Anyone had vinegar eat the chrome off an old socket?

[Rigmaster]

Happened to me recently, I put a bunch of old tools in a bucket of vinegar. There was one Mac socket with some rust around the opening and a couple of light spots on the side. I left it in the vinegar for ~48 hours, and when I took it out, about 3/4 of the chrome was completely gone- it looks like a black impact socket now. I wiped it off when I took it out of the vinegar bath and most of the rest of the chrome just wiped off like old softened paint.


I'll post up some pics later to show what happened.


I had a bunch of different tools in there from all different makers, sockets, pliers, wrenches, etc and this is the only one that got eaten up like this.

[billymade]

This is why I like rust removers like evaporust; vinegar is a low grade acid, it will eat things away... albeit at a lower rate then others..

[Chris Adams]

snip

I had a bunch of different tools in there from all different makers, sockets, pliers, wrenches, etc and this is the only one that got eaten up like this.


I have a Snap-On swivel that brake cleaner removed chunks of the chrome from. I think it's only the occasional tool that is 'decromed' by normal cleaners.
I really second the Evapo-Rust over vinegar. That stuff is amazing and the two dozen or so sockets (swap meet stuff) I treated with it had no problems, just lost their rust.

[old salvage]

Happened to me recently, I put a bunch of old tools in a bucket of vinegar. There was one Mac socket with some rust around the opening and a couple of light spots on the side. I left it in the vinegar for ~48 hours, and when I took it out, about 3/4 of the chrome was completely gone- it looks like a black impact socket now.


I use vinegar but 48 hrs is a long time. I've left some things in overnight but not much longer than that.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f105/christianrifle/planerest.jpg

[v8garage]

This has been brought up on the board before and the general consensus was that if the vinegar removed chrome then it was bad chrome. Probably already had rust underneath the chrome.

[Joe B.]

I had some old vice-grips that the chrome peeled off of with less than an hour in vinegar and some mild scrubbing. I don't think it was the vinegar.... just bad chrome or the rust had already gotten under the chrome. (Vice-grips have never had great chrome from what I have seen.)

[jay50]

Vinegar belongs on spinach or collar greens; not to be used for rust removal...LOL

Makes me wonder what it does to one's insides if it will removed chrome...????

[wantedabiggergarage]

Makes me wonder what it does to one's insides if it will removed chrome...????


I'm thinking, makes it smell like fish.:lol_hitti

[bchee]

Vinegar belongs on spinach or collar greens; not to be used for rust removal...LOL

Makes me wonder what it does to one's insides if it will removed chrome...????

don't women use it to feel fresh and clean??

[Stuey]

Vinegar belongs on spinach or collar greens; not to be used for rust removal...LOL

Makes me wonder what it does to one's insides if it will removed chrome...????

If that makes you wonder, then you REALLY don't want to drink any cola products!

[jay50]

If that makes you wonder, then you REALLY don't want to drink any cola products!

Thats right, no cola products for me; I want to make sure I stay healthy.

Instead of cola, I'll stick with my Jack Daniels.....:lol_hitti:beer:

[Rigmaster]

Back on topic....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/rigmaster/IMG_2891.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/rigmaster/IMG_2892.jpg

This is the MAC socket after it's vinegar bath. I'm not really worried about the finish, since it was crappy before I put it in there. The chrome that came off seemed really thin and it just wiped off with a rag.

[gotmud13613]

This past summer I figured I would try this vinegar de rusting trick on a C-Man Adj wrench maybe 10-15 yrs old. It was starting to rust pretty good so I cut the top off a soda bottle and dropped it in. Couple hours passed nothing so I forgot about it till the next day and went to take it out and the chrome was sagging off the tool like flesh coming off the bone (jelly like) wish I would of taken pics :shocking::bounce: So I wash it off and it looked great for no finish, I let it dry and give it a quick coat of clear lacquer.

[Titus]

I have had good luck with vinegar on chrome tools, but I had several non-chrome tools turn black on me after a night in vinegar.

[Coach James]

Vinegar=acetic acid(weak acid)

Coke=phosphoric acid(moderately strong acid)

Inside of stomach=hydrochloric acid(Strong acid)

Coach