Rusted 5C collets

I need to clean 60 lbs of rusted 5C collets. They are not badly rusted, but they are rusted. At first I thought to hire a kid to do it, but now I think that it would not help much with their insides, anyway.

My current plan is to just dump them into a bucket of diluted muriatic acid,then quickly washing in soda solution, then in hot water, then letting them dry under the hot Illinois sun.

I wonder what you think about this approach.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus11951
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I have successfully used evaporust for exactly this purpose

Reply to
Bill Noble

Yep pretty good stuff, worked real well cleaning up some scales that had a light surface rust. Was around $12.00 a gallon at harbor frieght. Just make shure there is no oil on the collets.

Best Regards Tom.

Reply to
azotic

================ How about electrolytic de rusting? There was a thread on this NG a while back or see.

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is a technique for returning surface rust to iron. It uses the effect of a small low voltage electric current and a suitable electrolyte (solution). It has advantages over the old standbys like vinegar, Coke, muriatic acid, naval jelly, wire brushing, sand blasting, etc. Those methods all remove material to remove the rust, including un-rusted surfaces. With many, the metal is left with a "pickled" look or a characteristic color and texture. The electrolytic method removes nothing: by returning surface rust to metallic iron, rust scale is loosened and can be easily removed. Un-rusted metal is not affected in any way.

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and a bunch more on google produces about 9.7k hits.

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

Yes, but it is not practical on 60 lbs of collets

Reply to
Ignoramus5931

I bought a bottle of muriatic acid today, will do acid cleaning.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus5931

Cleaned the whole lot (two buckets of Hardinge collets).

Since this is two buckets of collets, I could not have possibly done anything to them individually, like electrolysis.

After muriatic acid treatment, I washed them with water with copious amounts of soda. Then rinsed in very hot water and dumped them out to dry, which happened quickly due to them being hot.

They are free of rust, now, but obviously look anything but new.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus5931

I was going to say shake them with walnut chips or the like.

60 is a bunch to do at any one time.

Mart> >> >>

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

If you don't get some oil on them they'll likly be rusty again come tomorrow morning.

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

Another vote for evaporust. We have saved a small fortune salvaging flash rusted parts.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Reply to
Wes

Well, might work, might corrode the collets more.. And they might rust in the final step, unless you dump them in oil..

One easy way is to take vineger, dump more tablesalt in it than will dissolve (saturated solution), and put the collets in that solution.. Rust will disappear in a few hours. It won't corrode steel so only the rust is removed.

Another way is to get a derusting chemical ready-made.. Like "oxide remover" ultrasonic liquid.. It will remove rust and leave a nice gray surface that won't rust so easily..

Reply to
Kristian Ukkonen

ash rusted parts.

I had a similar quantity of 5c collets. I packed them tightly into a 5- gallon bucket, poured just enough Evaporust over them to cover (about

2 gallons, added a few more small tooling items and left them for a week. Came out looking near-new.
Reply to
Rex

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