Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Shop uses for vinegar


pkrankow

Recommended Posts

Two days ago I took down a 228D Coleman lantern that I bought at a flea market. I dropped all the parts into a container of vinegar to strip the varnish that had built up since 1953(date of mfg stamped on font of this lantern) and today I reassembled the lantern with parts that looked almost new. The lantern operates like new now. My results were way better than lacquer thinner or carburetor cleaner.

I came up with an effective container: a large plastic coffee can, filled with vinegar, using a string across the lip to vent and the lid snapped on tight. Good for parts up to about 6 inches long. I have a 5 gallon bucket ready to go, but have not needed that large of a container so I haven't added vinegar to it.

So to date I use vinegar around the shop to

remove zinc
remove scale and rust
remove varnish

What other uses have you found?

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably work wonders, and there is no argument about safety (unlike using thinner) with adding some rattle material. I like using BB's, but other people like small nuts and bolts. Just count what goes in so you know you got it all out. You can follow up with thinner or denatured alcohol to make sure all the water is out after.

I would remove it from the motor so there is no risk of water moving into the motor.

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

So, vinegar works well to remove scale? How long does it take? This is very interesting! Soon I plan to build a tumbler for large stuff, but for small items vinegar sounds like it would work.


I let sit for about 24 hours, then wash in ammonia and water to neutralize the vinegar, which is easier than baking soda, then wash with soap and water and a wire brush. A stiff nylon brush would likely be enough. I have left stuff in for as long as 7 days by accident, and there was obvious etching, but no real harm done.

Phil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On scale removal, it helps to take the piece out every few hours and scrub with a bristle brush. Cleaning off the loose oxides helps the vinegar penetrate and work faster.

I only recently learned that vinegar is great for uncured epoxy cleanup, and much safer than the usual solvents like acetone. I see BIGGUNDOCTOR beat me to that one. :) Citrus juices (probably also citrus cleaners) should work as well. The acidity is the key.

Rusty vinegar will blacken woods that are high in tannins, like oak. It seems to be a fairly common technique on antique knives. You could do faux bog oak this way. If you're working with a lower tannin wood, you can add tannins by soaking the wood in really strong tea, walnut husks, etc. (Or you can just use tannic acid. It's readily available on the Internet.) More info here. That guy uses quebracho bark powder to make his tannin tea, but regular ol' store-bought tea also seems to work well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Time required is a function of how much scale, how strong the vinegar and what temperature it's working at.

Generally I toss it in the bucket and get it out the next day sometime and wash it with a wirebrush under the hose bib and spray it with WD40 before it's even dry.

I left an old adze in it for a week once and you could clearly see where the body was made of wrought iron and they had welded a thin pad of steel to it to be the cutting edge---I lent it to a Mat Sci proff at the university here to show his classes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vinigar is great...if you wanna remove mill scale or just regular scale from the forge it rocks... I keep a 5 gal pail and I put a plastic plant pot ( cheap ones from a green house) and I tie nylon cord to lift the "basket" out of the vinegar...i tried wire but it deteriorates...duh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gerald, about the accidental drinking thing....Recently my wife decided to clean out the kettle with vinegar and didn't think to tell me. So I get up the next morning and stagger into the kitchen, notice that there's plenty of water in the kettle and proceed to make tea with it. It was much more effective waking me up than regular tea as only one sip had me sitting bolt upright with bulging eyes. She found this amusing. (and yup I'm glad it wasn't HCl!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is the shelf life of vinegar in the shop? What amount of surface can you treat with a given amount of vinegar? I"ve only ever seen the 1/2 quart glass bottles at the grocery store. Is it available in industrial strength and quantities?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bigger grocery stores have plastic gallons. If the store has a canning section, check there too. In a closed bottle shelf life is indefinably, or at least years.

I don't know how far it goes for cleaning scale. A quart will strip most of zinc off of 8 inches of 2 inch galvanized water pipe, about 75% in my sample of 1.

Acetic acid 5% is store vinegar, "glacial" acetic acid is pure acetic acid. The focus of this thread is on the grocery store variety because it is common, available nearly anywhere, and rather safe in the shop and home for a number of reasons, especially when compared to muriatic acid (Hydrochloric acid).

Gerald's post earlier has a lot of good detail in it.

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also use it to wash up with after I am through working for the day. I just dip my hands in the baking soda solution and scrub the grime off with a brush, the rinse with vinegar and water.

I use this for bathing and cleaning my hair too as soap play havoc on my skin most of the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...