One of the old greasers on board ship used to leave them soaking in a pot of Coca Cola for a week, always made me wonder what that stuff does to your gut
Thanks for the ideas. Unforunately I don't have a mixer, but did try adapting an empty 5l ice cream container to rotate on my wood turning lathe ........ it is quite surprising how far sand can go in a workshop!
i normally buy a load of cheap bottles of vinegar from tesco (like 10p a bottle) fill up a big container chuck the parts in and put the lid on and leave em for a day or so, they come out smelling like a chip shop but other than that works really well