How should I clean small rusty brackets/bolts/nuts?

[Jamo]

I have a piece of equipment with a lot of smaller parts, such as 5" flanges, 12" tines, 30 x 1.5"" metal guards, small brackets, nuts etc. Anyway, is there a cheap and easy way short to clean these up? I want to really fix this thing up and make it last another 40 years so let me know.

Thanks,
Jamo

 

[Jim in Ma.]

Could you put them in a container with some rocks , and strap it to a tractor wheel and go to work with it? Just wear ear protectors. good luck Jim

 

[glennster]

well, cheap and easy..... bench grinder with a wire wheel and a bar stool. also, a knotted wire brush on an air grinder. takes a while but it will get it done.

 

[Hills of TN]

If you are into electrolysis, the smaller parts are easy. Those that will hang, just stretch a wire across a big Walmart plastic storage container and hang each part from the wire (like on a clothesline). The small nuts and bolts, just make you a wire basket from hardware cloth and hang the basket with the nuts and bolts in it. Give them a couple of days and then use the bench grinder wire wheel to clean off the residue. Much much quicker than trying to remove the rust with just the wire wheel (and the parts will shine like new also.)

 

[Jamo 58]

ok I'm liking all of these ideas, I'm intrigued by the electrolysis idea...

so if I've got this right, water in a plastic container, with steel wire connecting the pieces to be cleaned, and those pieces are connected to a charger via the red wire, then, (i was reading online so tell me if this is on the right track or not) i need to connect a sacrificial piece of steel (such as a pot lid) to the black wire on the charger and then submerge both things, (dirty and clean steel) into the water (along with a cup of baking soda is what i read) without touching each other, then turn the charger on for a few hours, then turn it off, remove items, and clean residue...sound right?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hope my wife don't read this'r I'm in trouble (again)

This doesn't do much for rust, but dirty cast iron parts with old paint, grease, or just caked on dirt can be cleaned in a self cleaning oven. Put 'em in the oven, turn it to the self cleaning mode, and wait. You get sparkling clean piece with hardly any effort.

 

[Yooper]

Go to China Freight (also know as harbor freight) and get one of those cheap rock polishers. Bin that churns sand in it. Might only last for one restoration but you said cheap. Good ones are pricy.

 

[Hills of TN]

Sorry for the delay in answering your follow-up. I was out playing with my old Ferguson tractor. Go to http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp
That website has a good description of the process. There is also a huge amount of prior discussion about electrolysis on the Ford 8N discussion group. My personal experiences and suggestions:

1. Be VERY SURE you hook up the positive and negative correctly. Otherwise, you will end up with your parts being the sacrificial metal!

2. Although some people say you can just paint over the black residue that will be left on your parts after the process, it is easily cleaned off with a wire-wheel and I believe the painting process goes better with it cleaned off. (Note: the resulting dust will settle all over the surrounding area, including your lungs. A good dust mask is imperative and I have moved that process outside my shop when possible.

3. Be patient. My experience is that a couple of days is minimum. On a heavily rusted part, I usually go three days. The clean-up is much easier if you don"t rush the process.

4. Any paint that is on the parts to be de-rusted will generally come off during the process, so there is no need to remove it before hand. (Some people use lye in the water instead of washing soda in order to quickly remove old paint. I am sure that works well, but I don"t like working with that stuff!)

5. The wire you use to hang the parts is not critical. I use left-over wire used to hang suspended ceilings, but I have used old metal coathangers. They don"t last long and you have to clean off the coating they have on them to get good electrical flow. When I have a several small parts, I just run a wire from one end of the top of the container to the other, make long S-hooks, and just hang the S-hooks from that top wire.

You will find, I"m sure, much better expertise over on the Ford 8N board. The only experience I have with the process is on my old Ferguson, but it worked great on the front axles & extensions, front hubs, front wheels, rear wheels, fenders, hood, grill, doglegs, bumper, valve cover, air cleaner, brake pedals, radius rods, steering rods, bolts, nuts, etc. etc. etc. (just to show you why I am a believer)

HTH (sorry for the long post)

 

[Anonymous-0]

There is a fellow(F-I-T) that frequents the John Deere forum on this website..............he has a website of his own that explains, in detail, the use of electrolysis for cleaning parts............

I've never used that method before but it sounds like it'd work great...........

 

[Anonymous-0]

I'd fill up jar with phosphoric acid and let them steep in it for a couple of hours. Thats how I cleaned small thinks like bolts, nuts, brackets.

Mark D.

 

[Anonymous-0]

When I use electrolysis I hook up as mentioned by others then add washing soda while stirring until your charger needle goes to near amp capacity. I have used lye in the same way and even table salt works good. A 15 amp charger near capacity works good. Also, I like to use milk stone remover which I get at TSC which is phosphoric acid. I either soak parts in a diluted solution to remove rust or for surface rust on sheet metal I use full strength with spray bottle. When rust is gone I rinse and apply diluted solution to keep from rusting until I can prime.

 

[davpal]

Put them in a container with muriatic acid and it will clean them up perfectly. Just rinse them with soapy water when you are done and they will be pretty nice. Might take a couple of hours depending on how rusty they are. I just did this with a bunch of bolts on a snowmobile trailer I was fixing up. Worked very well.

 

[souNdguy]

no doubt about it.. electrolysis on small metal parts...

soundguy