Acid dipping has worked well for me, but so many of you rave about electrolysis I finally decided to try it. I threw together a tank consisting of a small, 4 or so gallon, plastic waste basket, three anodes of fairly rusty scrap iron, hooked it to a 10A 6-12V battery charger, and had at it. I have what used to be a nice Indestro open ratchet- 1/2", that is horribly rusted everywhere except the head. Don't ask what model - it's so rusty I can barely read Indestro. Apparently the head was greasy enough that it only rusted enough to freeze it up. I set it in a little oil to soak and forgot about it. YEARS later, I poured out a tub of old crankcase oil from the lawn tractor to take it in for recycling, only to find the ratchet at the bottom! I had completely forgotten about it. Well, the soak worked, and the ratchet mechanism is free and smooth, so I can't throw it away! I thought this would a good first victim since I didn't want to get acid in the mechanism. So, I popped it in the tank and hit the charger on 6V. It didn't do much more than wiggle the ammeter, probably because my anodes were a long way from clean, bright steel. So I kicked it up to 12V, and the meter popped up to 3A. I'll leave it like that for a while and see what happens. I'll report back with before and after - and maybe during - pix.
Next question is what to do once the rust is gone. Well over half the chrome is gone, and the finish is going to look horrible. I can oil it to keep it from re-rusting, but that's really not going to do much for the appearance. I'm thinking paint. Ford engine blue, maybe?
Next question is what to do once the rust is gone. Well over half the chrome is gone, and the finish is going to look horrible. I can oil it to keep it from re-rusting, but that's really not going to do much for the appearance. I'm thinking paint. Ford engine blue, maybe?
