Electrolysis

[TimeWaster]

Man this electrolysis thing is some kind of cool! I figured I would make an electrolysis device for my rusty, otherwise worthless finds. Good things to learn with! After a few hours, the rust came off in sheets like I had applied paint remover! Now the details really stick out, not that these objects had much more details to see!

 

[pa plateau hiker]

Welcome to the fantastic process of electrolysis. It is very addictive.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Now you need to give them a good boil in paraffin to prevent them from re-rusting.

 

[TimeWaster]

LOL I need to get the process right first! I was trying to use graphite for the anode and ended up using a graphite stick used for lubrication. It worked, but it left a soot like finish on the iron that comes off on your hands and makes a mess. I was going to experiment with steel or stainless if I couldn't find a hunk of pure graphite that doesn't have whatever additive that graphite had in it. It sure made things black and the rust came off in sheets within a few hours.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Are you sure you had it connected properly? The ions should be flowing FROM the rusty object to the other side. Steel works best. You could use an old table knife or spoon.

 

[TimeWaster]

Oh, it was connected right! The rust came off in sheets. I just thought the graphite lubricant stick must have had some other additive that caused the object to end up sooty. Could be that I didn't leave it long enough either. I am doing it with 1/4 inch steel on each end now with some stainless steel washers thrown in for experimental purposes. Any and all advice is appreciated though!

 

[stevemc]

Use stainless steel, old forks and spoons are easy. Bend the spoon and hang over the plastic bins edge. Use Washing Soda, Calcium Carbonate as the electrolyte. You can find it in the clothes washing section of the supermarket. Never use table salt, or baking soda. Also only use a tuneable power source, each thing will take a different amount of volts and amps-milliamps. You might be able to get a power source at Radio Shack that can do that. You want to ramp up the power until it has a gentle fizz on the side facing the spoon.

 

[kitt]

Dude! that looks good!
Can I use this method on my aluminum carburetor that has years of stuck on dirt or is it just for rust?
would 24v be sufficient?

 

[TimeWaster]

I'm using an old battery charger that has a manual setting and a 12 to 24 amp switch. It seems to work well. I was using Cascade for the electrolyte and it seems to do the trick too. Just don't have any old spoons, so I need to come up with a better stainless steel anode. I wonder if an old stainless sink would work well? I'm doing an old ******* file right now. Wondering how the small ridges will turn out in the end. We will see.
Kitt, I am not the pro on this by any means, so I have no idea how you would do this with aluminum.

 

[TimeWaster]

LOL the type of file was automatically censored. Well, whatever those files they used to file down horseshoe nails and such was called...

 

[Jason in Enid]

Oh, it took me a second there. It's a "bass turd" file.

 

[pa plateau hiker]

I've done electrolysis on a couple b*****d files and the ridges came out fine.

 

[Grizzly13]

This electrolysis works awesome on coins that arent worth thousands and you just need some defination for year identification. The more you do it the better you will get at it.

 

[TimeWaster]

So what about copper? Could you do it on say an indian head penny that isn't worth much anyway, using a hunk of copper as the anode?

 

[stevemc]

If you use electrolysis on coins you have a real chance of destroying the coin, pitting it bad. Reverse electroysis was mainly designed for underwater-saltwater iron objects found on shipwrecks, that had been under saltwater for 100s of years, and if taken out of the water, would just fall apart quickly. The reverse electroysis takes the salt out of the iron pores. Long slow process. It will take corrosion and encrustations off about any metal object, but there are better ways with some metals. Copper and silver is better cleaned in muratic acid, found in pool store area. I dilute it 50/50 with water. Copper and silver will not be eaten by it at all, so you can leave in for 30 minutes and check it out. Longer if not clean. Clad coins will get eaten, if left in for a while especially zinc pennies. Can be used on iron, but check more often. Rinse well and wear eye protection and rubber gloves, and do it outside. Of course this for major corrosion not just light patina. Use an old spoon that is stainless steel for an anode. New they are 1-2 dollars, used for real cheap at Salvation Army resale places, etc. Using copper will make everthing copper colored. Same if you put copper coins in with silver coins in acid bath. Like I said use a tuneable power supply, never use a battery charger, it senses a completly dead battery and put full amps into it. Dont do it. A carberator is best cleaned in a bucket of carb cleaner, taken apart fully. Never use a low nobility metal like zinc, aluminum, Zamac, etc in a reverse electroysis cleaning situation, it will dissolve it,

 

[Jason in Enid]

You can use electrolysis on cruddy coins, but it rarely improves anything. The problem with copper and bronze coins is that cruddy surface is patina, or at least mized with patina. Underneath the patina is a badly pitted and ruined metal coin. Even beautiful, green patina-ed coppers will look like crap if you remove the green. But at least you probably aren't going to hurt the value of something as far gone as you described.