Vinegar rust removal question.

[AceofSpad3s]

What type of mixture should I use. I tried 2/3 vinegar, 1/3 water and some salt and it kinda works but it is leaving a black oxide like coating after soaking in the solution.

 

[IOWNJUNK]

Salt? I don't know how well salt will remove rust. Straight white vinegar, the cheap stuff, toss whatever in there and leave it for about 3 days. Yes, it will be black when you take it out.

 

[Kirbot]

x2
The black is expected. A soft wire brush, steel wool, scotch bright or anything like that takes it right off.

 

[NJ Marty]

You might want to try Evapo-rust. I tried the vinegar but went to Evapo. Here is what happened after a 30 hour bath. I hear molasses also works great but the waiting would kill me.

 

[BD1]

Vinegar straight is what I use on rusted tools and recycled horseshoes.
IF you have a chrome plated tool that has rust use caution. If it soaks too long it will remove the plating. It will remove zinc plating too.

 

[jjjrmx5]

Straight white vinegar.

I buy it in gallon jugs for $2.38 at the grocer or far less in 5 gallon pails or 2 gallon six packs at costco or sams club.

 

[Brad54]

Straight vinegar, rinse and hit with a scrub brush while rinsing.
I've done lots of rusted car parts this way.

-Brad

 

[Mohawk Dave]

the apple cider vinegar works better than regular vinegar.

All Vinegar is messy and stinky.

I use vinegar for BADLY rusted stuff first, then hose off and transfer to Evaporust.....that way I don't use up my Evaporust in a hurry. It costs much more than vinegar.

I'll also wire wheel (if applicable to the piece) first, just to hasten the process.

 

[Zeke]

Vinegar is great but you didn't leave it long enough and you have to work the part with a brush, steel wool, scraper or whatever now and then during the soak. Figure days, not hours.

 

[rick carpenter]

Ace: I've used straight vinegar, and yes it does leave a residue you scrub off. I've used molasses/water mix and it too leaves a residue you scrub off. Some threads can be found here where guys swear by adding salt to vinegar but I haven't tried that yet. If you use vinegar, when you take it out immediately either neutralize it with a base solution or douse it with wd40, then oil it. With molasses, clean it good and oil it.

When I've got an old tool and want it to stay looking old, I hit it with a dremel & a fiber wheel and/or a bench grinder & soft wire wheel. I spin socket extensions on my drill with a light touch of an oiled scotchbright pad then oiled wet&dry 400 or 600 grit paper.

Marty: Funny!

 

[jabberwoki]

I do 1 gal of vinegar to 1 cup of salt and it works like magic for me.

 

[quattroJoe]

I see some mention of a black residue left after using vinegar... how permanent is it if not removed right away? I've got a handful of impact sockets with the normal black finish that have some surface rust. If I give them the vinegar bath, then rinse/wipe/oil immediately, will the black residue effectively protect the spots where the rust formed (and the factory coating is presumably compromised?)

 

[paddy1]

You can get white vinegar at Rural King for less than $2. Done a platform scale this summer, used 12 gallons vinegar/10 gallons water, knocked most of the rust off.

 

[DennisH2014]

I use a lot more water than I do Vinegar/CLR, probably 1:4 parts or so if I had to guess, works just fine, just give it some time. Not sure why you're getting the black oxide, I never do and I've used this method to clean hundreds of sockets & wrenches. My advice is scrub them a bit after letting them soak for a while (3 days to a week) and then immediately rinse with water, and dry with a microfiber cloth. Coat with oil (I use MMO) for extra protection!

 

[wild cowboy]

FYI - lemon juice is stronger (lower ph) than vinegar and you can get a big bottle at the dollar store!

Electrolysis with a battery charger & washing soda is the best of all, because you don't remove any good intact metal.

 

[cheechi]

Vinegar (acetic acid) and rust (Iron(II) oxide) are a redox reaction. Commonly, people think since vinegar and bleach are both acids that any reaction is an acid/base reaction.

Typically you only get 5% acidity, I think cider vinegar is higher concentration hence the earlier comment it is more effective. Again it's not because it's more acidic, but because there's more acetate ion floating around in there. The presence of table salt in a 5% acetic acid solution would otherwise make a much stronger acid, HCl, the effective solution. But in this case, if the HCl was doing the work instead of acetic acid, you would get a different precipitate (that would be yellow), ie you would not get the black stuff but something different. It would also mean that tap water + table salt would be as good if not better at rust removal.

If you want more of the chemistry, since it's pointless to type much of it in the forum without subscripts it all just looks like a mess, you can read the wiki page; Reaction of scrap iron with acetic acid affords a brown mixture of various iron(II) an iron(III) acetates

 

[User_Name]

If you want more of the chemistry, since it's pointless to type much of it in the forum without subscripts it all just looks like a mess, you can read the wiki page; Reaction of scrap iron with acetic acid affords a brown mixture of various iron(II) an iron(III) acetates

Any thoughts or experience with EDTA? I've been toying with the idea for a while but haven't got around to ordering any yet.

edit: just found this, http://www.google.com/patents/US5468303 - might try a home brew.

 

[kazlx]

Any thoughts or experience with EDTA? I've been toying with the idea for a while but haven't got around to ordering any yet.

Evaporust is some sort of chelating agent.

 

[rapid robert]

Vinegar works great...just gotta be patient.