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I Forge Iron

Reed 108 Vise Restoration


IRTim

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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.

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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 

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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.

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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! 

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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.  

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