Rust removal by electrolysis and also by acetic acid (vinegar)

[Daveed]

Thought I'd let you guys know how I removed a TON of rust from my water pipe and several parts without nasty chemicals or really hardly any work. Just took some time.

My water pipe had sat for 2 years with just water in part of it. It was LOADED with rust. It was about half clogged with crap. I actually didn't get a pic but you can do a search and see what my water pump looked like. I posted up pics of that thing. Half clogged with rust. Anyways, I soaked the water pipe (1/2 at a time) in a 2 liter coke bottle with the top cut off full off vinegar. The vinegar is about $2 a gallon at wally world (walmart). Worked pretty good for getting most of the crap out of there. Was a bit stinky and I didn't want to scrub on it and get my self all smelling like vinegar so I decided to try electrolysis on it.

fyi: You can find info on this stuff all over the net if you do a search.

I did the arm and hammer washing soda ($2 at fred meyer) in a 18 gallon plastic storage container and connected it to a battery charger. I left the water pipe in there several days. It was amazing how much rust came off the thing.Unfortunately I didn't think about doing before and after pics of the water pipe. I've got an after shot but you really won't know how much difference it made. Here's a pic of the bin after I was done. I recently noticed how much rust was in the bottom of this plastic storage bin.

PS The 2nd pic is of the sacrificial anode which tends to collect alot of the rust from the part. The other two are just of the bottom of the bin after I was done.

If you got time to wait (a couple days) and don't want to mess with the "rust fix" and phospho type of nasty chemicals then this is an option for ya.
PS It won't take off grease so you need to figure out something else for that.

 

[meliketoball]

Ewww. So, did you just stick a blow dryer into water then shock the rust off? How did you dispose of this nasty stuff? Pour it down a river?

 

[Defiant]

It's iron oxide. Nothing nasty there. Stir it into the garden.

 

[meliketoball]

It's iron oxide. Nothing nasty there. Stir it into the garden.

Isn't Iron oxide = rust?

 

[zero97tsi]

Isn't Iron oxide = rust?

Precisely. It's completely non-toxic. The use it in alot of make-up as a pigment.

 

[Daveed]

Its pretty much harmless. Its just iron rich water now and if your soil is low in iron content your grass will react like its fertilizer.
The washing soda water will work for a long time so I'm gonna keep that tub just like it is in the side yard probably till late summer. I'll secure the lid so skeeters and other critters don't get into it though.

 

[19gale2gGST]

Do you have a link to the set-up you used for this. It seems to have worked quit well, and I want to use it.

 

[Daveed]

Electrolysis - Rust Removal
Rust removal by electrolysis

I'll doing this on my turbo exhaust housing and o2 housing this week. I'll try to take before and after pics.

Edit: put the two housings in tonight and they are bubbling away nicely!

 

[19gale2gGST]

thanx for the links.

 

[meliketoball]

Cool process. I always thought rust is..poison.

 

[Sinner]

For anybody that uses the vinegar method, get cider vinegar it has a higher acid content and will clean off the rust quicker.

 

[Defiant]

Of course, all that rust was formed by removing the base metal. I'd get a new pipe before re-using a rusted one.

 

[Daveed]

I only left these in one day. Not much point as there aren't too many paints that can handle the heat and they reside under a heat shield out of sight anyways.

The electrolysis got them in the shape I wanted to be able to put my new flapper on without getting my hands covered with rust. Actually pretty remarkable in some areas. I put these on my heater to dry them out instead of wiping them dry. This resulted in some minor surface rust reappearing almost immediately. Oh well I'd rather spend time in the hot tub instead of wiping water off old parts in a cold garage

ps I found that using hot water REALLY makes it go fast compared to my current half frozen water (my first pic series had an iceberg in my tub!)