The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk cab electrolosis

I've built a tank out of plywood and lined it with plastic, filled it with water, added baking soda, installed cab, connected battery charger, drawing about 8 amps, that's the most I've ever seen drawn. It varies in how close the cab is to the anode. I only have the cab half submerged, working fine, water is really dirty, I've been lifting it out and cleaning with a toilet brush, really getting the rust off.

Wow! Keep us posted, Please show some pics too.

Baking soda may work but laundry soda is the preferred additive.

like cletis says, try wash soda (Na2CO3) instead of baking soda (NaHCO3) for higher ionic strength => better de-rusting efficiency

I can't wait to see some pictures of it. That is quite amazing!

I'm working on the pictures, while we're here I have a question. Is there any reason not to paint most everyting on the cab, not the exterior, with por-15. Where can I get wash soda, I've never seen it. Dave

Arm & Hammer washing soda is in the laundry section of yer supermarket [why you've never seen it? ], it's a water softener sometimes called Sal Soda - also used to control pH in pool water if you've got a pool supply place around - it's sodium carbonate, baking soda is sodium bi-carbonate, which will work, but needs more of it and takes longer

Bill

http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2706238640101947398ZLonqu

http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2671669410101947398gfzpHZ

Here are a couple of pictures of when I first put it in. Notice the slight bit of water leaking out, must be some pinholes in the plastic liner, if I do it again, I'll double it or put a carpet or something else on the floor to protect it. It looks much different now with very rusty water leaking out now.

Can I just add the washing soda to what I have now or is that bad? What's in the tank now looks like it's a super fund site, kinda blue/green maybe, real nasty but working. Dave

normally adding more doesn't improve the action, and the function shouldn't be affected by how much sludge collects, if it's working well, carry on - AFAIK the sediment isn't toxic, and can mostly be filtered out by running the water thru something like cheesecloth without affecting the function

Bill

Those photos are really something. Those cabs are a lot of work cleaning them with other methods and you can't get it all.

Keep in mind that it only works "line of sight" between the electrode and the anode so you might have to move the anode around to get every spot derusted. I'm pretty sure you already know that though. It looks like you have a good handle on the situation.

Let us know how it comes out.

I'm going to have to move it to inside the cab to do a good job in there, now it's on the bottom of the tank and not doing as much as it was earlier, amperage is down to about 6, it was as high as 9, I've looked at it several times and it's getting much better, I take the toilet scrubber to it and that seems to help also. I just need to figure out how to turn it upside down next, I will have to get my kids to help me. If I were to do it again I would make the tank a little bigger, the cab just barely fits in. When I'm done with the cab I'm going to float the gas tank in it, tank has some rust on the bottom. Dave

Dave, I use old rusted seat frames for my electrode. Due to the large amount of surface area available it derusts your part quite quickly. When its so rusted it slows down a good deal, you just pull it out and drop it on the ground a few times. the bounce of the springs knocks almost all of the rust off and you can use it again. I usually do that several times until the seat frame breaks into pieces. Ive got a pallet of old seat frames lying around just for this.

Bill mentions above that the sediment isnt toxic, but I'd be leery. You'll be dealing with a bit of lead from the old body seams plus the paint residue that flakes off. Best to just wear gloves.

Jeff

Just icked up a small kiddie pool to remove some rust on acouple of NOS 54-55 front fenders. It'll go on top of some old carpet in the garage-just need to ventilate otherwise it would make for a lot of explosive hydrogen gas.

here's the best article I've ever seen about the process, from a "vintage hand tool preservation" association - covers a lot of the details well

Bill

I've been using electrolosis for some time now on small parts - up to approximately 15 gallon capacity. I have found that if the part has rust, grease, and paint on it, and you want all three removed, sodium hydroxide (lye) is your best bet. $10/gallon at walmart or home depot. Sold as septic main line cleaner in the plumbing section.

However, this one may increase your toxicity a bit. Wear gloves, apron, and goggles. And keep your mouth shut!

Homer I am impressed by your Red Green invention as we say here . I think you my need more duct tape for your dipping pool. All jesting aside yours is a method that many will decide to follow.

I'm back with a report on how it turned out. It exceeded my expectations, I can't believe how well it worked. I'm convined that it's the best way to derust, if you have the time, space and equipment to do it. Making your own tank was easier than I thought, I would make it slightly bigger next time. I was concerned about not putting a floor in it, but it worked fine, I would just double up on the plastic liner. I would also come up with an easy way to pull the anode and clean it. I had a piece of grader blade laying in the bottom and it seemed to loose it's affectiveness after awhile, but I was afraid to move it for fear of tearing the plastic liner. I then took a piece of 2 inch pipe and made hangers for it and hung it between the door holes on the cab, easy to put in and take out and a sinch to clean. If sodium carbonate works better than sodium bicarbonate I might be even happier. Hope this might help anyone who is considering using this method. Dave

Very awesome endeavor. Congratulations on the success. This is a new benchmark for do it yourself bolters!

It wasn't that tough to do, you just need an overhead hoist or some means to lift it out of the tank. The tank was pretty easy to make with the used plywood and 2x4s, I don't know if I really needed all the reinforcements I used, it didn't fail so maybe I did. Dave

Does this remove paint? And RNuts, are you saying that the lead seams will be removed by electrolysis as well?

It didn't bother my leaded seams. Any paint that is not real good or has rust under it will peal off real easy or just fall off. I would say about at least half of all paint came off, when I pressure washed it more came off. It is unreal how clean the cab is now, it REALLY is a good way to go, I'm ready to start my repairs now. Dave

No, but just like any metal, lead will also oxidize. The process of electrolysis removes any oxidized metal, leaving alone the clean metal beneath. As an example, if you put a piece of oxidized copper with a nice bluish-green patina in there, it would remove that discolored oxidized metal leaving a nice shiny piece of copper behind (once you scrubbed it and washed it off).

The lead can also be in the paint.

Every piece Ive ever done, the paint has softened and sloughed off with a wire brush or scrub pad.

Jeff

I have a few more things to remove from my son's cab,
then I can start building the dipping tank! I can't wait to try this!
Ted.

I would make sure that I had a way to remove the anodes and clean them during the process, I think it went much faster when they were not covered with a bunch of rust. I took a piece of 2 inch pipe and suspended it through the door openings by hanging it on the walls of my tank. I think it made things go faster. It seemed the more anode I had the higher the amperage. The highest amperage I saw was 11-12 amps. Dave