The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Stripping Paint that is.

I have just tried the method of Molassas to strip rust and I love it. When I first read about it I was like yea right. But it works. I put parts in a big coffee can on the 7th of this month and just checked it for the first time tonight. I will leave them in till the 21st but there are many that could come out right now. I did mainly small bolts nuts and brake hardware the stuff that is real hard to clean otherwise and it works great in this. I am just wondering now how much it would take to fill up enough of a box to do my whole cab. I have a sand blast cabinet but it is a major pain for the small stuff. Especially trying to hold it in your hand and still blast it. I am really happy about it if you can not tell. The only draw back is even after a week the mess smells bad. My can has a lid on it and I can only guess what this crap is going to smell like after two weeks or more. Has anybody else used this method and how long did you keep the mixture before you tossed it. Also I understand this does not strip paint is that correct?

Kenny Broomfield.

Kenny - the electrolytic method is better, faster [2 days instead of 2 weeks or more], more amenable to large setups [poly-lined plywood box] .... and doesn't stink

Bill

I have not used that yet. How do you do that for smaller parts? I know how it works just not for small parts.

Kenny Broomfield

depends on how small, I don't mess with trying to strip nuts and bolts, and a lot of things not much bigger I'd also just replace if possible - all you have to do for smaller stuff is hang it in a bucket of solution by an attached wire and hook the electrode to the wire or a metal bar the wire hangs on, put the other electrode in the bucket of solution - most lighly surface rusted stuff comes clean overnight or faster, deeper pitted pieces might want 2 days

Bill

Do you mean hang each piece in a bucket of this solution or do you mean drop all pieces in a bucket and hang this in the solution. The main thing I like about the molasses is you do nothing for the two weeks. This allows you to work on other things. Or go on vacation.

Kenny Broomfield

use an appropriate size bucket [any container] - hang however many pieces in the solution - multiple pieces can be hung off the same rod, various ones may take differing times to clean .... could also put a metal screen basket of small parts in a bucket of solution, tho' that might not have as good a result

no problem if ya wanna do other things, just put the parts in the day before you'll be ready to carry on with them instead of having a bucket of stink around for weeks until you spend all one day lookin for them darn parts you put someplace before you got distracted to another job

Bill

I used vinegar... works great.

I had muriactic acid ( from my pool) and tried that just to see how well it worked. I was really surprised at how well it turned out in the end. The attached pic was my test item, i just sat it in a tupperware container for about 3-4 hours just to see what it would do.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

Josh

careful with the vinegar Woody, it's extremely corrosive, will eat the lime right out of your concrete .... don't ask me how I know

also note Josh, muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid and while it is stable on it's own, use it with personal safety uppermost in mind, contaminated with other common household chemicals, particularly bleach, it can give off mist fumes very corrosive to lung tissue

Bill

O yeah you definitely want to be very careful with the stuff and DEFINITELY wear a respirator, I mean they use it to etch concrete after all haha. I just bought a blast cabinet and will be using it for all of my parts, Im not a big fan of having a vat of acid sitting around my shop..

Josh

take all the small pieces and string them on a piece of baling wire or old wire. as long as they are touching the conductor, it will work, regardless of the size.

Where do you guys get the baking soda washing powder? Is there a specific one that you use? I have looked and have not been able to find any. I am wanting to try this method but have yet to jump into it.

Kenny Broomfield

arm and hammer washing soda, at the grocery store laundry aisle - may be available some places as a pool pH chemical, it's sodium carbonate - check walmart or ace hardware .... if you can't find it use baking soda in the grocery baking supply aisle, which is sodium bi-carbonate, just need to use more of that to do the job

Bill

You can also use sodium hydroxide (lye) which will achieve the same conductivity as well as erode any paint off the part. Is available as septic main line cleaner (liquid) from Home Depot for $10/gallon. Will probably be the only one that you buy.

Interesting read about the electrolytic rust removal, also interesting to read the additonal PDF regarding the poisonous chromates release warning if using a Stainless electrode, very nasty stuff.
I think I'll stick with the baking soda and a steel electrode.
My question is, what amperage does the charger need to be set at, or does it matter? Couldn't find an answer in the description anywhere.
Thanks

I've tried all the above methods except for molasses which I like on biscuits but it sounds too slow for cleaning parts. I also have an Eastwoood vibratory tumbler and it's great for hardware. It won't quite get the nuts and bolts as clean as bead blasting but it does fine for cleaning the parts when you are planning to reuse them or black oxide coat them. As far as replacing hardware rather than cleaning, I find that you can't get the exact hardware at the hardware store so I prefer to clean it are reuse it unless it's too rust pitted or stripped.

I use graphite for the electrode. You don't have the nasty chromates with stainless and it won't crud up like steel. It does erode but very slowly. I've been using mine for over a year and it has just slightly rounded the edges.
I use a large roll around charger. It has settings for 2, 20, 40, and 200 amps. I find that the 20 amp setting is more than enough. 2 amps will work but slowly. I think as long as you see bubbles the magic is happening. Oddly the charger says it is supplying 39 amps at 2 volts when set to 20 amps and 12 volts. This doesn't seem to affect the final outcome. BTW this works in a five gallon bucket and a 1200 gallon container.