Electrolysis Rust Removal Question

[trbomax]

So what is this magical solution?[/QUOT

This is the solution that is used by Redi-Strip franchises. 1# caustic soda beads/gal of water,1/4# sodium gluconate/gal water,and about 1 tbs arsnic/5 gal water. I say "about 1/4 tbs because the arsinic needs to be fine tuned IF you use it.Its not necessary,it is a brightening agent,it releases the black iron oxide (****) and the part comes out shiney as a dime.Ive put up pics of the chemicals so you will know exactly what to ask for. Dont ask me what it costs or where to buy it because I get it from my friend that has the metal cleaning bussiness,he has it by the pallet load. Same with the arsnic,he fills up a mason jar for me when I need it.This solution is rather toxic,dont breath the fumes and use long rubber gloves when loading and unloading the tank. DO NOT PUT ALUMINUM or anything other than iron/steel in it as the caustic will go after it and boil up,possibly splashing out of your tank causing severe burns. Agitation is good but not needed and if used it should be gentle.Dont bubble it with compressed air.The best way is with a small submersible pump suspended a couple inches off the bottom of the tank,you dont want to be sucking and circulateing the sludge that settles to the bottom. Run a plastic hose from the pump to the other end of the tank and just let it run. It will circulate around the tank much like a swimming pool filter pump.Turn it off when loading or unloading the tank.

 

[trbomax]

You will have to power up the fan from (I would assume) with a wire from the 12v pin since there is no computer telling it when to come on. If you are really worried about an overload,get a 15a automotive circut braker or a fuse and wire the + side thru it.You are only going to use 2 of those wires,+5vdc to the anode,and gnd to the cathode ,plus what ever you power the fan up with.

This is the power supply I am useing. On my new 100gal tank there will be 4 of them , capable of supplying the solution with 140a @ 5vdc. This is way overkill as comercial tanks are useually sized at 20-40 amp/ 100gal.

 

[zacker01]

cool...thanks trbomax! is that board sticking from the bottom of your PSU in the 2nd pic, the "Rail"? if so, mine doesnt have one...its just got the 20 and 24 pin outs on it. i did find a bunch of tutorials online on how to turn it into a bench top power supply... 5v to 12v ... and this ones got a built in fan si i wont need to hook up the one i have... ill save that for another day.

 

[trbomax]

Thats what Ive been told is the "power rail" ,whatever that means! Going from left to right,#2 is the fan , The big one in the middle is the gnd,the smaller one to the left is 5vdc and the next smaller one on the left is 12vdc.

Sounds like its time to power it up and get out the meter to check it then. I am going to put ammeters in all 4 lines out just to see what its drawing. The powersupplys will also be in my "clean room" and the anode/cathode feed wires will run thru a sleeve in the wall to the tank unit. The caustic is pretty corrosive and I dont want the power supplys anywhere near it. My friend that has the comercial setup has his power supply mounted right on the side of the tank though and it seems to be ok. His is a purpose built unit that he spec'd out for his tank. Its 440 in and is capable of 2000 amps @ 6vdc. He puts whole cars in the tank at once though! I'll be doing engine blocks,heads,cranks,that kind of thing. My little 5 gal "test bucket" as my wife called it,is history today, and the 110 gal stock tank is about to be rolled in!

edit) keep me informed how its working.

 

[kwright]

I've used electrolysis for years in my vintage motorcycle repair hobby, especially for cleaning rusty fuel tanks... it's my go-to solution.

Here's a link where I detail how I do it, though there is a lot of info on this topic on the internet. Also note, you don't need a particularly large battery charger for electrolysis.

http://www.wrightwayrestorations.com/?p=326

 

[zacker01]

Thanks Trbo. yeah Unless the rails are inside the unit,I don't have anything like that. Although I did find the pin out chart that tells me what each wire does and I found a couple pages on wiring it up to jacks and a switch and led lamp so all i'd need to do is plug my wires into what ever I need at the time, 5v, 12v, -5 or -12 v +5 or +12v...lol I think hooking up a meter or better yet, a digital read out so I can see what its putting out is a good idea. Ill hopefully have some time this weekend to wire it up to see how its going to work.

 

[zacker01]

I've used electrolysis for years in my vintage motorcycle repair hobby, especially for cleaning rusty fuel tanks... it's my go-to solution.

Here's a link where I detail how I do it, though there is a lot of info on this topic on the internet. Also note, you don't need a particularly large battery charger for electrolysis.

http://www.wrightwayrestorations.com/?p=326

Nice write up... I see that you say you used the 12V - 10 AMP setting on the charger, I did that and the charger shut down after 3 hrs...lol I guess its too new meaning its got some sort of safety shut down feature to keep it from burning up.
Man that tank must have been really rusty inside, the rod came out of there with a lot of **** on it..lol

 

[oldtractors]

That is how I did it on a very rusty Z900 tank, except I used re-rod.

 

[Outlawmws]

Thanks trbomax. I'll pass on the arsenic, I like the Etank because it's benign. Not sure what the heck I'd do with spend juice with Arsenic in it. I'll look into the austic soda and sodium gluconate and see what level of nasty those are...

 

[kwright]

I did use the 10-amp setting, but it's not necessary. That was piece was written a few years ago, now I usually use the 2-amp setting and have just as good results. The fact that your charger shut off was probably due to the thermal overload safety shutting the unit down. I've done a lot of other items too, beside fuel tanks, tools, other body parts, whatever.

I've treated everything from tiny mini-bike to vintage International Super H (tractor) fuel tanks, and almost everything in between. If there's a baffle in the tank, that also creates an interesting challenge.

Thanks for the kind comment...