Electrolytic Cleaning of iron parts

[Sarthos]

Hm. Then why are you doing the electrolytic cleaning? I'd assume the rust is thin enough that it could be fixed with just sanding?

[mndude07]

Cheap and effective, but I would rather pay a little bit for the speed and ease of sandblasting.

[reklipz]

Hm. Then why are you doing the electrolytic cleaning? I'd assume the rust is thin enough that it could be fixed with just sanding?

Because doing things like this is fun and interesting. It has the benefit that it doesn't remove any unnecessary material unlike sanding. Plus, it requires basically zero armpit grease, so that's always a win.

[illinois_erik]

Because doing things like this is fun and interesting. It has the benefit that it doesn't remove any unnecessary material unlike sanding. Plus, it requires basically zero armpit grease, so that's always a win.

This is true, it works well for anything. Enough time and anything will come clean of all coatings and oxidation. without touching the root metal, machined bores are left untouched.
This is just soaking and a couple wire brushings. Calipers will be soon.

[sonikaccord]

Neon sign transformer enough voltage?

[illinois_erik]

Neon sign transformer enough voltage?

nooo.. use a battery charger 12v. about 5 amps is about whats drawn

[EsperHamid]

wow this is cool but this is cooler found it on youtube by mistake

[Qiko]

nice find. I was planning to use eagle one mag wheel cleaner but this looks like a lot fun.

second thought, i might read up on it.

[toycar]

Pretty cool Erik



Can you elaborate a bit on how you are doing this and what you are using to set everything up?


I would like to get down on something like this. I guess I could google it, but, could you just offer up some pointers?

[illinois_erik]

Pretty cool Erik



Can you elaborate a bit on how you are doing this and what you are using to set everything up?


I would like to get down on something like this. I guess I could google it, but, could you just offer up some pointers?

Hey man..its really easy
(-) goes to work piece
(+) goes to sacrificial ferrous electrodes

This procedure works on Line of Sight, so if you do a piece of flat stock and have only one anode then only one side gets thoroughly cleaned.

I took some scrap I had laying around, an old vcr top and cut it into strips and spaced them evenly around the inside of the bucket riveting them in place above water level. Then I used other rivets to hook a jumper wire to each plate and electrically connect them all.

Power Supply is just a regular battery charger set at the lowest charge rate Increasing the voltage/amps doesnt seem to speed up things (actually finer metal youd do at like 5v for a much longer time..say like metal detector finds)

The bucket is one of those 6 or 7 gallon larger ones.

I used about a pound of baking soda and hot water to make the electrolyte.

Suspend the work by a metal bar and bailing wire (i used coat hangers) anything that has to do with it should be ferrous metal. If you use copper wire itll get dissolved and leave green slime in your water. I just reuse the water here recently, by the next day of inactivity all the crap settles and the waters clear again. Technically I should be able to just ground the support bar, but Ive been attaching the electricity directly to the pieces with jumper wires.

So after you get it together you just hook it up and wait however long. The knuckle took me a good 10 hour soaking for the big end, then I flipped it over and gave it about another 8 hours for the smaller (cleaner) half. wire brushed it all down to beautiful clean cast iron.

Just make sure the work doesnt short inside the bucket, and watch out cause there will be a small amount of hydrogen and other (noxious?) gas production (ie: dont do it right there in your family room). If the piece doesnt come out super clean the first time, wire off the loose shit and resoak. When its clean it comes out with this black oxide finish and will flash rust so..

Ive been pleased so far

heres what i had going last nite

you can definitely see the water line

These bolts didnt have heads, just red fluffy nubs for sockets to chew on



I probably shoulve gone all powder coated but I have some aluminum tractor enamel to use up and the fresh cast just soaks it up..so.. But yeah wow, all the crud that came off the knuckle wirebrushing was just awesome, it wouldve taken a long time and gotten half it done manually grinding. Bead blasting is probably the only better alternative.

[toycar]

Very cool


So (-) went to knuckle

(+) went to the sacrificial material. I have seen(been reading about this this morning) people use rebar and run it around the bucket on 3 sides. So basically just connect the rebar(If I used that) and make sure its all getting (+)


Then suspend work in baking soda water and flip on battery charger then wait?



Fucking genius.


Can you do any ferrous metal like this?

What happens if you were to use aluminum parts for cleaning, like a cylinder head?

[Jarrett]

Why do so many guides show the item suspended by a wire instead of just fully submerged. It seems that as long as your electrodes could be submerged then there's no reason to keep any portion out.

[toycar]

Why do so many guides show the item suspended by a wire instead of just fully submerged. It seems that as long as your electrodes could be submerged then there's no reason to keep any portion out.

I was curious about this too.


I really don't know and am curious to find out. Maybe its suspended so that its not sitting on the bottom. Maybe it can be submerged, but cannot touch the bottom.

I don't know. Loose ideas there. Hopefully someone that does know will chime in. This process really interests me.

[illinois_erik]

Why do so many guides show the item suspended by a wire instead of just fully submerged. It seems that as long as your electrodes could be submerged then there's no reason to keep any portion out.

the bottom has metal on it too. dont want a short.
and you dont want copper in there. other than that you can do it however you want. make a wooden coffin line it with plastic wrap and clean bumpers

Very cool


So (-) went to knuckle

(+) went to the sacrificial material. I have seen(been reading about this this morning) people use rebar and run it around the bucket on 3 sides. So basically just connect the rebar(If I used that) and make sure its all getting (+)


Then suspend work in baking soda water and flip on battery charger then wait?



Fucking genius.


Can you do any ferrous metal like this?

What happens if you were to use aluminum parts for cleaning, like a cylinder head?

all correct. rebar..anything really. Ill be changing out my electrodes soon because they were thin gage material. something wider and flatter works better. surface area is key.

You can do aluminum too, you just have to watch it much more closely use a different material sacrificial electrode and i think the electrolyte needs different chemistry. Some of the things i read you can come back 20 mins later to a chunk of metal that was once an aluminum piece. I wouldnt trust it to machined AL parts. You can just use apple cider vinegar to dissolve any oxidation on aluminum but it usually leaves a weird surface. discolored pitted etc.

for any ferrous though this works really well restoring it without much worry.

[reklipz]

"It's just chemistry!"

I have nothing to show for following up on this: time and money got the best of the idea. I'm glad to see Erik's results though; they look awesome!

I imagine if the part (kathode) is touching the bottom of the tank, then it isn't touching electrolytic, and definitely isn't in line of sight of the anode (sacrificial metal) and is unlikely to be cleaned. By suspending the part, you eliminate that uncertainty and it's probably going to be better cleaned. You can always run it twice though, so if you've got time to burn, you may as well experiment.

As for cleaning aluminum and other metals: yeah, you can find a similar chemical process that will work, but remember what's going on here: we're just cleaning off the oxidation on the ferrous parts, because oxidation on ferrous parts (rust) spreads. On aluminum, the oxidation actually protects the aluminum; if you clean it off, it's going to come back the moment it's exposed to the air.

I'm not sure how well this would work for cleaning off "gunk" from parts, as opposed to removing rust and oxidation. It might work well for aluminum: clean the gunk by removing the thin oxidized layer it is clinging to. It sounds though like the reaction that removes the oxidized aluminum also removes the good aluminum, unlike with the ferrous metals.