Electrolysis why??

[londonsteve]

Please forgive my ignorance in this but why do some of you use electrolysis to clean old vises and similar. what is the advantage in this over a wire brush, scraper or other mechanical .

 

[Stuart in MN]

It's easier, and it does a better job.

 

[hydramatic]

**** blast cabinet with glass makes one look good too....be sure to wash it in solvent first....then stone out the blems and nicks and paint it

 

[londonsteve]

Aha, so how do you do eletrolysis

 

[hydramatic]

gimme an hour or so..I`ll get the proper receipe...

 

[woody 73]

I have never done electrolysis but I have seen the results and it is pretty amazing; Parts that would be very hard to access get cleaned very easy.

 

[FoMoCoPower]

A wire brush or scraper can`t get into every crack and crevice.

 

[midnightcruise]

Please forgive my ignorance in this but why do some of you use electrolysis to clean old vises and similar. what is the advantage in this over a wire brush, scraper or other mechanical .

Top 5 reasons for using electrolysis:
1. It sounds cool... and your neighbors will be jealous.
2. When the wife asks me to do something, I can say; "I can't do that right now, I'm busy removing the rust from my vise" then get back to hanging out with the neighbors.
3. I don't like to see the old baking soda from the back of the fridge get thrown away.
4. It feels good when you stick your hands in the water (with the power on).
5. No matter how stupid you are... when you tell people hold on I have to check on the parts in my electrolysis tank, you sound really smart.

ok... for real:

It converts any of the iron that is just starting to rust back to iron and leaves a black oxide coating behind. It only removes the useless rust and keeps the good metal. All other mechanical forms of removing rust take some of the good metal along with the rust. If you have rust around lettering or threads, mechanical methods will soften the edges more then electrolysis does. Evapo-rust is another product that will do the same thing, but it cost $... electrolysis cost less than $2 to do a large vise (if you have a battery charger, old plastic bin, and some scrap rebar laying around.

 

[DavidB]

I prefer electrolysis for a number of reasons. It's pretty easy and cheap to setup. You need a tub, sacrificial piece of metal, water, and baking soda. You hook it all up and leave it to do it's thing. As long as you don't use stainless steel as your sacrificial piece it is non-toxic. All you have when you're done is a clean object, rusty piece of metal, and a tub of water, rust, and baking soda. Another advantage is that it gets in every nook and cranny as was mentioned above. It also only removes rust unlike acid based rust removal techniques. I like Evapo-Rust but I could never afford to do rust removal on large objects but with electrolysis that's not an issue. You just get more water and baking soda and you're set. Electrolysis isn't as quick as a wire brush but it doesn't sling stuff all over the place and create dust. In the case of items with lead paint this is an issue with wire brushing.

Here are some good pages on electrolytic rust removal.
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/rust/electrolytic_derusting.htm
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp
http://www.rickswoodshopcreations.com/Miscellaneous/Rust_Removal.htm

 

[LincolnCont.]

which peice gets the pos+ electrode?

 

[midnightcruise]

The positive (+) is connected to the sacrificial (scrap) metal. rebar works great for this.