Hi All,
Just had an Ah Ha moment(these days more of Oh xxxx than Ah Ha) so felt I should share!
For easy if slow derusting I normally use vinegar, particularly for complicated/intricate parts. This morning I was short on the quantity of vinegar required to cover a largish complicated assembly.
It fitted in a 20L(5gal)bucket but I only had 3L of vinegar then 'AH HA moment' I put the item in a plastic bag and placed it in the bucket. I suspended the top of the bag and poured the vinegar into the bag, then added water to the bucket. The displacement effect has now got the part surrounded with about 6mm(1/4")of vinegar and raising/lowering the level of water in the bucket changes the surround effect. I'm sure this idea has numerous applications and has probably been used in many ways, but I thought I should share. :)

well the vinegar is nothing new, of course. but using a bag in a bucket to hold it and water as a means to force the vinegar around the part...pure genius!!

I have a spare bucket, and more than a few bags, thanks for my new setup

Thanks for sharing your resourceful thinking. This will save many of us on vinegar.

While vinegar is inexpensive, its worth a lot more when you run out.

Thanks again,
Mark<><

A pleasure, I recon if one has the right bag you could 'soak' stuborn parts in paint stripper the same way.
Ian

Use the same idea for marinating meat before cooking. Less marinade wasted. This has a lot of uses :)

I just love physics. That was some right fine thinkin'.

Clever solution to a problem I have faced more than once. Thanks!

Reminds me of the Aesop fable "The Crow and the Pitcher".

Indeed. Not such a fable, maybe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11obfable.html?_r=1

Brilliant
And I thought that I had already thought of everything!
Thank You!!

More of a "Eureka" moment. Using displacement was a good idea. Thanks for the tip.

While I hadn't thought of it for cleaning scale I do use plastic bags to marinate.

If it's a serious case of rust I need to clean up I use Naval Jelly diluted in water and soak the piece submerged. If you let it dry the phosphoric acid that does the deoxidizing of the iron/steel Parkerizes(?) it turning it flat black with a phosphoric oxide something or other patina. Once the rust is converted, rinse in clean water, neutralize with baking soda solution and oil or finish. Iron/steel treated like this will rerust very quickly if not protected.

If you try this with multi part things, say a vise or nut&bolt, etc. it'll literally weld the pieces together.

The plastic bag trick should work just fine on this too.

Frosty the Lucky.

Try electrical rust removal. Make a week electrolight. Viniger, salt and backing soda all work. Suspend the part from the negative cable of your car batery charger (set it on the 2 amp. Or tricle charge seting)and a steel anode from the positive cable. If you make the electrolyte solution to strong it will evaperatemthe water. No big as it will in efevt shut it's self off. This is a good use for those cheap 1 amp. Chargers.

It won't weld the parts together, and it leaves them black just like the phosphoric acid. Besides I think Frosty will get a kick out of the fizzing.

Indeed. Not such a fable, maybe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11obfable.html?_r=1

When we were kids we would drill a hole using a hole saw about the size of a monkeys hand in the side of a large plastic bucket, put bricks inside for weight and cover with a board. Put corn,sunflower seed what have you on top as bait. Cover the top of the bucket with chicken wire so the monkeys can't just go in from the top. The monkey puts his hand in, grabs a handful of corn and cant get his full hand out. You then come out of hiding and hose the monkey down. To coin a phrase they go "frikin Ape" very funny for kids this. However when you have done this 2 or 3 timesthey don't put their hand in the hole in the side of the bucket anymore, they call some mates to help tip the bucket over, smart little critters those! And they teach the rest of the tribe so the trick doesn't work for years afterwards.
Ian

It won't weld the parts together, and it leaves them black just like the phosphoric acid. Besides I think Frosty will get a kick out of the fizzing.

I didn't think the fizzing caused the kick but. . .

Frosty the Lucky.

Hi All,
Just had an Ah Ha moment(these days more of Oh xxxx than Ah Ha) so felt I should share!
For easy if slow derusting I normally use vinegar, particularly for complicated/intricate parts. This morning I was short on the quantity of vinegar required to cover a largish complicated assembly.
It fitted in a 20L(5gal)bucket but I only had 3L of vinegar then 'AH HA moment' I put the item in a plastic bag and placed it in the bucket. I suspended the top of the bag and poured the vinegar into the bag, then added water to the bucket. The displacement effect has now got the part surrounded with about 6mm(1/4")of vinegar and raising/lowering the level of water in the bucket changes the surround effect. I'm sure this idea has numerous applications and has probably been used in many ways, but I thought I should share.

Bloody Brilliant! I love simple!

Bob

Ian... that is an excellent solution to a common problem. Archimedes would be proud !!! BTW, my pastor is from South Africa. He does the best baboon impression ! lol

i think there is more intelligence on IFI than in ALL of washington dc. great!