Derusting / Painting Wheels

[Onoff]

Need to derust a couple of steel wheels.



And to think everything in the photo was being thrown out!



My 38 year old CB pack made from a battery charger:



10ml of these per litre, so 350ml into 35 ltrs of water:



And leave to ferment:



Safety first:



So the rust is coming off nicely:

https://flic.kr/p/GnDWAv

Quite why SWMBO moans...

The plan is to jet wash the derusted wheels then give my Aldi compressor / grit blast pot a whirl.

The wheels just need to be "black" I was thinking good old hammer finish paint?

 

[postie jon]

i did a set , was in no hurry, soaked them in a bath of diluted molasses, came out spotless, but took 6 weeks , with no effort.

 

[Onoff]

i did a set , was in no hurry, soaked them in a bath of diluted molasses, came out spotless, but took 6 weeks , with no effort.

Ta. Supposed to be a nice gentle process that. Did it take the paint off too?

Also what dilution ratio?

Cheers

 

[frank horton]

velly interesting....what's it look like now.........
I need to grow a pair and get going myself...........ton's of stuff to derust........
does it get under paint ?? thanks........

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@frank horton

It can loosen or remove some paint.

 

[postie jon]

Ta. Supposed to be a nice gentle process that. Did it take the paint off too?

Also what dilution ratio?

Cheers

no it only attacks the rust, 8-1 of mollasses was the ratio i used , just gave them a light wire brush now and again, and back into soak. you tube is full of " molasses rust removal vids". i bought think it was 15lt for £10 from local animal feed stockist. best of all when your finished you can just flush it down the drain as its non toxic and biodegradeable no need to wear gloves , but it does stink after 6wks.

 

[Onoff]

velly interesting....what's it look like now.........
I need to grow a pair and get going myself...........ton's of stuff to derust........
does it get under paint ?? thanks........

It's going good! Wish I'd played with it years ago. The rust from the wheel migrates to the anodes. Ideally you want to knock this crud off periodically during the process:

I think that if there's a bit of rust under the paint and the paint's cracked then the process will get underneath and work it's magic. A periodic switching off of the system and wire brushing the workpiece and anode as said previous seems to help. Pic after a bit of a scratch up with an old screwdriver and rinse:

(It's gone back in now).

What the electrolyte DOES do is strip the crud out of any scabbed over cuts in your hands if you don't wear gloves when fishing the workpiece out! If the quicks of your nails aren't all there it'll get in there and sting a bit too!

Bear in mind the process is "line of sight", so to do the other side of the wheel I'll have to turn it upside down. You can overcome this by careful positioning of the (sacrificial electrodes).

Still thinking "Hammerite" maybe the Flag brand from Screweys. Only for SWMBO's battered daily, an old Pug 206 but I was fed up with leaky rims!

 

[Onoff]

Noticed last night the "bubbles" had nigh on stopped. I wonder if the anode can get crudded up to the point that that happens? Going on from that will the power supply be trying to supply a higher resistance load and possibly pack up / burn out?

Just realised I only scraped and rinsed the wheel when I took it out mid process but not the anodes despite my saying it's a good idea!

I blame the big bottle of Cobra...

 

[Onoff]

"Intelligent" 24V 5A psu. Much better.

The bloody dustbin leaked and CT1 wouldn't fix it!

Made a new batch in a water butt. 45l water with 450ml soda crystals.

The electrode "ring" could do with being set lower tbh:

Compared to the 12V the 24V/5A is going berserk!

Really must try a welder for this one day...