Restoration Tip: Electrolysis Derusting

[dodgenut]

Great thread!! any more neat ideas for removing rusty stuff out there?

Am intrigued by the rhubarb leaves used to de-corrode aluminium parts, does it take a long time at the boil?

cheers

R

[cantankrs]

Originally Posted by dodgenut

Great thread!! any more neat ideas for removing rusty stuff out there?

I tried lemons - I juiced them but a mate just popped his rusty article in a bucket with a lid, and covered the article with squashed lemons. The result was great (I'll confess I didn't try to paint my item though). The lemon juice/lemons goes off but.

Also I tried some commercial liquid (can't remember or find name at moment) meant to be enviro friendly, that you dilute and drop parts into. In 2-3 days it removed the rust and turned the articles black and after a wash and wirebrush they turned out fine, however my neighbour commented that it's not good for springs (like bonnet springs) claiming it can make the metal brittle and potentially dangerous which kind of echos an earlier post here (but not sure if for the same reason).

Re Bolts and nuts - years ago I had a box of bolts, nuts, washers I'd removed from a vehicle pickled and gold or silver zinc plated (I don't quite know the exact name for this but would like to know) by a chrome plating company. At the time it seemed a cheap cost because an employee had twitched every single item onto lengths of presumably uninsulated solid copper wire so they were seperated and could suspend them in their pickling bath, and then their anodising? and washing baths. I had to unthread/cut them off the wires but result was fantastic except for thin marks wherever the wire had been snug against the article, which wasn't a problem.

I'm intending to try the electrolyte method for bolts, nuts in a similar manner.

A backissue of The Old Machinery Magazine gave a similar lesson on Bob's method of derusting.

Alex

(Hmmmm - my apologies since I didn't realise how long this thread was and I still haven't read to the end)

[Lynn Eades]

See my post (no.39) re hydrogen embrittlement. The gold plating is commonly "gold pacifate". The ww2 plating on Dodge bolts (Excellent bolts) was cadmium plating, unfortunately, a toxic , heavy metal.

[sth65pac]

Cadmium Plating is still commonly used in the aircraft industry as a protective coating. A good electroplater will have access to this.

You will find most industrial plating places & hardchrome platers can Cad. Plate. Hardchrome is the kind you see on shock absorber shafts, hydraulic actuators and the like.

Cad plating is muuuuch cheaper than chrome plating.(Not much on a CMP chromed except the wiper arm knob ) Remember to wash you hands if you have touched cadmium plating. It is toxic, and the oxide (looks like salt) is highly toxic.

Ian