JHCC

Claude, you don’t have to quote each comment you’re responding to — In fact, unless you’re replying to something specific, it’s best not to. If there is something specific, you can highlight it and then click “quote this”. Too many quote blocks eat up bandwidth and make the forum hard to read.

And five hours later, things look good. Clean piece on the left, comparable uncleaned piece on the right:

Good idea. Make sure that they are NOT plated, though: hexavalent chrome will make you sick, sick, sick.

Check in with @Daswulf on the way -- he's in Charleroi, about an hour from you.

Ryan, before you fire up the forge, you're going to need something to reduce the size of the hole in the middle of the rotor. You don't need much: just something to keep the fuel from falling down. For example, look at the second picture in THIS POST or the fourth photo in THIS ONE. Even a piece of heavy plate with a couple of slots torched in it would be better than what you've got. (Also, slots are better than holes, because you can clean them by sticking in the point of a poker and running it back and forth.)

One of the reasons that I'm trying this is to remove suspected lead paint from WI bars salvaged from a building renovation. If this works, my plan is to allow the electrolyte solution to dry, wipe the sediment out of the bucket with a damp paper towel, allow that to dry, and then dispose of it in the municipal trash pickup. I've already confirmed with the city that dry lead paint residue is allowable in the trash. I could just use a commercial stripper, but I breathed enough methylene chloride for a lifetime back in my days in the art restoration studio.

The answer appears to be Yes. At very least, we have electrolysis, as evidenced by the bubbles around the cathode.

Would it make a difference if the battery was connected in series or in parallel? What if you use an old battery that won’t hold a charge?

I’ve read some tutorials that recommend this anyway, and that’s one option I’m considering.

Well, it’s apparently not designed to be disassembled, so I can’t get to the innards. I’ll check later to see if it still works as a battery charger; if not, I’ll just get a new one.

Not sure how to tell the difference, but on this one, you press a button to select the amperage and another for the voltage. I guess that’s manual. They were.

Thanks, Dave. I’ve used this charger before for electrolytic etching, but this time, there is literally no current in the clips.

Update: a bust. Realized after a couple of hours that there was no current going through the clips. I’ll have to take apart the charger tomorrow to see if there is a loose connection or something similar that can be fixed.

Washing soda and baking soda are both basic. If you’re using either as an electrolyte and you want to neutralize it, you’ll need a vinegar rinse.

Trying out electrolytic paint removal.

Good. Now go back and some captions, so we know what we’re looking at.

Hardcore pastry.

I've done vinegar with some success. I'm planning on trying electrolysis on some WI this evening (for paint removal, not rust); I'll let you know how it works.

Hi, Claude. Building a propane forge can be ambitious for a newbie -- have you considered starting with solid fuel? Take a look at the threads for the JABOD forge, which can be built for practically nothing and can burn either coal or charcoal.

Finding a ceramic tube in the right diameter might be tricky, whereas the 7/8" ID of 3/4" Schedule 40 should be just right. The previous tube was really, really flimsy, and I just used it until something better turned up in the scrap pile. Which it did, just in time.

Anywhere near you with a drive-on scale?

I asked my horse if he wanted a hoof pick. He just said, "Neigh."

D'oh!

Ryan, before you do anything else, could you please do us a favor? POST SOME PICTURES. I'm serious about this. To be blunt, your descriptions of what you are doing are very hard to understand. If you post some pictures, the people here (who WANT to help you!) will be able to look at what you have done and make suggestions on what you can do better. If you really want our help, HELP US HELP YOU. That said, I have to repeat what was said above about the JABOD. It's a proven design, and if it wasn't working, it's because either (A) you did something you shouldn't have, or (B) you didn't do something you should have. Once again, pictures would help.

Considering how many "experienced" teachers had no idea how to deal with my ASD son, this rings very true with me. The head of Special Ed at his middle school had four decades of experience -- but she was trained in intellectual disability special ed and approached every student as if they were "retarded".