electrolysis question

Hokiemojo: ?Where did you hear of that process and did they mention voltage and amperage used if you use a battery you might not have enough amperage to complete the process. I remember when welding we would soak our glasses in a water vinegar solution to desolve the metal that stuck to the lenses, but if you will experiment on something else first some rusting thing you don’t care about. And wash thoroughly after the vinegar bath to neutralise. PS—The polarity would be the same. Randolph

-- another tip from cooperedpatterns

Thanks for the info. I found the info on several site, but the idea to do this came from David's extremely helpful blog. I too am a bit concerned I’ll run out of juice to early, but I figure it might be worth a try. I tested this on two pieces of rebar (one to clean and one to sacrifice). I was getting decent amounts of bubbles, but it looked like the rust was so light I could wipe it off with a scotchbrite pad on both. As such, the experiment wasn’t all that helpful.

Has anyone else tried using batteries instead of chargers?

I have removed rust very sucessfully using this method an anode and a cathode – + from a battery charger with a tub full of water and a few tablespoons of lye or washing soda very cheap to buy if you want more details just ask.Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Thanks,
My battery method seems to be working. I just wanted to avoid plunking down 40-50 for a better charger. once i do that and factor in the cost of the plane on ebay, the shipping, the other ingredients, my time, etc., I’m awfully close to the price of buying a good plane new. That being said, all the materials would be reusable.

I guess I’m just being cheap.

Here are some links that may help you:

http://www.woodworkstuff.net/RustRemoval.html

In my experience, a simple battery would probably NOT last for the complete process… you’d have to try it… The polarity, etc. would be the same.

A cheap battery charger works really good!

The process works really well… if you don’t stop the process & continue on a few hours, it may damage the surface of your object…

A dramatic test would be to take something so heavily rusted that you can’t tell what it is… use it on this process… and see the unbelievable results obtained… It does really work.

-- Have Fun! Joe Lyddon - Home: http://www.WoodworkStuff.net ... My Small Gallery: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1389"

I used this to clean some of the tools I recieved from my grandpap. It works pretty well. I used the powerpack from an old laptop computer, cut the plug in to the computer off and attached two alligator clips.

Thanks for the link Joe. Some added info I hadn’t seen (like how to make your own washing soda from baking soda).

Well, I went with the battery and had the only the frog hooked up. It got it pretty clean. I think it could do more, but I didn’t want to leave the setup unattended so I took it out and cleaned it up as best I could with WD40 and a toothbrush (borrow a friends, you don’t want to use your own) lol. I think I’ll give it anotehr dunk in a few more days, but the wd40 will hopefully prevent the rust from returning until then. I guess I need to buy some real penetrating oil or something from an autobody shop. Any suggestions?

I like that Idea TimH. I”ve got a few leftover power supplies for a desktop PC. This sounds like a real possibility.