Aqueous parts washer with rust inside - Suggestions on treating?

[Dvanman2]

Hi All, recently purchased a parts washer that was part of an estate sale. Its a small, aqueous type. It sat for years uncleaned but I was able to get the gunk out and ensure the pump and nozzles work. Before I fill it with a cleaner, I wanted to address the large amounts of surface rust inside. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way to handle it?

 

[JradM]

Evaporust ought to be plenty safe. That's too large an object to soak easily though. Maybe clean the large surfaces with a wire brush and then apply a gel rust remover to the edges?

There's this too:

 

[no704]

Laser cleaning.

 

[paulsomlo]

Fill it with water and use electrolytic rust removal.

 

[RTM]

Fill it with water and use electrolytic rust removal.

Wondered about that, keeping the electrode well separated would be the only hard part it seems

 

[JradM]

P.s. for those not interested in watching a video, the recipe for a homemade rust remover is:

Per 1 litre water:

• 100 grams citric acid
• 40 grams of sodium carbonate (washing soda)*
• dish soap as a surfactant

*Can also substitute 63 grams baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or 30 grams caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).


It's pretty cheap to make. Just using Canadian numbers (your USD will be less):

• 2268 grams of citric acid (5lbs): $20 on Amazon
• 4536 grams of sodium carbonate (10lbs): $22 on Amazon
• What's a bottle of dish soap worth? $5?

The citric acid is the limiting ingredient in those examples, you'll have tons of sodium carbonate leftover. Still, that's enough for 6 gallons of rust remover for $47 CDN (with more citric acid the prive goes down). Less if you grab it locally since Amazon isn't exactly a cheap place to buy those ingredients in bulk.

An equivalent amount of Evaporust would be $207, based on the per-litre price of the bulk-sized containers.

I assume in the US it would be about 40% of that (based on currency conversion, but you'd have to do your own math to be sure), so... ~$28/6 gallons? And supposedly that homemade version works faster and longer.

 

[paulsomlo]

Wondered about that, keeping the electrode well separated would be the only hard part it seems

Just hang some scrap metal off a plastic rod or wood dowel that spans across the top, I suppose.

 

[Steve_P]

The obvious, but ignored, issue is that this is bare metal, and it will rust again with a water-based fluid no matter what you do to eliminate the rust. I have a HF washer that is fully painted inside, has never had anything but kerosene in it, and still has bubbled rusting under the paint that has no breaks in it.

The GJ answer is to have it blasted and powder coated. Or live with it.

 

[Banjorear]

You need to remove the rust first, but I wonder if a coating of Gibbs or some other light protective oil will help keep it from rusting. Obviously, you'll need to repeat the dressing after each use.