Had some tools in a tote that water got into and rusted them, now need to try and salvage them. Anyone have a good remedy??

Electrolysis or Evapo-Rust

quote:

Originally posted by BlackTalonJHP:
Electrolysis or Evapo-Rust

^^^ Word.

Kroil and elbow grease

Tooth brush/gun brush, some 0000 steel wool, a beer or four, toss on some music or the TV and get to work.

BlackTalon in for the win with Evapo-rust!!
Looks like my kind of stuff! Sir, if you email me your address I will send you some BlackTalons!

Evapo-rust.

You could boil it and convert the rust to non-iron oxide.

But I’d just go the evapo rust way

Ospho could be an option as well. Worked wonders on the chassis on my project car.

Electrolysis can be fun with an plastic tub, some scrap wire like a coat hanger, and an old battery charger. If you reverse the polarity, you can add rust to things or plate them.

quote:

Originally posted by wreckdiver:
BlackTalon in for the win with Evapo-rust!!
Looks like my kind of stuff! Sir, if you email me your address I will send you some BlackTalons!

Thanks for the offer, but I can't accept. Very generous of you though.

I have found some old rusty tools and made them good again by soaking a day or two in straight white vinegar ... followed by a rinse and soak in baking soda and water to neutralize any of the leftover white vinegar. I then rinse well, dry and spray with dry silicone.

Take a large glass pot and fill it with water to the top. Put it on your largest burner on your stove. Place you tools in that pot of water and turn the burner on high. Plan on boiling those tools for a total of 3 hours or so. Note, take them out every 45 minutes and brush any loose stuff with a bronze bristle brush. When they are all finished you'll see that your tools are now Black. That is Black Oxide and when you heat rusty steel in the absence of Oxygen you convert Red Rust to Black Oxide. All that needs to be done at this point is to oil the surface with Water Displacing Oil Formula 40, otherwise known as WD-40. Yeah that terrible lubricant is actually a rust preventative.

PS; this process is commonly called Rust Bluing and one amazing aspect of this process is that tools that pliers that are rusted in position will usually come totally free when the process is completed. I once found a wood rasp that had been left in a pile of damp sawdust for at least a year and looked like a ball of rust and after biling it for 3 hours it was sharp and evenly colored black. Still use that rasp when I need to do some contouring on a bit of wood.

A very long time ago ( before internet days ) I needed to de rust some tools and picked up some Navel Jelly which worked quite well as I recall but do wear rubber gloves throughout the process as I recall I did not and my hands were rust stained for months before that crap wore off.

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
A very long time ago ( before internet days ) I needed to de rust some tools and picked up some Navel Jelly which worked quite well as I recall but do wear rubber gloves throughout the process as I recall I did not and my hands were rust stained for months before that crap wore off.

Naval Jelly and Ospho are chemically the same - the active ingredient is phosphoric acid - the only difference is that Naval Jelly has a consistency like Vaseline and Ospho is a liquid.

For small tools, either is fine because you can just fill a container with Ospho and dunk the tool in it.

For bigger stuff, naval Jelly is great because you can just smear it wherever you need to and it will stay there. For example, I used it on the column of my floor-standing drill press.

The phosphoric acid reacts with iron oxide (rust) to produce iron phosphate, which is pretty unreactive.

This is basically incomplete Parkerization.

It's pretty nasty stuff but it works really well.

I also recommend Evapo-rust.

I have a neighbor who runs a dealership body shop. He had some considerably rusted metal parts that he placed in a plastic tub with a muriatic acid and water solution. I don't know the ratios but I'm sure it's info available online. Anyway, soaked the parts overnight and they came out clean bare metal. Muriatic acid can be bought at most home improvement stores. Don't get any on ya. Water is the solution if'n you do.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
I have a neighbor who runs a dealership body shop. He had some considerably rusted metal parts that he placed in a plastic tub with a muriatic acid and water solution. I don't know the ratios but I'm sure it's info available online. Anyway, soaked the parts overnight and they came out clean bare metal. Muriatic acid can be bought at most home improvement stores. Don't get any on ya. Water is the solution if'n you do.

Muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid, be very careful with it. I decided if x parts to one is good then x/2 parts to one of water is twice as good. It's not. I've also for shits and grins dropped something seriously rusted in it without dilution, I'm quite lucky I didn't injure myself.