How to clean rusty tools ?

electrolysis

Although any of the heat treated tools will be subject to hydrogen embrittlement, and can break easily afterwards as a result. A roast for an hour or two at roughly 375 degrees F should minimize, if not eliminate, the hydrogen.

Harold

Some tools will respond quite well to just oiling them and rubbing them with a rag. This often suffices for old wrenches and the like.

If a tool isn't galvanized (few are) they may well like the zinc/lye treatment. To try this, dissolve a cup or so of lye (you can buy it at the supermarket by the laundry soap) in water, and dissolve as much zinc as it will eat. Many small castings are made of zinc (pot metal) like lamp bases, auto mirror supports, stuff like that. Most houses have some broken pot metal bits around. Anyway, once the zinc is dissolved in the lye, put in your rusty tools. Wear gloves and eye protection, lye is certain to blind you if it gets in your eye. After a day or two, remove your tools and rinse them in very hot water, hot enough so they self-dry within 60 seconds, then oil them. The zinc is higher on the galvanic scale than iron, so the iron oxide turns into zinc oxide chemically. This works very well on galvanized bits you want to weld up too, if you don't want to monkey with extracting zinc fumes.

Beyond that, google on electrolytic derusting. If you have a car battery charger it's easy.

GWE

I've had good luck on surface rust using WD-40 and Scotchbrite. Spray and rub. It won't remove deep pits but then nothing else will either.

WIRE BRUSHES...LOTS OF 'EM!!! Duhhh

"Will" wrote in news:hRYCe.9068$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

If you have a pressure washer, you might want to start out with it. [See the recent thread on this. ]

Before beginning other methods, soak the metal parts in Brake Cleaner - this will get off a lot of the old grease (if any) and make the OTHER treatment(s) more effective.

As others have said, Electrolysis is the easy way and there have been recent threads, here, with full descriptions, formulations, and instructions.

BTW, don't be too surprised if chrome plating comes off in sheets - once started, rust can form UNDER it...

somebody once told me he used NAVAL Gel on old tools then sold them on E-Bay. I don't know, but it worked good for me on my father's tools, which if rusty were my fault. Shawn

If any are Snap-on, Craftsman or Mac... just trade them in for new ones.... LIFETIME GUARANTEE

There is no one correct answer. I would probably start with a wire wheel on a bench grinder.

Dan

Will wrote:

Another thing I've done is tumble stuff with some sand .. noisy, tho - GWE

snipped-for-privacy@krl.org wrote:

My son put a bunch of old flea market tools into a bucket with some waste oil and was going to clean 'em off after a few weeks. I don't quite know what was in the waste oil bucket, I suspect old diesel, some crankcase oil from a bike, maybe a bit of brake fluid. Well the bucket stayed out all winter and filled with rainwater even so it was under a tarp. Recently we were cleaning up and I found the bucket almost full to the top, with a deep layer of dark oily stuff on top, so I stuck a hose to the bottom of the bucket and syphoned off as much rainwater as possible. The tools came out all covered in milky brown goo and when cleaned I was amazed to see very little rust, some where actually in pretty good shape. I can't explain the chemistry, I was expecting a lot more rust due to the rain water.

cheers T.Alan

Wander to your local horse supply place and buy a 50 pound bag of Molasses Granules. Find or make a tank large enough to hold the tools with some extra room. (dollar stores sell these tanks as "storage containers") Put the tank outside under cover (plastic cover that was included is OK, outside so that your house doesn't smell when your done) Put tools in container, now mix the Molasses granules with water with about a 1:4 ratio (1 cup M to 4 cups W / 1 gallon M to 4 gallons W) stronger is OK but you don't want it to thick or pasty. Let tools set in slurry for a day. Open container and stir entire mix so that tools move around and cover back up. Repeat for 5 days. Pull a few tools every day and see how they are cooking. The rust will dissolve off and they will have an ugly black film that washes off. Once clean use a light machine oil to give the tools a LIGHT film coat. Or for plain steel tools use some bluing solution and blue them.

DO NOT do this inside. The smell of the molasses will make you get a serious case of munchies and it lingers for weeks......

In my estimation, that would remove about ten times as much surface metal as would be necessary. I would try the electrolysis, and only remove a little in the rusty areas. And, I don't know about you, but I have trouble fitting a 6 or 8 inch brush into tight places.

I think a wheel on a bench grinder is serious overkill. Unless you don't care how they come out looking, that is.

YMMV

Steve

I think that the thick film of oil on the top restricted the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, asn it could not be replaced fy contact with the air. This will put a serious limitation on the amount of rust which can form.

Now, if you had been bubbling air from a hose through it all that time, I think that you would have been a lot worse off.

The goo, however, probably acted as a secondary layer of protection.

Enjoy, DoN.

Can you offer an explanation of how the hydrogen gets below the surface? It sounds improbable there would be much penetration.

Thanks, Steve

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

| >

| >>electrolysis | >>

| >>

| >

| >Although any of the heat treated tools will be subject to hydrogen | >embrittlement, and can break easily afterwards as a result. A roast for an | >hour or two at roughly 375 degrees F should minimize, if not eliminate, the | >hydrogen. | >

| >Harold | >

| >

| >

| >

I realize there is such a thing, I just don't see how any significant amount of it is likely in a bucket of solution with a battery charger on overnight.

I could be wrong...

Steve

Mungo Bulge wrote:

"Will" wrote: (clip) best way to clean these tools up and get all the rust off?(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I have a gallon of something called "Evaporust," from Orison Marketing, Abilene, Texas. I got the information from one of the newsgroups, possibly here, and found it to be very easy to use and effective at removing rust. I dipped a rusted 12" steel scale half-way in the liquid, and a few hours later that half was cleaned down to solid gray steel. I am not connected with the company--just sharing what I know.

Will,

This stuff is great! The best part is it works into areas that you can not get to with any other method. I had 2 drill chucks that were rusted closed and I could free them up with this stuff. It is not cheap. 5 gallons cost me $103, but then again it is no more expensive then good paint or deck preservative.

Will wrote: