goldfish pond liner, fill it with vinegar and do a whole frame or ch***is!

~Jason