Best rust remover is...

[Frontstep]

I like vinegar but not on my chips.
Apparently lots of salt in your citric speeds things up.

 

[spock500]

I cant eat chips without vinegar or tom sauce for that matter

 

[The Swede]

I thought the rust on my 210 was nasty, but recently became the joint owner of a 9,750,000,000 quid (£9750 million) fleet of rust bucket vehicles that puts it all into perspective.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/16/submarine-corrosion-cost-cutting-mod-memo

:lol: Class !

I cant eat chips without vinegar or tom sauce for that matter

That's because they don't make proper fries in Britain

 

[spock500]

That's because they don't make proper fries in Britain

They are chips, not fries.

We don't have 'fish and fries' shops

 

[The Swede]

They are chips, not fries.

We don't have 'fish and fries' shops

Forgot. :lol:

Pardon me for being Belgian. Fries are sacred

 

[mercmancdi]

Hard to get good chips as the potatoes are not as good this year,,,all our chippys put the chips up in price saying they are frying new potatoes but they never put them back down when frying old potatoes ...

I don't like vinegar only when cleaning windows or wiper blades.

 

[The Swede]

Need to use bintjes to make fries... sorry, chips

 

[mercmancdi]

Need to use bintjes to make fries... sorry, chips

What is bintjes ,,pardon my stupidity if you can . I use one of those healthy fryers to make my chips ... sorry fries

 

[The Swede]

What is bintjes ,,pardon my stupidity if you can . I use one of those healthy fryers to make my chips ... sorry fries

No probs. Potatoes used for fries in Belgium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bintje

 

[Frontstep]

Wonderfully off topic.:lol:

 

[fast28]

Electrolysis is the best and cheapest method of removing rust.

http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

 

[turbopete]

Electrolysis is the best and cheapest method of removing rust.

http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

not exactly practical for a car wheelarch though, is it?

 

[fast28]

not exactly practical for a car wheelarch though, is it?

Well, if you can find a container big enough and the panel can be removed from the car...

Well TBH I wouldn't use it on any steel part of a Mercedes...in case it disappeared completely!:lol:

 

[mercmancdi]

Wonderfully off topic.:lol:

Sorry :Oops:

 

[turbopete]

Well, if you can find a container big enough and the panel can be removed from the car...

Well TBH I wouldn't use it on any steel part of a Mercedes...in case it disappeared completely!:lol:

rear arches on most cars?

 

[hotrodder]

^^ this is where the commercial products come into their own as some are available in a paste/gel so can be applied to vertical surfaces of things that are too big/can't be unbolted and soaked in a bucket with or without electricity. Bilthamber Deox C is one that's available as a powder to be mixed with water for soaking stuff or as a gel... they claim it works by chelation (so no nasty mineral acids) and outperforms citric by a big margin. Cynics might say it's marketing hype or at least mostly citric plus other stuff (either surfacants or other organic acids), whatever else is in it it's not aggressive enough to be mentioned on the msds sheet. Could even be rhubarb... contains several organic acids including citric and oxalic and used to be the hot ticket for cleaning silver and copperware and removing rust stains from fabrics

The thickening agent in the gel form might be nothing more exotic than methylcellulose aka wallpaper paste. Rambling away the thickening agent used in pickling paste (an aggressive and dangerous mix of nitric and hydrofluoric acid used for descaling stainless steels prior to passivating them) is often barium sulphate which can be bought easily through pharmacies/chemists.

Naval jelly is another suspect that i don't think has been mentioned yet, msds here, thickening agents appear to be polysaccharides (possibly wallpaper paste or something similar) and phosphate esters although the later also acts as a surfacant (lowers surface tension)

FWIW nitric acid (mentioned earlier) is used for etching steel when testing welds (micro and macro etch examination usually prepared as nital) and is also used to passivate stainless steels. Pretty much any mineral acid will work faster than citric/vinegar etc but they're a lot more dangerous and toxic and will eat good steel as well as rust. As said ALWAYS add acid to water, do it the other round and the exothermic reaction can ruin your day.

 

[spock500]

>hotrodder, you mention heating citric acid for best results.

Do you think it would work well in a water purifier (distiller type) with the unit switched on?

Temps are obviously going to hit boiling point but I didn't know if adding something else would increase temps or change the chemical composition altogether?

The manufacture suggested using vinegar with the unit switched on, at present we just use vinegar cold.

Cheers,

 

[cleverdicky]

Vinegar is ok but stinks. Ive used it to descale drinking water heaters when needed.
You can also use formic for this as it works great, but also stinks even worse.
The best stuff if you can find any (ill fish out some links in a mo) is Orthophosphoric acid.
Sounds nasty and stings if you get it in a cut so wear gloves etc but its brill, fast, doesnt stink as much and completely safe diluted. Its used professionally for commercial descaling things like celler beer coolers, ice makers, drains etc. Anywhere thats food safe and needs to be intrinsically clean.
A good soaking with it diluted @15-25%, and then flush. Its also used for de rusting (but isnt that great for it)

Cant find links easily. Do a search for 'orthophosphoric acid' or 'ice machine cleaner'

You could always get some normal descaler from the pound shop though

 

[cleverdicky]

Ooh... by the way. Im sure hotrodder will answer for you, but any acid solution even diluted does over react when heated. Never use it in a pressurised system, and if you do switch on unit, do so just a little. Warmer will help the reaction. But hotter will definitely be a major issue if boiled. So don't.

 

[spock500]

I agree, vinegar does pen and ink a bit but does tend to go away.

The distiller is not pressurised as such, it just boils off the water through a stainless steel coil condensing into a jar via a charcoal filter.

The current method is ok, although may try with citric next time and perhaps look at getting a second unit for periods of down time.

Cheers for the info though