Removing rust

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I use Coca cola and tinfoil on my motorcycle. Takes the surface stuff off with next to zero effort.
 
I just use a scraper to knock off the big bits and then a rotary wire brush in an angle grinder....
clean off with an air line ....apply oil and years of use will polish it up nicely....
itching to try the electrolytic method of rust removeal tho.....
 
If you want to do other stuff as it de rusts.
Citric acid.
1tablespoon per Ltr.

Warm/hot water will speed the action up. But I don't bother. I just submerge and leave.

But faster is electrolysis. I use washing soda. One heeped table spoon per ltr.
Cheep battery charger and leave it.
With the anodes, leave the metal above the serface and wire them, so the cooper wire is not in contact with the fluid.


The above methods will need the metal dried out, fully. Or the rust will return.

You could bake it on with a blow torch and using wax and oil have a traditional finish.

For speed. Power tools.
Angle grinders with wire brushs, sanding discs, grinding discs and other pads.

Drills with burrs or wire brushes to get into nooks and difficult areas..

Hand tools will sometimes be needed as well.

Unless the fixings are difficult to find I bin them and fit new.

The best is to get a coat of paint, wax or oil on any freshly de rusted part or the rust will return.

I have done landrover chassis down to a jewerlers vice with the above methods.

I have had car parts blasted, even a lathe dipped in the past.

The best results are achived from the amount of effert yopu put in.
 
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Electrolysis in action. Tis was a retaining pin for a workshop door.


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Citric acid in use.

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The results.
Dried with a blow torch and waxed.


Power tools, used to clean up this vice.

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To this.

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I have used electrolysis before, but didn't have my power supply unit then, so tried it again.

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This is a very old Chain block I need to use to lift a planer. It's been up in my loft since the last time I used it 15 years ago. I did two runs on the block, each 24 hours.


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I used an old float as one electrode, but had to put some wood in to make it sink :) first power up, at 20V, it was maxing out the PSU at 5.5A, but this tapered off over 24hrs to about 0.7A. Second run was similar.

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This was the float after two 24hr runs.


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Result was very good on the pulley, but as I expected, the chain was more difficult to get consistent contact to the electrode, so some parts of the chain were cleaned, others were still rusty. I tried cleaning the chain manually, but it was endless, so I gave up!
There weren't many parts of the chain which were still rusty, but if I bothered to do it again, I would thread the chain on a long loop of wire. I did have a square of wire mesh in the bottom of the bucket, but you need to get every link to make contact.
 
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