The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Electrolysis, Sweet!

Well I just got finished building my new electroysis tank this weekend! Built it about 7 1/2' x 2' x 2'. Should be large enough I wont have to upgrade anytime soon, and I can stick bumpers, fenders, engine blocks, whatever in it.

Heres a shot of the tank with my COEs new axle housing soaking. I used an old coil spring seat as my anode as there is so much good surface metal. Since I took the picture I added a wire I made that has alligator clamps every foot, to the seat frame in case any of it was rusted and didnt have good continuity.

This is how the housing looked after 18 hours soaking overnight and a good scrubbing. Im a little short on the proper amount of washing soda, plus I probably should be using more then my baby 6 amp battery charger...Closeup left. Closeup right.

I made the tank out of plywood and 2x4"s. I used some scraps of single-ply (PVC roofing membrane), glued to the plywood, and heat welded the seams to keep her watertight.

Way cool. Now I just need to add a removable lid so I dont find any drowned rats in it like I did the oil bucket...

Jeff

Wow! That is pretty cool. I wish that I had the room to build myself one of those. Very creative use of materials too. If you don't make a lid you might find more than a rat in that tub. You might find some very unhappy hot tubbers! Anyways, cool tank.

Kyle

what do you soak your parts in?

Mike - see this tech tip for the rundown, works great on any scale

Bill

very inventive! ..man ya did a fine job! can i send ya some parts?? I have lotts that need cleaned.. LOL

Nice work, Sure does look like a professional tank. Great work!!

Nice looking tank, for those who don't think this will work just take a look at the results. I used a 25 gal plastic trash can and used some 1/2 inch rebar as an anode with a 6 amp battery charger to clean lots of parts. One very rusty 235 exaust manifold and it came out great, it also loosened up the studs one of which had been broken off. IT alowed me to put a pair of vice-grips on the old stud and turn it out without damaging the manifold. Give it a try!! Non caustic, enviormently friendly, no smell and you can empty the liquid right on the yard. The grass really seems to like all of the iron particles which have disolved in the water. Caution!!! DO NOT spill this on your driveway it will stain and will not come out.

Jeff, I know this summer Mine will be working. haven't built one yet but it is rolling thru my mind on how to do it. Thanks for your tips (That is what got me thinking)and thanks to the bolt for the article.

Jeff, will it remove the grease?

I used a 1 gallon plastic ice cream tub and our 10 amp charger and it worked great. I used baking soda since I couldn't find our box of washing soda and it worked ok on some small parts and a piece of chain.

I think I may have to build one big enough to put a frame in, when I'm done mom can always plant flowers in it.

I started using a small rubbermaid tub, just big enough to put an sm420 transmission case in and a ton of small stuff. After seeing how well it worked I upgraded to a 32 gallon garbage can and was able to stick driveshafts in half at a time.

Some of the parts Ive put in there have been pretty nasty as far as old dirt and grease. I usually start by spraying the parts with a degreaser wand that hooks to the compressor and then tank the parts. It does help soften up the grease or in some cases the stuff falls right off, espescially if the part is rusty.

Every old part Ive done has removed at least 95% of paint and grease with the first quick scrub. I think its because the washing soda you make the solution with can be used as a degreaser.

So now, after several scrub downs, and flipping the housing around 180 degrees yesterday, shes all done. I just spent the last 35 minutes scrubbing the heck out of it, dryed it with a rag, then used my torch to evaporate the water out of the metal making it completly dry, then spent a few minutes spraying her down with phosphoric acid thouroughly coating everything a few times, and Im done.

If the weather turns out to be better then the forecast predicts I should have it primed and painted by the end of the week.

Jeff

I have used this method to de-rust a lot of parts, but nothing as big as what you have done. It has inspired me to go to Lowes or Home Depot and get the materials to build a tank. Great job!

Jeff, very cool tank. Hope you put a drain in it. For those that asked about paint and grease removal, just use Lye. I soaked my bumper brackets in lye without electrolysis just to remove the paint then did electrolysis to remove the rust. The experiment is just letting them sit afterwards, no paint, no Phosphoric acid. So far, no rust that I can see. I posted questions about using Lye and only a few knew about it, and they recommended expensive, smelly stripers. In this article they talk about using lye in electrolysis.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rust/electrolysis.pdf

Should be the best of all, at least for smaller parts.

May have to build one of these some day, got any blue prints from constructing it? lol
:-)

I plan to use this method soon. One quick question! I don't seem to see if it says the electrode and the object being cleaned can touch, or should not touch while in the solution and the battery charger on. Just want to make sure I don't electrocute myself. Do I have to take precautions for the two objects not to touch while in the solution?

Thanks,

Martin

That would be a direct short Martin. The electrolyte (liquid) acts as a resistance load in the circuit, that is needed to regulate the current flow. If the two leads were in direct contact with each other then there would be no restriction for current flow and it would flow at it’s maximum rate for a few seconds until something burned up.
Also the purpose of the electrolyte is to provide a broad path for the electrons to move thru from the entire surface of the part, if the electrodes were shorted then all of the current (electrons) would take the path of least resistance, which would be at the short.

Try to picture the ideal arrangement, which would be to have an electrode that was like a bubble that totally surrounded the part and where every surface no matter where you measured it was exactly the same distance from the electrode. Of course this is theoretical and the best that we could hope for in the real world is to bend the electrode roughly to the shape of the part. In you mind try to picture the electrons flowing from the part to the electrode. If you simply have a bar in the bath directly over the center of a tailgate for instance there is less resistance (less electrolyte) for the electrons to flow thru at the center. At the ends there is more electrolyte for the electrons to flow thru therefore more resistance therefore less current flow. In other words the areas closest to the electrode are going to clean up sooner than those further away.
Hope that helps explain the process a little.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks a lot! That really clears things up for me. I'm going to build a tank almost exactly like pictured in this post.

Martin