Anyone have good luck using electrolysis to remove rust from wheels?

[goeduck]

And it's a good possibility it was MossRoad where I read he'd used his DC welder, and you know I just had to try it too. WOWSER..!! Definitely makes the water churn..!! I went back to the battery charger, after a couple minutes of watching it. Just wanted to see what it would do.
.

You are a wise man switching to the charger. :thumbsup:

Hydrogen explosions are quite something, I would rather not experience another.

 

[MossRoad]

Mine didn't foam up that fast. Just a nice stream of bubbles emitting off of about every point in the railings. It did have a brownish scummy foam coating about an inch thick after several hours. I did it in my driveway so any gas would dissipate quickly. I also turned it off when I wasn't around, and overnight as well. Who knows what/who could fall in there and maybe ZZZAPPP!!

I had some long pieces of metal legs for an old washing basin stand that were welded together and I had to find something to put them in. I found our 90 gallon wheelie bin that the county gives us for recycling was just the right depth and wide enough to accommodate them.

There's all kinds of stuff you can use for a tank around your home if you look around. :thumbsup:

Kitty litter buckets are great, too, for small parts, and the lid snaps shut for storage.

 

[DaveMueller]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. We can learn so much by listening to the experience of others. I have an old 100 gallon plastic stock tank which should be big enough for 1 wheel at a time. A few questions on the electrolysis process:
1) is anything added to the water to aid in the process?
2) what is a good anode?
3) how do I determine the number of anodes?
4) I assume the anodes can't touch the piece being "de-rusted"?

Bob

1) Washing soda as mentioned.
2) Anything plain steel
3) The more the merrier, surround your object.
4) Correct.

The process works on current, not voltage. Ideally, you'd have a power supply with adjustable current limit and the voltage is whatever it takes to make that current. The formula is approx. 1 mA per square centimeter, or about 6 mA per square inch. Here's the website I used and have had good results:
ELECTROLYTIC RUST REMOVAL (ELECTROLYSIS)

 

[trctr155]

Spray the rust with phosphoric acid(over the counter anywhere) then coat with POR-15. This stuff is amazing

 

[HCJtractor]

I used it to clean old hoppers from an Rusty row planter. It works great. I used a plastic trash can and rebar for my sacrificial anodes. And sodium carbonate which I found online. Here’s before/after pix.

 

[MA1920]

1) Washing soda as mentioned.
2) Anything plain steel
3) The more the merrier, surround your object.
4) Correct.

The process works on current, not voltage. Ideally, you'd have a power supply with adjustable current limit and the voltage is whatever it takes to make that current. The formula is approx. 1 mA per square centimeter, or about 6 mA per square inch. Here's the website I used and have had good results:
ELECTROLYTIC RUST REMOVAL (ELECTROLYSIS)

Thanks for link Dave, a lot of good information. Spring is getting closer, even though we had a few inches of snow the other day.:thumbdown:

 

[Richard]

Refrain from putting your hand/finger into the water while the current is turned on.... it will bite you.

Also, as I understand, the process is "line of site" to your sacrificial metal. Example: (I did some iron skillets and they came out looking absolutely brand new but for the scuffs on them)

Anyway, if you had your skillet facing the sacrifical steel..... the FAR (back) side of the skillet would NOT be getting done so you'd have to rotate it so the back side can now face the anode.

I had my battery charger on something like 2-amps and that was when it bit me. After all, "all I was doing was rotating the pan"

Yeah. Turn the sucker off!!

 

[Richard]

Forgot this: I simply hooked the leads of the charger to the skillet. The lead that was in the water (I THINK it was the negative but honestly forget)

Anyway, whichever was in the water during the process, got eaten up a bit too. I thought after I was done that if I ever did it again, I might try to take a copper wire or something to attach to item, and then attach power lead to the wire so the ends themselves aren't under water.

 

[dragoneggs]

You are a wise man switching to the charger. :thumbsup:

Hydrogen explosions are quite something, I would rather not experience another.

another??? I knew you were off a bit :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Most people suggest making a non conductive grid to suspend above the tank to hang the item from. Then they fasten a wire to the object and connect that wire to the clamp on their power source. Also, put at least 4 sacrificial anode spaced evenly around the outer edge of the tank. That will cover all 4 sides of the item being processed. You can then run a wire from anode to anode to anode to anode and connect that to your other lead on your power source.

 

[MA1920]

Refrain from putting your hand/finger into the water while the current is turned on...it will bite you.....

I had my battery charger on something like 2-amps and that was when it bit me. After all, "all I was doing was rotating the pan"

Yeah. Turn the sucker off!!

How bad is the "bite" from a battery charger at a low setting, say 2-5 amps?

 

[joecdeere]

at that setting it's a tickle, my dog would argue that, she couldn't resist the foam in the bucket and had to put her nose against it
hasn't been near my cleaning since.

 

[MA1920]

One month later and spring is finally in sight. April has been cold and wet, rain every other day, some snow thrown in for good measure. At least it wasn't flooding rains, just cold, nuisance rain. On the positive, I guess a cold wet April is better than floods or an extended drought.

Back to the subject I inquired about so long ago. I'm going to try my hand at rust removal this weekend. I bought some washing soda and I came across some old brake rotors I was going to bring to the scrap yard. I think I'll start with the rotors as the sacrificial part of the equation. Updates to come this weekend.

 

[trctr155]

Only thing off the top of my head would be to start with clean sacrificial metal, it helps. Use a 4" grinder with a sanding disk(or whatever you've got) and quickly strip the brake rotor of rust. It will pull quicker to the bare metal.

 

[dragoneggs]

Only thing off the top of my head would be to start with clean sacrificial metal, it helps. Use a 4" grinder with a sanding disk(or whatever you've got) and quickly strip the brake rotor of rust. It will pull quicker to the bare metal.

yeah that should speed up the process.

 

[MA1920]

After a couple hours of grinding, the pics show my setup before water was added. It took a while to grind the rotors because I wanted as much clean metal as possible. The tractor wheel is just above the floor of the tank, and the 2 end rotors are as vertical as my son and I could get them. The rotor in the center is close to horizontal.

The rotors are connected to each other with bare #12 copper. We added water and washing soda, connected the battery charger on the 2amp setting. Bubbles started rising instantly. It was getting dark so we unplugged the charger for the night. I'll restart it in the morning and if everything's fine, let it run for a few days. I'll have to rotate the wheel because it isn't 100% submerged.

One question, during the short time it was running, why did the submerged copper turn blue? Is that to be expected? I didn't realize a couple of the pics were blurry. I'll do better tomorrow.

 

[joecdeere]

The copper will turn colors, and may get a crusty buildup from the soda, no big deal, you may have to scrape the buildup off the rotors as things progress if you see the reaction slowing down

 

[MA1920]

A few pics taken throughout the day. This question may be odd, but would there be more of a reaction the deeper the wheel is in the water?

 

[goeduck]

There would be more rust to remove but my guess is the limitation might be the anode, the bath and the available current. I would not rush it...

 

[dragoneggs]

A few pics taken throughout the day. This question may be odd, but would there be more of a reaction the deeper the wheel is in the water?

The depth of the water is not much of a factor. Placement of your anodes, current, and freshness of your bath are bigger drivers.