I've been neglecting the rust on my bench drill press for some time and decided to take care of it today. As I've said before I'm fond of electrolysis as it is simple, reasonably safe, and requires minimal effort.
Normally I use a smallish plastic tub and wire mesh that came from a large kitchen strainer. The parts and pieces go in the wire mesh and that is used to conduct the electricity to the rusted parts. For this larger item I used an old medium sized plastic trash can and attached the electrical source, a standard DUMB car battery charger, directly to it. There has to be an anode of some ferrous metal, in this case a piece of mild steel I salvaged from the dumpster at work. The last item required is a solution of washing soda, NOT BAKING SODA - WASHING SODA, 1 tablespoon washing soda to 1 gallon US water (tap is fine). The positive (red lead) of the battery charger goes to the mild steel anode and the negative (black lead) goes to the rusty items/basket.
Make sure of a few things:
Then plug in the charger. You should hear the usual surge of power and if your charger has an ammeter you'll see a deflection letting you know it's on. After a short while you should see small bubbles forming on the rusty parts and the anode. After an hour it's a good idea to turn the rusty stuff that's facing away from the anode to face the anode being sure to turn off the charger first (of course turn it back on when you're done).
After about 2 hours total, turn off the charger and rinse the items and rub them down with a scotch-bright pad. Apply you favorite rust preventative.
I got the results you see below.
Normally I use a smallish plastic tub and wire mesh that came from a large kitchen strainer. The parts and pieces go in the wire mesh and that is used to conduct the electricity to the rusted parts. For this larger item I used an old medium sized plastic trash can and attached the electrical source, a standard DUMB car battery charger, directly to it. There has to be an anode of some ferrous metal, in this case a piece of mild steel I salvaged from the dumpster at work. The last item required is a solution of washing soda, NOT BAKING SODA - WASHING SODA, 1 tablespoon washing soda to 1 gallon US water (tap is fine). The positive (red lead) of the battery charger goes to the mild steel anode and the negative (black lead) goes to the rusty items/basket.
Make sure of a few things:
- Don't let the stuff connected to the black lead touch the stuff connected to the red lead. Obvious I know but it would be pretty bad (toasted charger, fire, blue sparks ... you know the drill)
- This produces hydrogen & oxygen in small quantities so adequate ventilation is a must.
- Don't stick your mitts in the solution while the charger is on.
Then plug in the charger. You should hear the usual surge of power and if your charger has an ammeter you'll see a deflection letting you know it's on. After a short while you should see small bubbles forming on the rusty parts and the anode. After an hour it's a good idea to turn the rusty stuff that's facing away from the anode to face the anode being sure to turn off the charger first (of course turn it back on when you're done).
After about 2 hours total, turn off the charger and rinse the items and rub them down with a scotch-bright pad. Apply you favorite rust preventative.
I got the results you see below.
