Originally posted by Barry Weeks:
O.K., I give up. Why shouldn't molassas be used to remove rust? This has been used for years by restorers in my area, and I've never seen or heard of a problem with it.
Barry, it isn't that this particular "home remidy" is going to cause a problem. It is that it is not the best way, or even the a close second to getting the job done.
Now, right off the bat, I have never done it. I have never went down to the local supermarket and bought a product for stripping rust. It may work great, I can't tell you that.
All I can say is this, if you follow the manufactures recommendations, the ODDS are you will have a better end product. PERIOD.
Let me ask you this, do they use molasses to remove rust off bridges? Does the military use it to maintain our ships? Does ANY company sell it as a rust cleaning product? Does ANY company offer any recommendations to use it for cleaning rust? Does ANY company make a rust removing product that even resembles molasses and it's characteristics?
Molasses has a PH level of many other FOODS. So, you could clean rust by soaking your parts in tomato juice, vineger, salad dressing, coke which has a lower ph (higher acidity) than molasses, and many other food products. Right off the bat, why molasses? Isn't vinegar cheaper?
I am not saying that you shouldn't clean metal with molasses, I am saying, why? Yes, you save some money, and that is a decent reason.
However, there are are plenty of products with full instructions that will not only do the same thing but then they will also leave a phosphoric acid coating to protect it unlike the molasses which leaves no protection and the metal begins to rust as you pull it out of the bucket.
I am not that hell bent on molasses, that is pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things.
What I am more refering to is the "junior chemists" who mix different products, make their own "rules" if you will.
I have to repeat, if you follow the manufactures recommendations, the
ODDS are you will have a better end product. PERIOD.
