9 replies to this topic

[rally1380]

Has anyone successfully done this? And if so, do you have any details.... Or info that isn't American.

Reason I ask is I fancy giving it a go but all the information seems to be American so products they use over there are different to what we have here in the UK and I don't want to waste my time using the wrong thing.

Does it work?

[tiger99]

What products are different? Washing soda aka sodium carbonate? (That one mat be known by some silly brand name, hence your problem.) A 12V charger? Offcuts of mild steel sheet?

 

In any case I just Googled for "electrolytic rust removal" and did not need to go beyond the second result, which is:

 

http://myweb.tiscali...spatch/rust.htm

 

A search engine is only as good as the question you ask it, and some, such as Bing, are remarkably poor even then. Google rarely fails, and if it does, try Dogpile, which will give you consolidated results from many search engines.

 

Sorted?

Edited by tiger99, 25 March 2017 - 12:26 PM.

[rally1380]

OK. Thankyou, Much appreciated


But my initial question was....does it really work and what results have people had.

[tiger99]

Again, do some Googling, or read the likes of Practical Classics. People are showing fairly impressive results.

[Van13]

Yes it does work !

[limby2000]

Yep, ive done it too, with a kit of fleabay, it works best on really rusted stuff, otherwise stick to your plusgas. Also had a go with Nickel plating with mixed result.

[Mervyn]

It works really well, I use bicarbonate of soda in the water and a 36v regulated psu. but I wouldn't use it on wheel studs due to hydrogen embrittlement. Not sure if its an issue or not but I did snap a stud on a bmw that had the hub cleaned in this way. So give it a go.

Merv

[rally1380]

Yes it does work !

 

Cool, cheers. Any before and after photo's?

 

Yep, ive done it too, with a kit of fleabay, it works best on really rusted stuff, otherwise stick to your plusgas. Also had a go with Nickel plating with mixed result.

 

Many thanks for the reply. How fast did you start to see results? 

 

It works really well, I use bicarbonate of soda in the water and a 36v regulated psu. but I wouldn't use it on wheel studs due to hydrogen embrittlement. Not sure if its an issue or not but I did snap a stud on a bmw that had the hub cleaned in this way. So give it a go.

Merv

 

Hi Merv. Cheers for the reply.  BMW......poor quality German engineering   ha ha.  Interesting that it does have limitations.  Does it 'touch' surfaces that are not rusted?  For example - if you had a hub or a brake caliper, they have machined surfaces for wheel bearings or pistons to fit it - would these be affected at all?  

[Van13]

No sorry did this a long time ago

[Mervyn]

Seems fine on machined surfaces, it would only remove rust from them. the process doesnt remove non-oxidised material so precision parts are ok in my book.

 

One bonus of the process is that you can free seized calipers etc, it will remove rust that blasting wont, enabling you to free up pistons etc,

 

Must be said that I moved onto a simple machinemart blaster for my projects as it was a quicker process. if you have a patio and a small gazebo its fairly easy to sweep the area after and tidy up. don't do it anywhere near anything you like as the media gets everywhere!