Thread: How much citric acid?

G'day,

Thanks Wood Butcher, I'd read through the link earlier when I saw Derek's post of it and thought it sounded like a good solution. The problem I face is watching over it to make sure it doesn't eat more than it should. I'm still open to it though.

The other alternative is electrolysis. Myself I know squat about this and called upon a learned friend who suggested a phone charger (of which I have several, so if I kill it I don't care) which I'm told I'll need to put a wire up the centre of the male pin and wrap a second wire around the outside of the pin and then hook it up to the plane etc.

Will this work? Also wouldn't I have to do one bit of the plane at a time?

I like the safe way of electrolysis that I can walk away and come back whenever as it will only remove the rust.

Or do I go the mad scientist way and go the cirtic acid but stand guard to make sure it only eats the bad bits and not my hole pplane? The benefit of citirc acid is that I can do the whole plane (taken apart of course) in one evil go.

?

Hi Waldo...

I doubt that the phone charger would have anywhere like the current required for that. A car battery charger would be the go. I think that I read somewhere that 3 to 6 amps is required.

Greg

G'day Greg,

Bugger. Thanks, looks like I go the evil scientist method. Don't have a car battery charger and the one car battery that I have is staying put.

I took the plunge today with a #6C Stanley & electrolysis!

Absolutely fantastic!! This was a trial run as I've got a #4C, #5C & #3 to do as well. I couldn't be happier. I used a 6amp battery charger & some Lectric washing soda for about 3 hours.

Originally Posted by Shedhand

electrolysis is dead easy. I've now used it on 3 rehabs.

Hi Shedhand,

Yeah, I've read up on it, but I don't like the idea of potential explosions and don't want to put others at risk who use the garage if an accident happens and I'm not there.

Anyway, it's good to hear you've had some great results with the planes you bought, especially after the bad #6, I've been keeping up with your posts.

I get those little tubs of citric acid from the supermarket, each about 5 or 6 tablespoons worth. I pour this into a bucket of water and then leave the objects (eg chisels or saw blades) in overnight. Then scrub off with 000 fine steel wool.

I prefer to go slowly and safeguard against damage. Note that warmer water speeds up the process. You can reuse the safe solution over and over.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

I get those little tubs of citric acid from the supermarket, each about 5 or 6 tablespoons worth.

Hi Derek,

I get those containers too, I just wondered if I could get a larger batch cheaper. I'll try a brewery supply place, if I can find one.

Anyway, the safe way sounds good, also allows for stretching the process out to do more work between cleans.

oooohhh I can see it now... down to the local orange orchard grab a ton of oranges toss em into a large tub squish em down till its a whole mess of juice then with crane gantry rigged up lach the old table saw up and settle her into the tub... should clean the buggar up in a flash eh!

mmmm sooooooo I should stop wastin so much flamin money on the spray stuff and just buy this gear to get the small amount of rust thats built up since the tools have been hibernating in the humpyhoochy?

Which ever method you choose, I recommend that after the dip, you 'blast' it clean using a high pressure water cleaner. Can get cheapo ones for $100 .... how long the cheap ones last I don't know(mustn't loose that reciept)........plug your garden hose into them..

high pressure spray seems to work well after electroylsis (proabably with other methods too). With it you can get into all the hard to reach corners very quickly, that are just too tricky to get the steel wool into.

Getting rid of ALL the crud, really gives it a professional finish.

G'day,

OK, for this time around I've gone for the electrolysis method and have a question.

To speed up the process, would a second cathode attached to the first speed up the process or don't bother? I'm using some chunky stainless steel bolts as the cathode.

I used 2 stainless rods down each side of the trough. They were connected by copper wire & seemed to work very well.

G'day MajorPanic,

Thanks for that. Well I just hooked up two more cathodes for a total of three!

I'll see how electrolysis goes, next I'll try citric acid on the next plane and maybe mollasses on the one after that nad see what gives the best results.

G'day,

Well I put the Shelton in the electrolysis dip over two days and it has come out real nice.

What has got me confused is that it's a no. 9 and it's smaller than my Woden no. 4 :confused: Also it didn't have a chip breaker, so I've canabalised my Indian POS no. 4 for it.

Tomorrow I'll throw in the bits to my wooden block plane in the citric acid and see how she goes.

After that, the blades to the wooden bench plane - a monster that one.

I'm hesitant to do my no. 4 Woden as it's nicely tuned although the blade and chip breaker are really rusty.

Pics of planes I'm resurrecting (so far as removing the rust - no idea how to tune them so I'll seek instruction from the Master on that one - when I get around to it) are at this link:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=24153

I bought a small pack of citric acid from my tiny local health foods store because Woolies didn't have it. Cost: $2.

Works a treat, but clean off with a neutraliser like sodium bi-carb and then WD-40 to suppress any H2O that might be left around.