Cleaning rust grime dirty tools no chemicals

[Squez]

This may have been covered but I’m kinda lazy.. anyway I experimented with throwing some tools in a wet media tumbler for reloading brass.. just put them in dawn dish soap and stainless pins.. it actually did a pretty good job for 1 1/2 hours and no labor..
I may try again with something other then dish soap.

 

[Squez]

Round 2
Still no chemicals less water and a little dawn dish soap


1.5 hours
I’m pretty happy with the results.. no chemicals no wire brush no sanding and little prep Just add soap water stainless pins and turn on.

 

[john.k]

If you wash all the grease and oil off ,they will rust in a few days .........best way to preserve tools is to use them ,greasy hands will look after them.

 

[driftpin]

They came out decently.

I like 6% or stronger cleaning vinegar. Easy, safe, and easy to dispose-of. You can draw-off the sediment and re-use it. No electricity needed.

Steel motorcycle body panel, before:



Steel motorcycle panel, mid-point, after:



Upon completion, 48 hours of a 6% cleaning vinegar.

 

[ZRX61]

Pic & link to tumbler?

 

[four.cycle]

^ I had a set of 1/4" drive sockets that had grease jammed into them. I put them into a small plastic bottle with straight S.G. to dissolve the grease. Haven't tried DAWN yet but I bet it would work - certainly works on some other stuff when nothing else will.

 

[Squez]

Pic & link to tumbler?

Just a wet tumbler stainless pins dawn and water

 

[Squez]

Round 3 still dawn and water

 

[alinc100]

Does it have to be wet? If say the sockets were just rusty would the tumbler work dry?

 

[alinc100]

Pic & link to tumbler?

frankford arsenal platinum series rotary tumbler with 7-liter capacity - Google Search

 

[Squez]

Does it have to be wet? If say the sockets were just rusty would the tumbler work dry?

Honestly I haven’t tried.. I have all 3 for reloading the stainless the regular vibe media timber and a sonic cleaner…
The wet tumbler with the stainless pins seem to be the way go with paint grease and rust… I should have got a better pic of the dbe craftsman’s wrench, it had a lot of paint on it and came out clean no paint.

 

[Fedwrench]

White vinegar

 

[Squez]

White vinegar

I used to clean up old disston saws with vinegar… worked great but the clean up was a pain in the ***

 

[seber]

Have you tried to use those fittings after beating them up like that?

 

[FrankLee]

Technically, Dawn is a chemical cleaner.

Citric acid is much better than vinegar and MUCH cheaper than evaporust.

 

[TailGunner3000]

Your problem is the damage caused by the tumbling action of the tools hitting each other and the pins hitting the tools. An ultrasonic cleaner would likely satisfy your bent toward laziness without damaging the tools.

 

[peejay75]

Your problem is the damage caused by the tumbling action of the tools hitting each other and the pins hitting the tools. An ultrasonic cleaner would likely satisfy your bent toward laziness without damaging the tools.

Hey, I am both lazy and curious...so you're saying using an ultrasonic cleaner (and the cleaning powder) should remove surface rust off tools without harming the finish?

(I bought some Flitz that I haven't tried yet, because, the lazy...)

 

[ZRX61]

Tumbler arrived today & 7.5lb of the stainless pins. Now I need to find something to clean in it...

Pins were MUCH smaller than I thought, I was thinking 1/2in x 2mm

 

[ZRX61]

How do you separate the pins after use.. or do ya just leave them in there?

 

[isb cornbinder]

Your problem is the damage caused by the tumbling action of the tools hitting each other and the pins hitting the tools. An ultrasonic cleaner would likely satisfy your bent toward laziness without damaging the tools.

I have ultrasonic. I can recommend it.

 

[Squez]

How do you separate the pins after use.. or do ya just leave them in there?

I just pour most of the water out.. then dump the rest in a plastic bin and pull the tools out and rinse the pins and drain let them dry and repeat…

If you do reload imo this is the best way to clean dirty range brass…

 

[Squez]

Round 4 used Ajax dish soap this time dollar tree
Before pics are in garage sale

 

[Squez]

30 min tumble
Before

After