electrolytic rust removal safety

[mic-d]

I'm going to start doing some electrolysis of old tools soon and wondered if people doing this know that stainless steel is NOT recommended for the sacrificial anode. Seems that many sites on the web are still recommending it. Problem is it creates some hexavalent chromium in the process which is something to be avoided.
http://www.crscientific.com/newsletter-7.html

Bit of info at the bottom of this document about health risks.
http://www.nohsc.gov.au/OHSInformation/NOHSCPublications/fulltext/docs/h4/01997chr.htm

Also you want to have good ventilation because those bubbles given off are hydrogen and oxygen gases, which might burst your bubble if they decide to get back together:D

Cheers
Michael

[Bodgy]

So what should we be using as the anode?

[MajorPanic]

The amounts of the bad stuff created are very small & the danger of the gasses are negligible if you use common sense.
If you are really worried about the hexavalent chromium, use gloves & pour the waste material into a tray & let the H2O evaporate then dispose of at the council hazardous waste site.

[mic-d]

Just plain old steel can be used, like rebar for instance.
I'm just saying that as a chemist, I hadn't even thought of the by-products from using stainless steel, so maybe Joe Blogs hasn't either. And common sense is becoming increasingly rare these days.

[BobL]

The amounts of the bad stuff created are very small & the danger of the gasses are negligible if you use common sense.
If you are really about the hexavalent chromium, use gloves & pour the waste material into a tray & let the H2O evaporate then dispose of at the council hazardous waste site.

I agree. As a practicing chemist, faced with a raft of OHS issues at work, IMHO we seem to be over-run with with many mindless rules that are applied across the board without appropriate comparison to other risks. The dangers of home electrolysis are very low relative to other things we do in our sheds. The OHS stuff for electrolysis really only applies to industrial scale or long term production and it's not as though everyone in a suburb is involved in this activity. if you are going to do this for a couple of tools at a time in your shed, this represents a relatively low risk and we should worry a lot more about cutting off digits or limbs or eye and face protection. For example, the rate of H production is so low, provided you are doing this in an open container, it escapes so quickly it will never accumulate to the point of being dangerous.

Nevertheless it does not hurt to raise these issues just in case someone decides to set up a production plant in their back yard.

[mic-d]

I agree. As a practicing chemist, faced with a raft of OHS issues at work, IMHO we seem to be over-run with with many mindless rules that are applied across the board without appropriate comparison to other risks. The dangers of home electrolysis are very low relative to other things we do in our sheds. The OHS stuff for electrolysis really only applies to industrial scale or long term production and it's not as though everyone in a suburb is involved in this activity. if you are going to do this for a couple of tools at a time in your shed, this represents a relatively low risk and we should worry a lot more about cutting off digits or limbs or eye and face protection. For example, the rate of H production is so low, provided you are doing this in an open container, it escapes so quickly it will never accumulate to the point of being dangerous.

Nevertheless it does not hurt to raise these issues just in case someone decides to set up a production plant in their back yard.

Look, I know full well that the risks are much less obvious and immediate than a badly positioned finger on a table saw. They might even be non-existent to a casual back yarder. J.C! All I'm doing is providing information. Even casual back yarders are coming around from what I've seen on the web. If someone reads this and says hey I didn't know that, I might use plain steel instead, has it really hurt anyone?
I spent 17years in the industry, I'm not some johnny come lately who's picked up an OHS form and wants to scaremonger. This was just a footnote to bring to peoples attention that their may be issues and they can make an educated decision, even if they aren't setting up a backyard production.

:mad:

[JDarvall]

Go getem Mic....... ;)

you definetly not trying to scare....you noticed something interesting and you made mention it...right.

I didn't know anything of it. Thanks for the heads up, and honestly I don't think even the experts really know a lot of the time.

Be hard to give up stainless though. Without it, the process slows down heaps unless you clean up the anode repeatably.

:)

[rrich]

Be hard to give up stainless though. Without it, the process slows down heaps unless you clean up the anode repeatably.
:)

Why not just use a bigger anode?

[Bodgy]

Yeah, a bigger stainless anode and more current

[BobL]

Look, I know full well that the risks are much less obvious and immediate than a badly positioned finger on a table saw. They might even be non-existent to a casual back yarder. J.C!

So why not say that in your first post?

I'm sorry if you took offence at my response. Your first post mentioned a potential problem. For the average backyarder this can be interpretted as, Whoa, I must stop electrolysis. Major Panic and myself I mentioned a balance of risk to put the process into perspective and you did likewise in your last post. It's just good to have the balance up front to save these kinds of arguments

[mic-d]

For the average backyarder this can be interpretted as, Whoa, I must stop electrolysis. It's just good to have the balance up front to save these kinds of arguments

As I said before, I'm just providing information. If you cared to read the first hyperlink you would see that it simply recommends a change from stainless to pure iron anode. Its pretty bloody arrogant of you to say the average backyarder can't read this and decide what they're going to do, and I certainly did not say, nor did any of my links say you must stop.
If I'd known the post gestapo were now online I wouldn't have bothered posting in the first place.

:D