Tried it
As the building next door was being gutted with lots of the 12v transformers used for low voltage lighting being thrown out I thought I'd give one a try on a small scale.
So I found a 10l plastic bucket, filled it with water, added some caustic soda flakes at the ratio used for cleaning drains... then added a piece of stainless steel, which curved around the bucket, then a stick across the top with some fencing wire to hang the rusty part (in this case the small bracket which goes where the brake line meets the brake hose). It even had a rusty bolt attached.
Hooked it up with the negative to the work and pos to the stainless stee.
It fizzed away in a most satisfying manner, but after about 5 minutes I noticed a hot plastic smell and found the tranny about to ignite. So I ditched that and applied a battery charger which immediately clicked off and displayed a red fail light.
Not to be deterred I hooked up a 12v battery with charger hooked to it as well which seemed a much happier arrangement with a lot of fizzing and clouds of stuff you wouldn't want to inhale.
I ran this for a couple of hours, checking it occasionally and noting the water was becoming quite warm, along with the battery and charger which was exhibiting similar smells to the earlier transformer.
Unhooked the arrangement, washed off the part which was now quite clean of rust and paint and left the battery to recharge.
Am I correct in assuming the setup was possibly too conductive?
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