fras
Member
Gentlemen. I received some Snap On sockets that had a bit of internal rust (nothing major but I wanted it cleaned). Before I put my Snap On stuff in a bucket of potentially damaging chemicals though, I wanted to test the mixture on something less important to me...
SO! A SAE Sidchrome wrench it is. (For those that aren't familiar, Sidchrome is a respected brand in Australia, and has been made in Australia for a number of decades - once under the name 'Siddons' I believe. They have been bought out by Stanley in the last ~5 or so years and are now made in Taiwan unfortunately).
Basically this is the spanner in its original state, after sitting in the back of a ute for a while exposed to the weather...
Now, the process I used. Basically a 50/50 bath of hot water and CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust remover). Then I used steel wool to scrub the spanner (and rubber gloves as this can be damaging to the skin).
After 5 minutes work it came up looking like this, pretty decent I thought. The remaining 'rust' is actually pitted sections of the spanner that were damaged/pitted prior to cleaning, so will never have that chrome look again.
Anyway, just my quick writeup on the chemical. I'll be doing some more tests at a later date, but better results could be achieved also by using a stronger mixture (less dilution with water), more time scrubbing (wire brush helps) and leaving the item to soak longer also.
Enjoy!
SO! A SAE Sidchrome wrench it is. (For those that aren't familiar, Sidchrome is a respected brand in Australia, and has been made in Australia for a number of decades - once under the name 'Siddons' I believe. They have been bought out by Stanley in the last ~5 or so years and are now made in Taiwan unfortunately).
Basically this is the spanner in its original state, after sitting in the back of a ute for a while exposed to the weather...
Now, the process I used. Basically a 50/50 bath of hot water and CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust remover). Then I used steel wool to scrub the spanner (and rubber gloves as this can be damaging to the skin).
After 5 minutes work it came up looking like this, pretty decent I thought. The remaining 'rust' is actually pitted sections of the spanner that were damaged/pitted prior to cleaning, so will never have that chrome look again.
Anyway, just my quick writeup on the chemical. I'll be doing some more tests at a later date, but better results could be achieved also by using a stronger mixture (less dilution with water), more time scrubbing (wire brush helps) and leaving the item to soak longer also.
Enjoy!