Electrylosis Tank cleaning....

[stubbysteve]

I know most people use sand paper or sand blast paint and rust from their frames, but has anyone ever heard of an electrylosis tank?? It uses electricity and washing soda to boil paint and rust off of metal objects. It does not work to clean aluminum though.

I have seen this done in the farm tractor world, but would work here just the same and we all could do it our selves instead of paying someone else to do it for us.

It consists of a battery charger(110v) and a metal or plastic barrell and washing soda and water. If using plastic, you need a few (at least 4) pieces of rebar or other solid metal tube, 3 2x4's(wood), 4 battery cables and washing soda and battery charger.

You need to drill 2 holes in 2 of the 2x4's, one at each end (make sure the 2x4's are long enough to go across the barrel) and one hole in the center of the third 2x4. Stick the rebar,etc, through the holes in the 2x4's with the 2 holes and put them to the out side edge of the barrell. The 2x4 with the one hole in the center and put a heavy metal wire around what you want to clean and the hole in the 2x4, leave a good lenght of wire out of the water so you can attach the groungd wire of the charger. Now with the 4 battery cables, tie each piece of rebar,etc. together and hook the hot side of the battery charger to the rebar. Put on either a 6amp or 10 amp charge for the day or a couple of days depending on how dirty or how thick the paint is. And then you should have a good clean part to rinse off and let dry, ready to prime.

If using a steel barrel, use one 2x4 with the hole in the center with the wire around the part and 2x4 and the ground. Then just hook the hot side of the charger to the barrel itself, then charge the same way.

I will try to get some pics off of another site to show how well it works.

 

[bigevilone2]

Hi Steve
My friend has a 55 gal. drum at his shop set up just for this. It works GREAT !!! Rusted gas tanks and sprockets come out clean as a whistle!:thumbsup:

 

[stubbysteve]

So people are using this in the minibike world!!!! Do you use the washing soda?? what kind??

 

[stubbysteve]

Here are some pics of it set up and a finished part.

Just use a putty knife to scrape the paint and rust off and rinse off.

 

[bigevilone2]

So people are using this in the minibike world!!!! Do you use the washing soda?? what kind??

Arm & Hammer. Baking Soda works also. No pics,but he uses 2amps. We have stripped car rear end housings,backing plates,anything metal that has rusted. Takes paint off as well.:thumbsup:

 

[65ShelbyClone]

I have tried it on small things and it works very well.

 

[jesse8931]

thats soo cool

 

[stubbysteve]

I just thought it would be cool to post it here. And for the others who haven't tried???? here you go.

 

[Oldsalt]

Been useing this method for a lot of different things. Just remember that it will produce hydrogen gas so keep the set-up outside. You really shouldn't use stainless steel for the waste electrode [positive]. It will produce chromate. Hexavalent chromium is really toxic. If you use mild steel it will cause the solution to get sorta muddy but that's really not a problem. For heavy grease use some detergent in the solution. We have a tank [55 gal. plastic drum] that we hit with 50 amps on 12 volts. Be carful to eliminate the aluminum parts and don't even try pot metal. The best solution is made with lye but that stuff is hard to get because the eco-nazis have made it illigal to buy unless it is a business.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

You must have more eco-Nazis there than we do here(is that possible?). AFAIK, I can still get small containers of granulated lye for drain cleaner. Haven't looked in a while, though. Baking soda is cheaper. :biggrin:

I played around with batteries and dilute acid too. I needed to get the hard chrome off of some titanium valves and that took it right off! Turned the water cobalt blue.....is that the toxic chromium you're talking about? ut:

 

[Oldsalt]

As I recall [very rightly] when I lived in Calif. you could only get commercial quanties [from Van Waters and Rogers] of lye. It is also been taken off the shelves in Washington. But I found a drum of it at an abandoned plateing plant so I got plenty. In any event, if you use stainless steel for a "waste" electrode it will turn the solution yellow because of the presence of chromate. The best is to use graphite. As I now live near the Hanford Nucular Site there is a lot of surplus graphite blocks for cheap because some reactors have been dismantled. That is what I use. By the way... TSP [tri-sodium-phosphate] makes a really good solution if you can't get lye. Another way to speed the process is to first treat the rusty/gooey parts to hydrocloric acid [muriatic acid used for pool cleaning and commonly available]. After a good soak put the pars in the electric bath.