Rust Removal by Diet Coke bath
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Hi,
I’m restoring a No 3 plane. The iron and chip breaker were heavily rusted a deep brown colour (see photo).
Rather than rub with sandpaper and risk damaging the metal, I soaked them in Diet Coke for 72 hours (see photo), scrubbing them with a wire brush every 24 hours.
The transformation was amazing (see photo). The black and grey oxidisation is easily removed with fine sandpaper. The attached photo is prior to this removal.
My question: does anyone know any reason why a Diet Coke bath might be bad for the metal? It seems fine at this point, but I’m wondering if it might, for example, affect the strength of the metal?
When I was a kid we used this method to clean up our coin collections, but I never tried to plane wood with an old penny!
Thanks
Darren.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Darren.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Darren.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Darren.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Darren.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.30 August 2016 at 6:36 pm #139794My thought is that the acid in a diet coke will not affect the underlying structure of the metal. It’will just react with the surface metal and rust. You should be fine with that. But I’m not a metallurgist or chemist …
31 August 2016 at 11:22 am #139814Probably less acidic than vinager, Im not a metallurgist but cant see it hurting It sits in aluminium cans for months at a time.
31 August 2016 at 12:13 pm #139816Personally better to use White Vinegar! Con side is the smell. Pro side is around an hour or two wait in the bath against 3 days. Basically you are doing the same thing ie putting your metal in an acid bath. At least either Coke or vinegar have plenty other uses. I have read many times that the best toilet cleaner is Coke. Although Coke is not so good for sprinkling on your chips(French Fries). Go ahead use these very dilute acid liquids they will remove less metal than abrasives
31 August 2016 at 2:22 pm #139821Sorry tenjin, but I thought I better also add when using your acid bath you are stripping away any oxide coat and getting down to bare metal. It will in no time flat start the rusting again without any protection. I don’t use WD40 for this even though I use it often it does not seem to have any lasting coating properties that I can see. Use a mineral oil or a wax. What you are trying to do is keep out the environment from your newly cleaned metal. As soon as you have the metal cleaned to a standard you like, coat it. You may even find that you have fingerprints in rust on your new surfaces if you wait. Some people have what used to be called acid fingers. This is due to the salts in their sweat. A long time back this was not such a problem due to the copious use of Tallow (an animal fat). Where Paul Sellers advocates the 3-in-one oil Tallow was used previously
Hi,
The plane iron looks like a new one , amazing !
Could we use the same method for saw plates? The benefit would be to avoid sanding paper .I am thinking on preserving the disston logo on one of my saws that needs restoring.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Lucian31 August 2016 at 9:47 pm #139836@lucian – I typically use a bath of a weak citric acid for cleaning my rusted metal. About a table spoon of citric acid powder per gallon of water. I let it sit for three or four hours. Citric acid is used in canning fruits and veggies, so it can be found at grocery stores and hardware stores. The process leaves a black surface that needs to be wiped off and I usually follow up with some sanding with fine paper (400, 600 grit).
I once did this on a rusty Disston cross-cut saw whose logo was not etched, but rather printed on the plate (probably a post 1970’s saw). Unfortunately the logo was completely gone. But the saw plate looked much better. An etched logo on the plate should not have the same problem. But be careful with the sanding part if you do that.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the suggestion of a citric acid bath. I’ve done some Googling and found this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Removing-Rust-with-Citric-Acid/?ALLSTEPS
I’m going to give that a go. A few hours vs a few days makes all the difference.
Regards
Darren.
I found some rave reviews for a product called Evapo-Rust and have been trying that. It seems to work nicely and, much like Diet Coke, it is not scary unless you try to drink it – it is biodegradable. I have wondered, though, if it is basically just citric acid plus a few handy additives.
(The Evapo-Rust add copy claims it is “not an acid”, but I wonder if what they mean by that is “this is not one of those SCARY acids like naval jelly or phosphoric acid”, rather than “this is literally not acidic in any way”. Maybe I should find some litmus paper or a pH meter.)
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