Thread: Removing rust and restoring old hand tools

Molasses is a great rust remover and available from produce stores. Item is soaked in it for a period.

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.

Check YouTube too. Plenty of how-tos.

Looks interesting...esp the way it can be working while your doing something else

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,

Drop it in a bucket of acid (available at bunnys) for half an hour, cleans it up nice. Wear eye protection and gloves...

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

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.

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!

Originally Posted by BobL

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!

Ok so thats a bit off putting

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

Originally Posted by Da bunny lover

Ok so thats a bit off putting

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
Paul

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.

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.