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Electrolysis for Rust Removal and Plane Rehab Series

22K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  a1Jim 
#1 ·
Stanley Block Plane

Well I was going to paint my medicine cabinet (see other blog) but it started raining. Instead I decided to try my hand at electrolysis (thanks to David here on Lumberjocks). I went up to the attic where I had some old planes I've collected that I would one day rehab. When I first started this hobby a few years ago I purchased some hand planes that were already rehabed to start with and then just picked rusted ones up as I found them. I thought I'd try my hand at taking something three times older than me and putting it to use.

I used Oci-clean since I had picked some up at Costco last week for this purpose.

This is a Stanley I believe 220? That is what's one the blade but I can't seem to find a similar block plane on Patrick's Blood and Gore website. Here is the before:









Broken down and ready to go:





After 4 hours in the bath I rinsed with water while brushing with a brass bristle brush, dried with a heat gun and sprayed with a couple of coats of WD-40.











Tomorrow I'll take care of the knob that locks down the cap. The only thing I don't understand is I thought this process would not take off the japaning, but it all came off?
 
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#3 ·
I don't believe that is japanning on that plane. It looks like regular paint. Japanning is thicker than that. I just did two planes this way. One was an old Bailey, with japanning, and it all stayed on. The other was a Great Neck Corsair plane, which was painted, and almost all the paint came off. On that one I only had to do the frog and the blade so the body of the plane is still painted but the frog is all bare now.
 
#6 ·
Grandpa's Stanley 220

My second attempt at electrolysis is on my Grandfather's block plane. I think it came out pretty good. Last year I had taken some sandpaper to the bottom and one side to try and clean it up and never got back to it so it wasn't in as bad a shape as the Lakeside No 4 I'm working on now.

Before:




After:








I lapped the side a few times on some 120 grit


I think next I will lap the bottom and sides on 120 grit up to 220.
 
#7 ·
Lakeside No 4

Here is a $7 garage sale find from a few years ago. I didn't know anything about planes (not as if that has changed) but I think that this is a house brand for Montgomery Ward's. This plane was in bad shape, lots of rust and the bottom had paint and junk all over it. It think it came out pretty good. Next steps are lapping the bottom and sides with sandpaper.

The thing I don't understand with the Electrolysis is the rust seemed gone, but it was covered in somewhat thick black soot. After letting it sit in the electrolysis for 5 hours I put it in a tray of Kaboom Tile cleaner (I read David did this to clean off the rest of the rust), rinsed and rubbed with a green abrasive pad, rinsed again and put back for 15 minutes into the Electrolysis bucket.

Here are some questions for those with experience with this process:

1) Is it normal to get the black soot material with this process?

2) I don't know if you can see it, but there seem to be spots on all my projects so far that look gray/black. Is Electrolysis supposed to get it perfect or is this normal? Am I putting too many pieces in at once?

3) I'm using a 10/2 Amp battery charger from Sears, but the indicator only shows like 4amps. Is my charger powerful enough for this process?

Before:













After:







 
#8 ·
Well I see you have questions but I was going to put questions to you. I have/do try this method also. I can tell you that the black soot like material is normal and will always happen. Its a byproduct of the chemical reaction thats taking place. I do not believe whether or not your power source is strong enough is not effected by the amount of metal you are cleaning. I'm pretty sure if you are seeing bubbles then its working and a stronger source would supply more current and just make the process faster. The danger of putting to many pieces in the bucket at once is that electrolysis works by line of site (sort of). The electrical current will take the path of least resistance which means (well just think of it as line of sight). So if you have pieces in the bucket that have their line of sight to the rebar blocked then they will not be cleaned as well. I use 6 rebar rods around the perimeter of my bucket. Unfortunately I am still in the trial and error phase of this process so I don't have much advice for you.

What solution are you using for your water? I think I put in a table spoon on washing soda per gallon.



 
#23 ·
Cleaning Brass

Thanks to some recommendations, I used Bar Keepers Friend to clean up the brass on these planes. Worked really well. A little rubbing with a scotchbrite pad and a stiff brush.



 
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