IRTim Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Hopefully will be starting to build a electrolysis tank large enough to fit this Reed 108 in tonight. Looking froward to getting all 300lbs of this vise cleaned up, painted and restored. Haven't done one this big yet. Should be fun to see how it turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 take it apart first or it's likely to be welded together at least to a degree in the process. I suppose it depends on how rusty it is. . . still. What are you using for electrolyte? Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 I'll be doing it in two parts. This is to big for the tank I have now. I'm using big thick rebar for the electrolyte. If it wasn't for the screws holding on the bench vise jaws I'd skip it all together but I'm hoping get them clean and free enough to back out using a hand impact driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 ELECTROLYTE, Not electrode. The electrically conductive liquid you put the rusted object in is the electrolyte. The anode and cathode connected to the negative and positive poles of the power source are the electrodes. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 Oh just washing soda in hot water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 What are you using for power? Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 Sorry for the late reply I went for a CAT scan and some blood work. For power I'm using a car battery charger on the 2amp setting. Haven't started the new tank yet but will tmw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Well okay THIS time but if you're late again we'll have to dock your munificent salary. Manual battery chargers work well. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I happen to have a 24 VDC battery charger anyone know if the extra voltage would end up being a plus or minus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 No idea but you can perform the process with a potato battery and time. I used a D cell battery to plate a washer with my chemistry set when I was a kid. Don't quote me but I believe wattage has more to do with it that voltage alone. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I keep thinking up reasons it would and then others for why it wouldn't. I may have to call my sister the chemist for a consult. Just hope someone would *know* offhand rather than guessing. hmmm "The process of electrolytic removal of rust works best with 24 volts DC" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I'll put you on hold with some really stinky, annoying live streaming Musakky stuff while I experiment. Send me the 24v charger, I'll dig out my 12v manual when it gets here, PM you with my ph# and get right to it as soon as you call. IIRC electrolyte made more difference. Dilute phosphoric acid electrolyte worked really fast using an OLD motorcycle battery and trickle charger. WAY faster than washing soda, ammonia, salt, epsom salts worked pretty well, Borax, sulfuric acid worked better than HCL, and . . . I don't recall what all. I went through a period. What I didn't do was experiment with voltages, I had an old battery and trickle charger. I saw a Jacques Cousteau special where he was using electrolytic action restoring silver from a ship wreck. Black lump goes in, handfull of pristine silver coins and pebbles, come out. Heck, just a dilute phosphoric acid soak works as well. Welds rusted parts together too. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 The page I quoted was going over a lot of voltage, amperage, electrolyte and distance between the anode and cathode and how it affected the results I'd rather experiment with forging myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 18, 2016 Author Share Posted June 18, 2016 From everything I've read 2amps is all you need. Higher amps makes more bubbles but will not improve anything or make it faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave51B Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 Depending on the set up, I sometimes have to run my charger on 6V rather than 12V to keep from drawing to many amps and putting my charger in danger of over heating..... Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcusb Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 I don't bother to paint them, if you use them it wont last very long. I prefer they character they have when I find them. I have used a wire wheel on them in the past. Biggest challenge with large vises is a bench that will hold them up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 I have used my 36V golf cart as the DC battery bank, and run the 115VAC charger on the cart. Downside is that you can boil the water and melt the 55 gallon tank rim if you are not attending it closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 On 6/18/2016 at 11:34 PM, IRTim said: From everything I've read 2amps is all you need. Higher amps makes more bubbles but will not improve anything or make it faster. I used my old manual battery charger on 2 amps and it took over a day to de-rust some small pieces. Went to a 6 amp and it improved quite a lot. I noticed you only had 2 or 20 amps on the low end...the 20 might be a bit too much current. More bubbles also means faster de-rusting. See if you can find an old manual charger in the 6-10 amp range. Should work better for you. Automatic chargers won't work for de-rusting, have to be manual or an auto with a manual setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 I started getting my new tank stuff together today and figuring out what I want to use as the tank. I'll post some pics as soon as I actually start putting everything together so people can see how I've been doing it. It's gonna be a heavy duty tank to sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRTim Posted June 21, 2016 Author Share Posted June 21, 2016 Here is the start of what my new tank will be. I need to strip down my rebar and plan to drill holes in it and around the top of the bin to put bolts through that I will be using to hold my rebar in place as well as using them to connect the 10g wire I have that will connect all the rebar together minus one when using the positive charge. It's going to be getting a lot of use coming up. I have my new forge taken apart and plan on restoring it as well as what I think might be a Peter Wright leg vise I just bought as well of someone in Gettysburg. I'm excited to get this stuff cleaned up and back in use. Should be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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