- Jul 18, 2001
- 8,460
- 2
- 81
I've been cleaning up my dad's tools the past few days and have come across quite a few rusty ones. The less rusty ones have been taken care of by this stuff called Evapo-Rust. Very neat stuff. There are a couple REALLY rusty tools that the Evapo-Rust couldn't fully recover. In comes a nice huge electrocution hazard. 
The c-clamp at the beginning:
An hour or so in, anode on the left, cathode on the right:
About twenty minutes ago (five hours in), anode on the right, cathode on the left:
Electrolytic solution after running for about 20 hours:
The finished product:
Had to make a couple changes to the anode side of things. The copper wire used to bridge the two anode pieces together corroded apart. Moved the bridge wire out of the electrolyte solution and all is well. Some articles say to use a stainless steel anode, but most advise against it because it creates chromium in the water. Using regular steel doesn't make it hazardous, just water, rust and baking soda left over. Oh, no open flames near the bucket either. The electrolysis process generates hydrogen gas as a byproduct.
More info:
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rust/electrolytic_derusting.htm
Seeing as how well this has worked, I'm going to put together a more permanent setup for future use. The nice thing about this is you don't really need a ton of current. The battery charger I'm using is a Schumacher 12/24v 10a charger. I have it set to 24v and it's only pulling about 2-3 amps.
The c-clamp at the beginning:
An hour or so in, anode on the left, cathode on the right:
About twenty minutes ago (five hours in), anode on the right, cathode on the left:
Electrolytic solution after running for about 20 hours:
The finished product:
Had to make a couple changes to the anode side of things. The copper wire used to bridge the two anode pieces together corroded apart. Moved the bridge wire out of the electrolyte solution and all is well. Some articles say to use a stainless steel anode, but most advise against it because it creates chromium in the water. Using regular steel doesn't make it hazardous, just water, rust and baking soda left over. Oh, no open flames near the bucket either. The electrolysis process generates hydrogen gas as a byproduct.
More info:
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rust/electrolytic_derusting.htm
Seeing as how well this has worked, I'm going to put together a more permanent setup for future use. The nice thing about this is you don't really need a ton of current. The battery charger I'm using is a Schumacher 12/24v 10a charger. I have it set to 24v and it's only pulling about 2-3 amps.
Last edited:
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