Cleaning old bolts and small items

[Blue666(2)]

Does any one use a vibratory grit cleaner to clean up bolts screws and other small items?

[Leverhead]

Yes.....and shell casings too. But it takes too long for the hdw to get clean so I use my harbor freight blaster box instead...

[Captainfab]

If they need degreased I clean them by hand a little in my parts washer and then soak them in carb cleaner for a while, then hit them with carb spray and rinse with water. If they are just rusty, I would soak them in vinegar for a day or two, rinse with baking soda water and then clean water and dry. If you're in a hurry I have often used a wire wheel on a bench grinder. Just gotta watch your fingers.

[earl84]

You can also soak in a solution of molasses (the horse feed kind they sell at places like Tractor Supply Company) for about a week and they come out rust free. I was amazed at how well it worked. Works for larger parts,as well. Takes time, though, so you have to plan.
Also, I think it was member Tx Firefighter, takes bunches of bolts to a zinc plating place, and gets them plated for pretty cheap, then you don't have to put back in sort of cleaned up bolts that will rust again in short order. And you have original hardware. This is the best plan I have seen, but you would have to be organized and plan ahead. Didn't cast very much, either.

[nsb29]

I have heard o fan old guy that nickel plates his own parts at home in a Tupperware pan and a battery charger

[Ronzo]

Originally Posted by nsb29

I have heard o fan old guy that nickel plates his own parts at home in a Tupperware pan and a battery charger

Do tell...

[jayoldschool]

Go to Costco, Walmart, whatever, and buy a case of vinegar. Pour in a bucket, dump in parts, take out clean parts one week later.

[61_FL_Apache]

An old guy I know uses muriatic acid to clean small steel parts like that, then uses a baking soda solution to neutralize it afterwards.. Its not the safest method, but the bolts use come out looking nice.

[Blue666(2)]

Guys thanks for the ideas. I'll try out the vinegar and molasses methods and let you know which works. Muratic acid (hydrochloric acid) seems a bit strong.

Caswell Plating (www.caswellplating.com) has some nickel & chrome plating set ups. They can get pretty pricey though.

As to the zinc plating, do they have a mail in program?

[earl84]

That I don't know. Pretty sure if you do a Google search in your area you might find one somewhere around Memphis. The one TX Firefighter went to was located somewhere in the DFW Metro area.

[pdxhall]

Originally Posted by nsb29

I have heard o fan old guy that nickel plates his own parts at home in a Tupperware pan and a battery charger

I've notice that Eastwood has a zinc plating kit. I haven't tried it and it's a little spendy but if you can do enough parts it might be worth it.

[Improbcat]

It isn't cheap, but the Evapo-Rust they sell at Harbor Frieght works well.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-gallo...ver-96433.html

I've tried vinegar and the Evapo-Rust seems to work better. It doesn't get dirt/grime/undercoating off, just rust, but it has made hardware look a lot better.

I have one of the vibratory tumblers, and have generally been underwhelmed with it.

[luvbowties]

I'm not doubting any of the suggestions--actually I've saved all them for my personal reference. But I do wonder what is in the molasses that does the cleaning?

BTW: I do like and enjoy molasses-with-pancakes for breakfast, occasionally. Just sitting here wondering if I should cleanse my system more often?...or less often?

Sam

[rustbusket]

Make an electrolysis tank. They are cheap and easy and most of us gearheads have the parts lying around to whip one up.

[luvbowties]

I just found the answer about my wondering what, in molasses, does the cleaning. Due to answers rapidly becoming more complex, I am now dropping my questions and just believing, without proof, THAT it works w/out fully understanding WHY it works!

Answer, further below, from: >> http://forums.aaca.org/f120/rust-rem...es-293820.html <<

Answer: "Molasses/water is a useful method indeed for restoration cleaning, though it is not the best option in all circumstances. I must say that the explanations so far I have read here are entertaining, but perhaps somewhat removed from what people normally learn of basic chemistry and microbiology.
1) The working mixture is a carbohydrate byproduct of sugar refining, well diluted with water. White sugar is the cheapest and most pure chemical product that we ever encounter. Molasses is anything but simple and pure. It will contain some plant proteins or remnants of them. The amino acids which constitute proteins include cystene, cysteine, and methionine, which do importantly contain sulfur, because the sulfur bonds are what give proteins elasticity which is obviously more important to animals than plants. There is still elastic protein in plants though they do not walk around: You only have to watch a loaf of bread you make or a pizza dough rise before baking to see that.
But I doubt there is a huge amount of sulfur in Molasses.
2) What do you observe when you carefully wash a heavily rusted article that has cleaned in molasses? You get a clean, deeply pitted surface, and when the dark brown molasses is dispersed by the washing water, you see a lot of very fine grey iron powder.
3) The de-rusting takes a little while to start; but then the enthusiasm is dependant on the temperature.
All this indicates that the de-rusting is done for you by harmless aerobic bacteria, which derive their food source form the molasses, and and get their oxygen by de-oxidizing the rust. If you try to do it outside in your fierce winter cold with ice on top, you litte friends will be rather inactive. If you try to heat it up, you might take it beyond their range of comfort and survival. You would expect little involvement of yeasts, because they are predominantly anaerobic.
Only de-rust disassembled items if you can, and never take a vacation and lt the mixture dry out. I knew one man who dug a long hole in the ground, lined it with black plastic, and immersed a 1913 Cadillac chassis with springs and axles. I didn't see it go into the molasses. He probably was not very well approaching his demise; but he let it dry out completely. There was no recoverable Cadillac left. There was little but dried molasses and iron powder.
Electrolitic cleaning is good, too: But try potassium carbonate as electrolyte instead of sodium hydroxide. It is still alkaline and should always be handled with respect: but it is not fierce and nasty in the same way. Better still, when you finish with it you can use it on you garden . Potassium is the predominant monovalent cation used by plants. It does not interfere with soil drainage and soil structure as sodium does when it saturates the ion exchange sites of the clay in the soil. Please pardon unintentional spelling mistakes."

Now, out into my garage with a container to verify the efficacy* of VINEGAR as I attempt to clean a few older, rusty bolts and nuts I have separated, as to size, in dog-dish hub caps.
Sam
*efficacy: a word I just now added to my vocabulary, as was used in some of the above, yet omitted verbage--whatever verbage means.

[nsb29]

[QUOTE=rustbusket;6951018]Make an electrolysis tank. They are cheap and easy and most of us gearheads have the parts lying around to whip one up.[/QU yep

[clemdaddy]

theres some good suggestions on how to chemically treat rusted and or greasy hardware but the captain touched on my method. wire wheel on a bench grinder. keeps the patina of the metal and doesn't cost anything but time. afterward a light mist of clear engine paint and you have nice looking hardware that won't rust.