Electronics Weekly
Commercial rust eaters have a mixture of chemicals (some well-guarded secrets) to dissolve rust while removing little good metal.
After – flash rusting on the adjustable is through forgetting to spray both sides with WD40 after rinsing
The Amateur Chemist who runs the YouTube channel Beyond Ballistics set out to make a good rust remover – lots of rust removed while hardly touching underlying metal – out of easily available cheap chemicals.
After a plenty of testing, his has come up with a solution that combines two of my favourite household cleaners: sodium carbonate* (‘washing soda’) and citric acid**.
I have to admit to adding too much sodium carbonate (46g/litre) by stupidly pouring it straight out of the packet into the mix rather than pre-weighing.
For the exact quantities, see the Beyond Ballistics YouTube video here
The before and after photos above tell the whole story, all the rust gone and no visible surface pitting on the parts that were not already rust-ravaged.
This was after two days of soaking in the (46g-compromised) solution for the adjustable spanner, and three days for the pliers.
Both tools freed up completely after more WD40, some engine oil and a bit of persuasion – the pliers must have been nearly new when they were put away for decades in a shed with a leaky roof.
Hats off to Mr Beyond Ballistics.
*which once perfectly removed 3mm*** of coffee residue from an otherwise lovely stainless steel vacuum mug I found dumped in the street
**great for removing hard-water calcium build-up from the loo
***how did the previous owner ever let it get in that state?
Don’t often see a monkey wrench, but I found two in the garage during recent renovations.
They fitted in well amongst the stillsons of assorted sizes.
Duly sprayed with a little WD40 and some engine oil.
Glad to see you’re keeping busy.
I recall spending weeks cleaning out a 2 litre measuring cylinder that had some “stuff” at the bottom.
Eventually it was clean, then fell over & knocked the top off, making a 1.5 litre measuring cylinder.
We won’t mention what happens when you mix pcb resist stripper with a FeCl in a mislabelled 5 litre drum: think a brown frothing volcano & you won’t be far wrong.