The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Problems with Electrolytic rust removal

Maybe It's my fault, but I don't think so. I can't get the electrolytic process to do more than remove paint and only if the paint is coming off anyway. I have the polarity correct according to the pdf that I down loaded here, and I triple checked that. I have 1 tablespoon of Arm & Hammer brand washing per gallon plus a little bit. I tried a 1.5A 18vdc power supply first that did nothing. Then I tried my HD battery charger on 2A slow charge, and still nothing. I finally got bubbles when I kicked the charger to 40A boost. After 12 hours in the tank I can see no change in the part at all other than the paint.

What have I missed? I know some of you guys swear by this method. Please tell me how do I make it work?

Moderators: please bump this wherever you think it needs to go if this is the wrong place for it.

Best wishes,

Les

What are you using as an electrode? I used an old shovel head, larger is better the shovel worked fine. Make sure you have good contact with the part and the electrode. That was my biggest problem. You can watch the meter on your battery charger and wiggle the connections until you are drawing the most current. Taking the part out and scrubbing it down with one of those stainless steel pads every now and the seemed to speed things up.

neilroy,

My electrodes are 3 1"X 8"X 1/8"on the sides of one end of my 18gal tub, 2 on one side and 1 on the other. They are all connected on the outside of the tub with 12ga solid copper wire.
All my connections are real good. What you are saying is really good advice, but I want to use this for getting rust out of places where I can't brush.

Best wishes,

Les

do you have the POS lead to the anode, NEG to the part?

if it takes real high current to see some action you don't have enough soda - are you sure it's washing soda [sodium carbonate], not baking soda [sodium bi-carbonate]? the charger on trickle might not be enough with less soda, but it shouldn't take booster levels to work

also note that it's pretty much "line of sight", the areas of the piece not directly facing an anode don't react much .... and of course what electrolysis is aimed at is real corrosion, not surface rust, although it should turn that black

Bill

You need to use some washing soda, try some 20 Mule team Borax. That is what I used and it worked great. Even cleaned the inside of the exaust manifold on my 235. I used some a couple of lengths of 1/2 in rebar for the anode. I was just using a small cheap FLAPS 6/12 volt charger.

Borax is sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate

Washing soda is sodium carbonate - soda ash

The electrolytic rust removal Tech Tip recommends 1 TBS of Washing soda per gallon.

All of the above chemicals are bases and will raise the pH of the solution; however, almost all write-ups of this technique suggest using washing soda.

I just dipped brine from the water softener. Salt water works great - to make rust or remove it.

Dont forget to scrub the part! It'll keep looking rusty until you give it a quick scrub and rinse. Im thinking the mix might be off, I use the electrolytic method with perfect results nearly every time with a 10 amp charger. If you have one of the newer 'electric' (computer controlled) chargers, you might not be getting results as the charger will kick on and off because theres no battery. Do you have one of the manual chargers?

The best anode Ive found are old seat frames. Lots of surface area, and when they get rusty, just through them on the ground to knock all the old crap off.

Let us know what you figure out.

Jeff

Hi guys, Thanks for all the replies. I am one of those people who tends to follow directions pretty well. Having never tried this process before, I d/ld the pdf from "Tech Tips" and pretty much followed it to the letter. My electrodes are steel, not iron, but I don't think that matters. Maybe I'm wrong there. They are connected to each other outside the tank and solution by 12ga solid copper wire to which the Positive (red) jumper from my charger is attached. Black (negative) goes to the part. I ground a little place to bare metal so I'd have good contact. I measured 1tbl spoon of Arm&Hammer brand "Washing Soda" into the water. I had a little left over so I tossed that in too. Do I have to much?

Anyway, that's where I stand. Forty amps from my big charger does squat! From what you all say, I know I'm missing something, I just don't know or have any idea what it is!

thanks for trying,

Les

Yes you can have too much soda.

The electrode needs to have more surface area than the item being cleaned.

I used thin sheet stainless as a neutral item , even sandblasting can double the surface area.

I just re-read your original post , are you trying to clean painted parts? that won't work.