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10th August 2012, 03:37 PM #1Senior Member
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Removing rust and restoring old hand tools
Ive been playing around doing up some old saws, planes..and mostly chisels just wondering what ways others go about trying to save a nice old tool and give it another lease on life....esp keen on how others go about bringing a rusy old garage sale chisel back to life.
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10th August 2012 03:37 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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10th August 2012, 04:06 PM #2SENIOR MEMBER
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Molasses is a great rust remover and available from produce stores. Item is soaked in it for a period.
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10th August 2012, 04:39 PM #3
Search the forum for 'electrolysis rust removal' and you will find hours of reading.
All you need is a battery charger, a plastic bucket, some water and some washing soda. Excellent non-destructive way of converting rust back to metal."I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."
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10th August 2012, 04:41 PM #4
Check YouTube too. Plenty of how-tos.
"I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."
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10th August 2012, 06:15 PM #5Senior Member
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Looks interesting...esp the way it can be working while your doing something else
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10th August 2012, 07:13 PM #6
An old file will knock the loose bits off, followed by wet & dry, using kerosene as the 'wet' bit, up to whatever grade you wish, but I wouldn't bother going beyond 800 or at most, 1200 for a user. Quicker & far less fuss - a chisel is not a huge area to work on.....
Cheers,IW
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10th August 2012, 07:54 PM #7SENIOR MEMBER
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Drop it in a bucket of acid (available at bunnys) for half an hour, cleans it up nice. Wear eye protection and gloves...
The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
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10th August 2012, 08:13 PM #8Jim
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I'll go a bit different. All the above plus I like to start with a window scraper - the type that has a blade (razor or stanley knife style) That gives you an idea how bad it is then I usually do the same as IanW.
Cheers,
Jim
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10th August 2012, 08:39 PM #9Retro Phrenologist
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It kind of depends on what the tool is and what it is going to be used for.
I wouldn't be taking to a classic Berg chisel or a Disston saw with a file and wet & dry paper. I wouldn't drop them in acid either.
Electrolysis is perhaps the least destructive. You can generally get all the rust and scale off without destroying the original brand markings etc.
However, if you just want to return a crappy old plastic handled Stanley to some form of usability, acid, files and wet & dry certainly work pretty well.____________________________________________________________
there are only 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary arithmetic and those that don't.
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11th August 2012, 12:26 AM #10.
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Before doing anything the metal should be degreased especially if strong acids are going to be used since a grease or oil covered areas are less likely to dissolve. One needs to be really careful with acids as some do not discriminate at all between rust and metal and dissolves both. A weak acid like spirit vinegar is a lot safer than something like HCl. Electrolysis in washing soda (Foot bath salts) automatically degreases the item and only attacks the rust so is an inherently safer process.
There was an interesting post recently on home shop machinists forum about one of their members electrolysis tanks blowing up. Fortunately the member was OK. The lesson there was
1) turn off the power before disconnecting terminals.
2) don't use too much washing soda and
3) too high a voltage.
What happened was that Hydrogen and Oxygen got trapped in the foam and a loose wire generated a spark and kaboom!
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11th August 2012, 03:12 PM #11Senior Member
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11th August 2012, 03:15 PM #12Senior Member
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I want to restore like new as much as i can, i have been playing with wet and dry and a few other things on some cheap chisels from the markets...but i want my titans and bergs to come up as best as i can get them
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11th August 2012, 03:25 PM #13
I wouldn't be too off put. It's probably not even one thousandeth as dangerous as getting in your car.
Best to use a well ventilated area and switch off at the power point before changing connections as Bobl intimated. Follow up on Silent C's suggestion to search for electrolysis and rust removal. There has been humungus discussion on the forum.
On top of that it works extremely well. Soaking in citric acid is another rust removal technique, but I would go with electrolysis.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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11th August 2012, 05:11 PM #14
another vote for electrolysis. powered with an automotive battery charger you'll never see enough hydrogen buildup to ignite, even if you tried to light it with an open flame. it gets ALL of the rust off, overnight, while you sleep.
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11th August 2012, 06:19 PM #15.
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Not all (especially recent) battery chargers will work as they sense their load and will turn themselves off.
Battery chargers can easily generate enough hydrogen to cause an explosion if
- the container is too deep and the volume of electrolyte is small
- the electrolyte is too concentrated and forms a foam (bubbles may fill with Hydrogen)
- it's done in an area with little or no ventilation
Here is a photo of the one that blew up.
Look at his connections - alligator clips - this is not a good ides. Use firm screw down clips. I use existing holes or drill and/or tap holes in my objects to get a solid connection.
He used 30 table spoons of washing soda in 30 gallons of water - he was de-rusting a small truck brake drum. He could probably have used 1/10th of the washing soda and it still would have worked and maybe just taken a bit longer.
I also do not recommend washing powder it foams too easily. Use straight sodium carbonate (foot bath salts available from coles) for $5 a bag.
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