WD40 & lemon juice ! I use that on rusty tools that I buy in yard sales in box lots cheap ! Works great !
You're welcome. I learned how to take care of stuff when I was young....I guess that's a lost art? I've had the toolbox I keep my tools in the car in for 30+ years. Got it when I was 13, and I treasure it as much today as I did then.
sometimes it's not about taking care of them, it's about fixing what someone else has done. i have cleaned up many old rusty tools just to use them. i got a 20" or so proto cresent wrench that was frozen solid. after soaking, moving and cleaning it's the absolute best i've ever seen- i mean super smooth action and it's a monster.
Not worth the issue to me, you are only reading what you want to anyway. Congrats, you are right and we all leave all of our tools in buckets of mud. I bow to your being.
well garly baby gurl, go git muh bucket o mud so Is can put muh tuls away naw, not that bucket o mud, thats da one i brush my tooth in
Somebody told me Bonneville is better for rusting tools and stuff than New Jersey. Never been to New Jersey but Bonneville sure does rust tools (and anything else). WD40 and Marvel Mytery Oil worked well to clean them up.
You should spray all your tools down with oil (or WD-40, that's really what it's made for) before hand if you plan on leaving them on a boat... If you've got a leaky trunk you should probably do the same, but I guess this doesn't help much if they're already rusted. I'd say to wire wheel off as much of the rust as you can, then just shoot them with PB Blaster or some other kind of penetrating oil and let them sit for a few days... Maybe try and open and close them every couple of hours and spray 'em down again. If worst comes to worst you can always get out the battery charger and do the electrolyses (?) rust removal, that will really loosen up every last bit of rust. But you might have to bake the tools in an oven to try and reverse the hydrogen embrittlement that happens, but it all depends on how heavy duty the tools are and what they're used for.
my friend used a blue-ing agent for restoring old guns that works pretty well. puts a nice finish and protects from corrosion, if that's what you're gunning for.
electrolysis... http://frontstcycle.blogspot.com/2009/01/electrolysis-rust-removal.html http://frontstcycle.blogspot.com/2009/01/electrolysis-rust-removal-is-good.html
+1 for Evapo-Rust. I've used lots of stuff, and Evapo-Rust is the closest thing to magic I've ever used. It works by chelation, it only attacks ferrous oxide, leaves steel alone, will derust a plated or painted part and leave the original plating or paint untouched. I keep a kitty litter bucket 1/2 full of it handy 24/7 to drop fasteners and tools into - in a machine shop there's always something getting spots of rust on it from coolant trapped between surfaces, or a part off a car that needs cleaned up. It's not really penetrating oil, but it will clean out the joint on rusty pliers and items like that. For penetrating I use Kroil. Once it's cleaned, we use Starrett M1 on bare metal for protection. Again, we tried LOTS of preservatives, (lotsa bare metal in a machine shop) including some really HD stuff, and we like M1 for effectiveness and ease of removal without staining the metal. Forget WD-40, it's a Water Dispersant(hence the name WD) and it will actually attract water to a surface sprayed with it and cause rust under damp conditions.
I have elecroplated some tools with a home nickel plating kit when cleaned up, stops them rusting again and is good for hot rod bits too.
No, with vinegar anything plastic or rubber will be permanently damaged. If they come out they'll be swollen and mushy Depending on how these tools are rusting vinegar may not be the answer, its' hard on plating and anodized coatings. So after one trip thru the bath you're exposing a lot of previously clean areas to future rust. Now onto another theme in this thread...... Been thinking about this whole rusty tools in a trunk toolbox thing. My trunk set's been around 20+ years and never had a rust issue, like Squirrel the box was a childhood gift. I'm not **** about maintaining them and they're nothing fancy quality-wise. So if you are having rust issues, taking another look at how they're stored is a good idea. Of course, we've all got those rust-ball tools from garage sales and found laying along the road......good thread
<HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and ***le --><!-- message --> "Never had that problem....I take care of my tools. The ones in the car are in a toolbox." When i was doing HVAC work we, the installer/repairmen, would occasionally break/wearout a tool. The boss would walk over to his truck and open a toolbox and say " Ive had this for 20 years and it's like new"... then put it back....of course that was the only time that tool came out of a box!
Thanks for the back-up and the extra info. After finding that Evapo-rust stuff I will never go back to acids unless in a pickle (pun intended). Can't imagine waiting days for something to work or having to neutralize the process to get it to stop, when that stuff does it overnight if not sooner. It's really great on rusty body panels with a "shower" hooked up to recycle the stuff. I'm just waiting for warmer weather to derust some panels for some T panels that I have. Ya, WD... Water Dispersant. Does it's intended job well but it's not a lubricant or protectant.
X2. I had some T door latches that were froze. I soaked them for a while in vinegar, it took the rust off and freed them up.
Got some stuff from my Mac man, Howes? Leaves a film, stays wet. Use it at my carwash. Got it primarily for relays, contacts, motors and stuff after the flood last summer. Don't use it on tools as much as I should because I don't like the film, but I've saved a couple pairs of wire stripper/crimpers with it. You leave a tool laying in the wrong place for a day there it can be toast.
The Jalopy Journal
