Anyone have good luck using electrolysis to remove rust from wheels?

[MA1920]

As the water gets rust colored with assorted "scum" on the surface, is it necessary to add washing soda to "freshen up" the solution?

 

[goeduck]

I am trying to recall, the bath after use is it enviromentally bad? Assuming iron/steel rust only is what was removed by the bath. What do people do with it?

 

[MossRoad]

As the water gets rust colored with assorted "scum" on the surface, is it necessary to add washing soda to "freshen up" the solution?

I never did on mine. I used it for about a week.

 

[dragoneggs]

More pics please.

 

[joecdeere]

I have used the same solution for many months at a time, I've never "refreshed" it other than to add a little soda to compensate for water I added due to evaporation. The water will become quite nasty looking and will stain most anything, it will not come out of clothes, so don't wear good clothes. The water solution isn't toxic, it's just an iron enriched basic solution, here in the south with fescue grasses i just let it run out into the yard, but I stop it just short of getting to the paint, rust, and other nasty things in the bottom. I let them dry out a few days and then bag it up and put it in the trash.

here's some pictures I've taken through the years, from a small bucket, all the way up to my 275 gallon tote I use for big parts-

Electrolysis Slideshow by Joecdeere | Photobucket

 

[MossRoad]

:thumbsup:

 

[Richard]

(I'm about as far from being a chemist as one can be)

I would have thought that if the object is closer to the anode, it would make things easier since the electrons or stuff, didn't have to travel as far.

True/false?

Never mattered for what I was doing but it floated in the back of my head.

 

[joecdeere]

Richard, it does to a point, but it also raises the draw on the charger and can cause it to trip the reset. It takes a bit of playing to get it right, it's not the fastest, but I've always liked it because other than cleaning the anodes every once in a while, you can just walk away and let it go. The reaction will stop on it's own when there's no more rust to convert, so you can let it work all night, or while you're at work without attention. The only thing you have to do is to turn the part if you can't get an anode on each side as it works by line of sight only. I've done parts in a dixie cup, all the way up to lining a trench with plastic to do some 10' frame rails for my Allis. In my pictures is four picnic table benches in a square lined with plastic to make a box for a couple of very large fenders I did for a friend, I did have to move the anodes a few times for both of those, but the results are worth it.

 

[RalphVa]

A long time ago, I used electrolysis to remove rust. Yours will likely need some wire brushing, dipping, wire brushing.

A good rust deterrent any time you get down to bare metal or sometimes on surface rust itself is Rust Reformer. This is what Rustoleum calls theirs. There have been other outfits make it over the last nearly 40-50 years. It reacts the iron oxide to black iron sulfide. Then you can paint over it.

Ralph

 

[goeduck]

(I'm about as far from being a chemist as one can be).

Maybe stay in a Holiday Inn Express and you will have being a chemist down.....