Ha ha; I get the same charts; once had 110% higher energy usage compared to similar homes; doubt they are similar tho. Sent from my Nokia 2.3 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
We make our own power so I get no bills but I also don't have enough power to run electric heaters. The chickens hate me! I started a test citric acid batch in an old aquarium yesterday. Two '20s Chevy cross members, two brake drums, a set of pedals, a backing plate and a few small pieces. When I went out this morning I figured out why I was given the aquarium. A tiny drip had gotten bigger. I'm glad it was outside. Even with less that 24 hours rust was going away. I'll try to seal it today and give the sealer a chance to set up. This tank is a good size for a lot of parts. If I can seal it I'll put it in the shop where I think I can keep it fro freezing. There is wood heat there.
Most people don`t work from home either. In there shop. That`s heated. Just looks like your average house and garage while driving by.
I’m sold on the citric acid. I’m working on an OT truck bed floor which had galvanized coating on both sides. I’ll be doing a good bit of tig welding on it, and tig/galv is a no go. I threw together a framework of 2x12s on top of my utility trailer and lined it with 6 mil plastic. Found a 50 lb bag of powder on flea bay and mixed up at the 1 cup to 3 gallon ratio. Figured out to about 157 gal of water and 24 lbs of powder. Put the floor in it and in two days time it was stripped clean of the galv coating. Had to flip it once since the floor ribs trapped hydrogen underneath and it wouldn’t let it work.
Just thinking about camshaft bearings, if you dunked a whole engine block, they are very soft, would they survive? Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
I don't know but I have some old rod bearings around I'll throw a couple in the bucket. It eats galvanized coating and that is zinc.
I don't know about bearings, but I had an old copper that was used to boil water for clothes washing. It was covered in soot and baked on grime. My wife wanted it cleaned. I put it in the bath and it came out clean, it has a couple of pin holes in the bottom but they may have been there all ready. It had sat outside and my grandmother stopped using it sometime in the 60's. Steve
No, the bearings will not come out unharmed, but probably best to either replace them anyway or knock them out for reuse when moching up the valve train. Anything made from soft materials is going to get eaten. Remember that bearings have thin coatings on them, so if it eats galvanize away, it will remove the coatings too. The chain links that protrude into the citric acid when I hang something no longer have the galvanize on them.
Question......does the temperature affect the performance of the citric acid? I made a big vat back when it was summer, and every single piece I put in came out looking like it was brand new. Last week I stripped down the rear door to my Sedan Delivery of all parts except the sheet metal, immersed it in the tank for several days, and it doesn't look like any rust was removed. I was kinda disappointed after the performance of the stuff earlier. Maybe i need to get new citric acid and renew the mixture?
It does wear out but many have said it lasts a long time. Also it was said earlier that it works better with heat.
@RMONTY give a piece a rinse and see if busts loose, Ive seen the rust look unphased but come right off when wire brushed just a little. If not well I guess its time for a new. Ive never kept a batch more than maybe a couple months but Im interested to see how long others have had an active batch. Glad to see folks on this method now, it works so damn good.
I've used citric acid for a couple of years now. I really like it. Yes, it does lose it's ability to remove rust. It will start to stink when it gets old. I tried adding more acid to old mixture and it didn't work. Emptied out and started over.
I took just a flat panel that was rusted pretty heavily, left it overnight and NOTHING. Time to drain the tank and make up a new batch. I got my money's worth from the first batch, that is for sure. I will probably wait until I have all of the big parts I want to clean up before making up the new batch as it seems to have a 'pot life'.
The Jalopy Journal
