Saved from the Trash

[grepper]

Mark-  Yes, electrolysis works very well.  I wouldn’t be without a tank now.  Here’s another example of what it can do.



 
Making a tank is super simple.  You will need:

1. Some sort of plastic tank.  I used a 5 gal bucket.
   
2. One or more old lawn mower blades, rebar or other hunk(s) of metal or carbon gouging rods.  (More on this later).
   
3. Car battery charger or some other power source.  I use a battery charger.
   
4. Box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda.  Available everywhere, grocery store, hardware store, etc.  Cheap.
   
5. Water.
   

1.  Make electrolyte:  Fill the tank with water and add 1 tbsp washing soda per gallon of water.  Stir to dissolve.
2.  Hook the positive battery charger lead to one or more of the lawn mower blades (anode).  Suspend this somehow, anyway you can come up with into the tank.
3.  Hook the negative battery charger lead to the thing you want to clean. (cathode), and suspend it in the tank. I just put a piece of wood across the top of the bucket and hang the thing to be cleaned.  You can just lay it on the bottom, but then I’d rotate it around every so often so the part resting on the bottom was exposed to open electrolyte.



 
Don’t let the anode and cathode touch each other.  That would short out your charger.
 
You are ready to go!  Plug in the charger and... RUN!  Get away as fast as you can!   Just kidding.  Not much will appear to happen, except for some slight bubbles and ripples around the part that rust is being removed from (cathode). 
 
Now just let it cook in the primordial soup.   Slight rust, 15-30 minutes.  Heavier rust, 1 – 6 hours.  The rustier it is, the longer it takes.  That sort of thing.  You’ll get the hang of it.
 
When it’s done the thing you are cleaning will be covered with gunk.  Scrub it off with a stiff bristle brush and soap and water.  It comes off easily. 
 
The metal is now bare and will start to flash rust right away.  Blow it dry with compressed air, a leaf blower or whatever.  Put it in an over, etc.  Anything to get it dry.  Then paint it, coat it in oil or whatever to keep it from rusting.
 
For the anode(s) I use carbon gouging rods because they avoid a rusty, foamy layer of crud forming on the surface of the electrolyte that happens with things like lawn mower blades.  Don’t use stainless steel for the anode.  That can cause chromium to leach into the electrolyte creating a highly toxic brew. 
 
Here’s the rusty crud film formed by using lawn mower blades.  It's actually quite beautiful.  Just way more gunky and messy than carbon in the bath from gouging rods.



You can make your tank as fancy or as simple as you wish.  It can be as simple as just wrapping the positive wire around the anode and the negative wire around the thing you want to clean.  More anodes are better than one.  I just use two, one on each side and it seems to work fine.  If you use more than one anode, just wire them together.
 
Let me know if you have any questions!  Let me know how it works for you and post some pics!

You can make the tank anyway you want.  Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/jwfuwo7