Fun with deadly chemicals(Easy rust removal)

tecco

Wrench Pro
Points
11
Location
Danmark Horsens
Car
Peugeot 206 GTI
I dont know if you guys know of this little trick, but we use it often to strip rusted parts of all rust without any manual effort :bigsmile:. Great for old cars with parts you want to strip with minimal effort and minimal wear to the part.
The below link is from last year where me and my buddy Jesper renovated the front brake calibers of my 206 GTI after i found some small dmg while changing brake pads :)

http://s15.photobucket.com/user/Tecco/slideshow/206 brake caliber cookin

Making this mixture always wear full face protection and gloves!

The Mixture is a mix of Sodium hydroxide and zinkoxide, that attacks rust leaving steel and irons totally free from rust and also most paints.
The mixture will eat any aluminium and most other metals that are not steel or iron, also fingers, eyes, and any organic you put in there, so use protection!!!!!!!!!!!!. Most plastics are unafected, so it is great for rusted tools aswell :)
To be warned the mixture have to be pretty hefty and heated up to a good 120-130degrees, so again safety first, this stuff will melt your face some fierce!
You need a homogeneous mixture of water and Sodium hydroxide, and here it is very important that if you do not hit the homogeneous mixture, that you do not add neither water or Sodium hydroxide while the bath is hot!!! Adding water to a mixture that is 100+ degrees will make the bath explode in your face!!!!
Same goes for adding Sodium hydroxide!!!! The heat buildup around the Sodium hydroxide if you add it to a boiling bath will make the bath boil violently and explode in your face again!!!!
Now that the explode in your face warnings are out of the way we can go on to the actual bath
You need waaaay more Sodium hydroxide than water n the mixture so no pointis starting off 1 to 1, use like 1 liter of water and add SLOWLY minimum 3-4kgs of Sodium hydroxide. ofc if the bath is not full you need to add more of both.
Don't do this the other way around!!!! Don't add water to pure Sodium hydroxide! Then we are back to the whole explode in your face thing! If the mixture cannot hit 120degrees celcius then you need to add more Sodium hydroxide WHEN IT IS COOLED DOWN! ELSE EXPLODE! FACE!
When it is possible to hit 120-130C add a couple of teaspoons of zinkoxide.
Put down your rusted item turn up the heat and leave it for 2-6hours with the heat on.
Also i dont reccomend doing this in the kitchen. :p

If the bath ever turns less effective, filter it trough a steelstrainer and add more zinkoxide ^^ and ofc once in a while new water needs to be added when it vapourize.

Enjoy your deadly chemicals :amuse:
 
Wow... Quite an impressive list mate! They came out looking superb! Don't think I'll be messing with chemicals though... Had a small accident in Chemistry when I was at school.
 
Hmmm. I think that I will give that a miss. There some very effective products over here in the UK that don't also melt your face!
 
Hmmm. I think that I will give that a miss. There some very effective products over here in the UK that don't also melt your face!

Most "dip and trip"/"stripall" products are actually this mixture with afew added cemicals that enhance the proces making it work at lower temperatures and faster ;) But also makes the mixture go bad really fast with no proper way of reviving other than buying new mixtures.
The mixture once mixed it is as safe as any of these products based on Sodium hydroxide, other than the slight higher temperature needed for it to work fast. On the pro side of the "home made" is that you just add more zinkoxide and it basically never goes bad :)

Why i go over the top with the warnings is that most makes the basic mistakes from chemestry when trying to make this, and no matter if it is a premade mixture or home made, it should only be used with proper protection, dropping a bolt or screw into the tub of mixture and getting just a drop of it in the eye be in 60c(like stripall) or 130c(the home made) will render you blind on that eye :p

Wow... Quite an impressive list mate! They came out looking superb! Don't think I'll be messing with chemicals though... Had a small accident in Chemistry when I was at school.
Thank you :) yea they ended up pretty nice :)
 
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play about with caustics at work. even got new coshh training on tuesday there as were changing suppliers. and they say not to mix and oxident with caustics because of the reaction that happens
 
Sounds dangerous! lol!

What I have found great for rust removal is plain old vinegar. You can buy it in chip shop gallons for buttons, put it in a bucket and leave the parts soaking in it.

Electrolysis (?) also works. Seen a mate cleaning old parts with it in his garage and it seemed to work a treat. I'm not sure of the ins and outs of it but googlemechanic will know if you ask him. I'll ask my mate how he done it and report back!
 
Ehm,
As far as i know(alittle rusty on the chemestry side) Zink oxide is not a oxidant since it is already bonded with a oxygen molekyle, thus making balance between the Zn^++(2 in the outer shell and wants to get rid of the 2) and the O^--(6 electrons in the outer shell misses 2) wich means it will not willingly react with the outside world without being forced to.

In the creation of ZnO the O^-- is the oxidant not because it is oxygen but because it accepts 2 electrons from another element to fill its outer shell to the neutral number of 8 electrons?
 
Sounds dangerous! lol!

What I have found great for rust removal is plain old vinegar. You can buy it in chip shop gallons for buttons, put it in a bucket and leave the parts soaking in it.

Electrolysis (?) also works. Seen a mate cleaning old parts with it in his garage and it seemed to work a treat. I'm not sure of the ins and outs of it but googlemechanic will know if you ask him. I'll ask my mate how he done it and report back!

Electrolysis works great in NaOH aswell :)
 
Ehm,
As far as i know(alittle rusty on the chemestry side) Zink oxide is not a oxidant since it is already bonded with a oxygen molekyle, thus making balance between the Zn^++(2 in the outer shell and wants to get rid of the 2) and the O^--(6 electrons in the outer shell misses 2) wich means it will not willingly react with the outside world without being forced to.

In the creation of ZnO the O^-- is the oxidant not because it is oxygen but because it accepts 2 electrons from another element to fill its outer shell to the neutral number of 8 electrons?

ill have to admit my chemistry is even worse than that. i took the easy option of it being oxide at the end
 

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