1. Home
  2. ⏣ General Metalworking
  3. electrolytic derusting?

electrolytic derusting?

I've been doing EDR (electrolytic derusting) for a few weeks now. Today I went to the legendary Midway Swap Meet for the last time, as this place which has been open since the demise of the once-ubiquitous drive-in theaters, is closing for good, to be replaced by a (shudder) Lowe's. There were lots of people at the swap meet and I found a nice DC ammeter for a real nice price. I got home and headed down to the bucket where I'm EDR'ing my way through six old Ridgid pipe threading dies. I wired in the ammeter and discovered I wasn't running nearly enough current, only about 0.7 amps. I remembered the conventional wisdom which was to move the electrodes closer to the workpiece until the amperage was about right. I tried that. You know, it just didn't work for me. I didn't find much variation at all in actual amperage as I varied the electrode distance. Then I tried adding more washing soda. As I'd sort of expected, the current went right up. At a tad over 2 amps it's sizzling right nice now.

So my question is, to the person or persons who wrote that if the amperage is too low, vary the distance, are you *sure* this worked for you? I am a total believer in experimental science, and the only procedure that is believable is one that's reproducible.

Grant

Reply to
Grant Erwin
Loading thread data ...

Crank up the voltage. If your power supply isn't adjustable or can't handle the current, then upgrade the power supply.

Generally you should be pumping enough current thru the water to make it warm and even hot, which generally means 10 amps or more. Once you get that much power going in you'll probably find that distance to the electrode doesn't matter very much.

Gregm

Reply to
Greg Menke

Hi Grant,

I can't offer you any help whatsoever. I was hoping you can direct me to a source of information on how the process of EDR works and how to set up my own system.

Thanks.

Joe..

Reply to
JB

Increasing the washing soda is what worked for me, until I got about 7 amps.

Reply to
ATP*

Athough I do more electrolytic "rusting" than "derusting," the same rules apply.

You can increase the current (and speed of rusting/derusting) several different ways:

  1. Increase the voltage
  2. Decrease the distance between the anode(s) and cathode(s)
  3. Improve the quality of the electrolyte

Now that you have a meter for measuring, try it yourself. Set up your system with pure, clean water. Turn it on. Note the current. Now dump in your washing soda (I use baking soda). You'll be shocked by what you see.

You can do similar experiments by varying the distance between the electrodes. Just be careful not to get them too close unless you have some kind of current limiting circuit.

Here's my setup if you need ideas:

formatting link
Rob

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rob Skinner La Habra, California

formatting link

Reply to
Rob Skinner

You can download an eight page writeup from this site:

formatting link
Orrin

Reply to
Orrin Iseminger

If the "electrolyte" is not strong enough, varying distance won't do much. If too strong, likewize. With the right mixture you would be able to see the current change with distance.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.