I had some rust to remove, on a lathe bed that couldn't be submerged in acid, my usual rust removal technique. Thinking of Ted Edwards' electrolytic swabbing technique, I looked it up. He uses Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Hydroxide (lye), Trisodium Phosphate, & Sodium Silicate, in certain proportions. All I had was some TSP & some already mixed lye that I'd used to strip paint.
WTF, I had nothing to lose, so I tried it with just the lye. It worked, very well. So well that I would certainly not bother to get all those other ingredients and mix to the recipe. I don't doubt that the official recipe is superior, but it couldn't be that much better. Perhaps its real advantage is in other cleaning situations.
BTW - all I did was attach negative to the lathe bed, dip the (positive) swab in the lye and rub the rust. Poof!, it was gone. (Well, maybe not "poof", but very quickly.) Thanks, Ted.
I was about to hit "Send", when I thought "Maybe just TSP would work". Well, it does. And just as well as lye. Maybe better - it doesn't foam as much. This is good - that lye is nasty stuff.
Feeling that I was on a roll, I tried using a wooden dowel in place of the carbon rod, thinking that the electrolyte-saturated cotton might be enough of a conductor. Nope - you need the carbon.
Bob