The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Rust removal without any effort

Now, this has to be one of the best (if not THE best) rust removal techniques there is!
Check out www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rustremoval.htm
I just removed ALL the rust of my 50+ year old rust covered headers.
The process took about 5 hours in the solution and all I had to do was rinsing them off and scrubbing them moderately with a plastic bristle brush.

This method is truly amazing and safe!

Cost: ZERO
Effort: ZERO
Result: PERFECT

awesome...another one to add to my tech file. I figure I can find a motorcycle battery charger somewhere.

thanks,

jay

I am using my battery charger. Its safe.
You can leave it on for many hours that way, without a loss of energy.
Larger items draw more current by the way.

I understand the process. What affect will different size battery charges have on process? Will a higher amp charger shorten time?

If you wanted to do a fender and constructed a suitable size pool, could you use a larger charger and multiple iron or stainless rods hooked in series around fender?

OK, could I push the truck into the neighbor's pool, rent a 500 amp welder and hook up a couple of pieces of old well casing????????

The amperage is the measure of current.
Higher amps means higher current draw.
Larger objects will draw more current.
The time it takes to lift the rust is related to the degree of how much rust is there.
Higher amps does NOT mean faster removal.

Remember: We are not using the charger to recharge a battery with this procedure.
It is rather used as a energy source, that should be stable and withstand the current draw of the object without overheating the transformer.

I would not advice to use large objects as fenders and such with a large mass!!
The fire department would not like the current draw this would generate and regular home-fuses cannot handle this massive current draw anyway.
What works for small objects cannot simply be applied to larger ones.

More electrical insights:
If you imagine electricity as water running out of a hose, than the flow of water would be the current and the diameter of the hose would be the voltage.

Imagine putting your hand in front of a sandblaster - Ouch. :o

The electrolysis method should only be used with small to medium size objects.
Make sure to keep the room ventilated.
We are generating Hydrogen ! Remember the Hindenburg disaster...
Natural gas is friendly and harmless compared to it.

It's all about natural science.
And them stovebolts sure made very good use of it.

Come to think of it...
What happened to genius engineers like that - where are they now..... :confused:

Computers are great for many, many uses, but they sure can't replace the magic of the olden days.... :rolleyes:

warning - nerd response coming!

The actual cause of the hindenburg disaster has turned out to be the aluminized fabric skin conducted static electricity and caught on fire! Later the germans added bronze to the skin mixture as a fire retardant and had no more problems with the zeplins. The hydrogen (while highly flamable) didn't really cause the fire, and the skin of the blimp (if you watch the films) actually burned a lot faster than the hydrogen did!

Saw a PBS special on it. Ain't TV grand?

I tried this process but didn,t have alot of success.I think it was my solution,they are calling for washing soda,what is that?I used baking soda,which is supposed to work also.As far as lye where would you get it?Thanks!!

You just need to make the bath conductive. I dipped brine from the salt tank of my water softener and it worked great. Just rinse well.

Rodder, got to the grocery store and look for Drano or Red Devil lye in the cleaning section. I think these may also contain a detergent.
Irwin, I saw that too on TV but I couldn't remember the cause of the fire/explosion.
Siegmund, glad to see another EAIAer here
Best regards, Jacques

I understand that this will not work for a large part such as a fender, but how about something heavy like an exhaust manifold? Would that be too much to try and derust?

Irwin,
Another nerd response. I believe that that the aluminum mixture used on the skin was almost the same chemical formula as later solid rocket fuel! WOOF-O!!

One thing to take note of. If you have a newer charger, it will not work without some assistance. The newer chargers have to have some current to get a polarity reading, or they won't charge. In other words, either "jump start" the charger (not recommended) or locate an old charger. I have a 2 amp charger that works great for this. The key is the size of the anode. If you're using a 5 gallon bucket, get a piece of thin stainless sheet and roll it to fit completely around the inside of the bucket. Then suspend your part in the center of the bucket. We've been using this at our museum for several years. It works great.

stevejumpr - Go for it.
Earlier this year I bought some original fenton headers.
Took about 5 hours each to get all the rust of.
A nylon brush helps while rinsing.
I used a simple 3 amp charger.
You can find Washing Soda (Arm&Hammer) in the laundry detergent aisle in grocery stores.
I have de-rusted many more items and am amazed every time with the results, compared to minimal the effort involved...

Racecarldad used this procedure on a small pipe wrench he found in a field somewhere many years ago. It was so rusty it was hard to tell what it was. I can't remember how long he 'soaked' the pipe wrench. He used an old stainless steel butter knife for an annode. There is not a bit of rust left on the pipe wrench and it is a servicable tool now.

even more interesting nerd comment:

The Air Force's Blu-82 (known as the Daisy Cutter) 15,000 lbs blast bomb contains 12,600 lbs of aluminimum powder.

I think they are about to get used again.

This is very good info. Thanks for posting and sharing.
I have a commercial charger but the lowest setting looks like 6 volts 10 amps or 12 volts 10 amps. Will this work? quicker. or do I need to buy another trickle charger?

ok guys, make it simple for me. Dad told me not to mess with anything i can't see and electric current i can't see...get the point.
lets see, take a five gallon bucket, put a "coil" of stainless steel around the inside of it, put one tablespoon of washing soda to a gallon of water, take a stainless steel kitchen knife (or what else)for an electrode. Now, where do you hook the positive lead? to the stainless coil in the bucket or to the stainless knife. where and how do you ground it if you use plastic bucket? REd lead to coil, black lead to knife hanging down in solution tied to the steel handle on bucket??? yep, someone bettter help me get this just right or someone may inherit this old pickup real soon!!! Idea is great as i'm just getting started on an old sedan. thanks gang

chipmunk - keep it simple! the SS around inside of bucket is the electrode - skip the butter knife [wife will be happier that way] unless ya use that in place of the coil of SS. connect the red[+] to the stainless electrode, the black[-] to yer rusty part. use old style charger, not the fancy new "automatic" type.

Bill

Thanks squeeze. what a simple way to say what needs to be said. I have an "old" charger that is automatic but also has the 2amp or 10 amp feature. You think this will work on the small stuff? Thanks again.

HEY Fatfenders from Canada - why wouldn't this trick work to prove to your grandson that current flows from the (-) to the (+) pole? And it takes the rust with it!! Hey, is anybody listening? :p

chipmunk - does the charger have the lights that say the batt is low and charge is done? if so it's not the type needed. ya want a charger that could be used for like running the kids train set or a bilge pump, etc. 2a or 10a prolly won't matter - might be faster or not. hard to find maybe. my old one that I used as a gen'l purpose power supply crapped out, so I'm in the market for another

Ken - it's the udder way! it's the SS electrode that gets eaten away, the rust [iron oxide] is returned to iron again, so there's no damage to the piece; no pitting - one of the great things about it. would be pretty tough to make a kid understand which way current flows from this - I sure don't unerstan it, it just works!


Bill

Dang Bill - there you go, bringing reality into my little dream. I thought I was smart there for a second. :confused: :p

squeeze, I'll get it right yet! my charger is a craftsman that i've had for about 10 years. It does not have a light on it. I has a "hand" on it indicating its charging at full power and as the battery charges up the hand drops back. I have used it to run radio's etc. in the shop. I think this one will work so I'm gonna give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! :rolleyes: If it doesn't work I think i'm gonna pour some rocket fuel on it and strike a match!

if it works for yer radio, it'll work on yer rust!

nother thing that works great on rust is phosphoric acid [trade name OxySolv for the stuff I've got rite now]. can be diluted w/ water. soak for an hour to overnite, scrub a bit, let dry then rinse w/ water. similar to what the chemical strip places use as an 'after-bath' to protect from re-rusting. I've just been doin the small parts from the side window/ vent frames. works great.

Bill