Author Topic: Cleaning lite rust from tool.  (Read 9062 times)

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Offline scottg

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2015, 10:45:53 AM »
I have and have used so many methods its ridiculous.
  Never soda blasted but sand certainly.
 I have wire brushes in many sizes and materials.
 These are skill items. You can enhance or ruin at the drop of a hat, or a flick of the wrist in this case.
  Always start off axis with any blaster or wheel. That means an indirect assault. A glancing blow. 
 If you hold a tool centered and advance to the center of the wheel and reel down............oh it'll cut!  Probably more than you wanted. Remember you can't put metal back once its gone.
 Always start light. Start kind of sideways. Work your way in. You never want to cut more than you have to.   

  Same with any kind of blasting. Don't just hold the gun dead perpendicular to the work, and bore straight in!!!    You have a million subtle angles to try.
  People use all kinds of overpriced media when really all they had to do was think while they work, and they could of used the cheapest sand.
 Feather your way in boys! Ease into it.

 A single edged razor blade scraper is never far from my reach. Ever.
 I must have a dozen or more scattered around. Lately the dollar store is selling steel handle traditionals for a buck apiece, and cute little plastic holders at 4 fer a buck. Get some. Get plenty.
  Once again, as with anything, these require skill. Forward or backwarks, direct assault or a million different subtle angles of cut.
 Don't worry, just keep your eyes open and your lights on, you will pick up that skill pretty quick after you start to seriously work.
 
 I like 3m scrub pads for hand work better than steel wool most times. The green ones have no abrasive at all. The red ones do, and cut well, but also wear quickly. So old red pads cut very finely. Its like a selection of grits.
 
  Evaporust is a product targeted at the entitled lazy man who doesn't clean much. Its mostly for bragging.   "I can afford to waste $25 a gallon on a 2 dollar tool and I want everyone to know."     I'm not sure how this is an intelligent boast, but you sure hear it everywhere.
     Citric acid is vastly cheaper and not as nasty as vinegar or most any other kind of acid. 
  Common muriatic (hydrochloric) acid will flat peel away rust like it was never there in very short order, but you are playing with your life now.  Suit up!
 Never use it indoors and suit up with all proper safety gear.
 Also be prepared to go though acrobatics making sure its completely removed and neutralized afterwards.
     
  Once set up electrolysis is basically free. Its slow, but its safe.
 If you get some heavy plastic sheeting, like pond liner or something, you can make up wooden boxes of any size to suit your work, and line them.
  Lately they say not to use stainless steel for your annode but I have been using a stainless pipe union for decades and I am only mostly dead. But I use low power. There are people who use arc welders and swimming pools to de-rust massive cannons and such. I imagine stainless would kill you there for sure.
 But my little toy tank on 6 amps?? Anyway, a big heavy bolt or even a horseshoe would do for an annode as well.  Plain steel gets ate up and pretty ugly, pretty fast. You'll see.

 In the case of cast iron specifically, a quick hand brushing or light abrasive to dislodge loose rust, followed by a linseed oil bath,  the excess wiped off quickly,
 (hang any rags up in the air to dry)...........
  then wait overnight??
 by next day it will often make a beautiful black durable finish.

  Doesn't work for steel, but regular coarse cast iron like coffee grinders or stoves or steam radiators or something?   
 Its almost a miracle. 

 This also works on wrought iron, the real stuff.
  But that is not as common to find anymore.
   yours Scott 
 
 

Offline J.A.F.E.

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2015, 04:31:20 PM »
I also have a small bag of tricks but lately my first one has been Barkeepers Friend which gets some great results. It contains oxalic acid and I get it at the 99 cent store for the surprising sum of 99 cents. The supermarket has it as well but they get more money.

Here is a ratchet I just did and I'll let the results speak for themselves.





I used the BKF with a soft brass bristle whitewall brush and water. Took about 15 minutes and got all the crud out from under my fingernails as a bonus.
All my taste is in my tools.

Offline jockeylot

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #17 on: June 26, 2015, 04:08:44 PM »
I liked that small  cleaning tank also.

Offline PFSchaffner

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #18 on: June 26, 2015, 05:25:46 PM »
Another evaporust user -- I've cleaned about 1,500 tools since last summer that way, plus a few by electrolysis, which produces similar results but is better on large items and useless for (say) a box of 200 drill bits. I buy Evaporust in 5 gallon buckets from Northern Tool, especially when I can find it on sale in the "hot deals" (or whatever they call it) newsletter, which gives me free shipping. TSC sells it by the gallon, which costs a bit more. E-R works better on some irons and steels than others (I find it worst on the plated ones); works better in warm weather than cold; removes some finishes, especially oxide finishes and japanning; gets used up in that as you use it, it quickly reaches a point where it turns black and leaves as much rust on a tool as it takes off; and even at its best leaves a light matte surface (usu grey) that needs to be buffed off with a soft wire wheel (I use one with brass-covered steel bristles at low rpms). Iron that is blistered with rust does not respond too well, and of course deeply pitted iron or steel remains deeply pitted. I find that electrolysis and Evaporust (which works by chelation, just like the old molasses-and-lemon-juice method) are quite similar in results: both leave a matte surface, both usually take 3 or 4 hours, but may need to be left in longer if seriously rusted.

For electrolysis I use a manual battery charger set at 6v/2amp for the power, a 30-gallon plastic trash can full of rainwater for the water supply, Arm&Hammer washing soda for the electrolyte, and a coil of common concrete-reinforcing mesh standing in the water as the cathode (with a bit of copper strip attached to make a convenient spot to attach the clip).

On this page: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfs/fun/Kiwanis/refurb.html you'll find a log of the tools I've cleaned for the local thrift sale; links in the 'date borrowed' and 'date returned' columns will usually show before-and-after pix after my rather hasty de-rusting and occasional repainting and sharpening. Most of these are not intended as collectables, but as straight user tools, so I'm not too worried about authenticity and patina.

And here is the review I left on the NorthernTools site, regarding Evaporust:

" I've used two [make that 20 gallons now] gallons over the past three weeks to de-rust about 150 [now 1500] hand tools (donated to a charity thrift store) which were suffering from everything from light surface rust to deep pitting; some of the tools had the distinctive look of metal that had lived the last thirty years on, or under, a barn floor. Generally successful, sometimes surprisingly so, though sometimes need to soak them for up to 24 hours in extreme cases. Does better in warm weather, I think. Wears out when completely black, maybe 30-50 tools per gallon. Tends to leave a matte gray or black surface finish behind that needs to be removed with a wire wheel, wire brush, or steel wool, especially after the first use. Works best on mild steel or cast or malleable/ductile iron; much less successful on hardened steel (e.g. files) or alloy/tool steels (this is explicit in the instructions). Will soften and often remove paint. Will completely remove some japanning-like coatings and black oxide finishes. If the tool has wooden parts, will of course soak into the wood and may stain it black; remove them first if you can. In the attached photo (my latest batch of refurbishings), the large coarse rasp (top left) resisted most stubbornly -- took two days--; most of the rest did well. The Utica wrench (third wrench up) still shows staining in the plated alloy steel. Many of these started as almost unrecognizable blobs of rust., e.g. the old Stanley try square, the long-handled float lying behind it, and the tack puller to its left. In short, this is very good stuff, it won't last quite as long as you'd like, and it won't work quite as well as you hope on everything. But invaluable. Having used up my first two gallons, I'm prepared to buy the 5-gal. bucket and go from there. "
pfs
member: TATHS | MWTCA | EAIA | MVWC | CRAFTS
tool-cleaner and -sorter, Ann Arbor Kiwanis Thrift Sale

Offline ron350

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #19 on: June 29, 2015, 11:08:02 AM »
J.A.F.E. can you please give more details on how you use Barkeepers Friend.

Offline Branson

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #20 on: June 30, 2015, 07:16:04 AM »
They have BKF at the 99 cent store?!  I'll be looking!  I've only started using the stuff, and so far it's made me pretty happy.  I haven't tried a big project with it yet.

Offline oldtools

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2015, 02:22:09 PM »
Do you use the liquid?, powder & water, cream?
Aloha!  the OldTool guy
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Offline J.A.F.E.

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #22 on: July 01, 2015, 12:47:48 AM »
Barkeepers I use is like a powder cleanser not sure if it comes in other forms. I wet the ratchet and did a preclean with the BKF and brass bristle brush then applied a paste which I let sit a few minutes and then the brush (the one I have is for cleaning whitewall tires so you know how old that is). then another cleaning and another paste soak. Maybe three or four times before I was happy. Only took about ten or fifteen minutes although my wife made me reclean the laundry room sink a couple times until it passed inspection so add a few more minutes for that.
All my taste is in my tools.

Offline Branson

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #23 on: July 01, 2015, 08:11:29 AM »
Do you use the liquid?, powder & water, cream?

Yes, it comes in liquid form, too.

Offline ron350

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #24 on: July 01, 2015, 11:27:21 AM »
Thanks J.A.F.E. I will try that.

Offline jockeylot

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Re: Cleaning lite rust from tool.
« Reply #25 on: July 06, 2015, 05:11:28 AM »
I just saw a U tube video on soda blasting with a home made blaster.  Looks like it works good on small pieces.  I think it would take forever on anything large.