MWF FEED
12th June 2022, 04:20 PM
A mate asked me the other day about these springs that belong to an antique rocking chair he wants to restore. The chair belonged to his great grandmother. Apparently it was hanging under a verandah for several years and the springs are evidence of that. They are badly rusted and he was asking me about the best way to clean them up.
The options I thought of are
(1) put them in my tub of molasses for a couple of weeks and see how they come out.
(2) make up an electrolysis bath with sodium carbonate and a battery charger (I have done this once before with good success)
(3) boil them in water and then dip in oil i.e 'rust blueing'. I don't know much about this.
My thought are to rig some kind of tension jig to pull the coils apart slightly if using option 1 or 2. However I really do not want to risk destroying these things, I imagine they are probably near irreplaceable. Any suggestions?
simon's chair springs 1.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398917&d=1655010321)simon's chair springs 2.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398918&d=1655010345)
Attached Images
https://metalworkforums.com/images/attach/jpg.gif simon's chair springs 1.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398917&d=1655010321) (86.7 KB)
https://metalworkforums.com/images/attach/jpg.gif simon's chair springs 2.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398918&d=1655010345) (85.7 KB)
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com... (https://metalworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=208232&goto=newpost)
The options I thought of are
(1) put them in my tub of molasses for a couple of weeks and see how they come out.
(2) make up an electrolysis bath with sodium carbonate and a battery charger (I have done this once before with good success)
(3) boil them in water and then dip in oil i.e 'rust blueing'. I don't know much about this.
My thought are to rig some kind of tension jig to pull the coils apart slightly if using option 1 or 2. However I really do not want to risk destroying these things, I imagine they are probably near irreplaceable. Any suggestions?
simon's chair springs 1.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398917&d=1655010321)simon's chair springs 2.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398918&d=1655010345)
Attached Images
https://metalworkforums.com/images/attach/jpg.gif simon's chair springs 1.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398917&d=1655010321) (86.7 KB)
https://metalworkforums.com/images/attach/jpg.gif simon's chair springs 2.jpg (https://metalworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=398918&d=1655010345) (85.7 KB)
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com... (https://metalworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=208232&goto=newpost)