Hi Dave:
Quote:
|
I have been derusting at room temp. The tempature of the bath seems to have no effect on the rate of derusting.
|
I've never considered temperature for the electro-derusting. Just whatever the ambient temp happens to be (as long as the bucket's not frozen).
The lye based hot-tank, being purely chemical, is temp sensitive. Hot (140-160) cleans better & faster than cold, but I only use it for ferrous materials.
Interesting observation on current density for cleaning. Will have to experiment with that on some smaller parts. Up to now, I've only been derusting large, heavily rusted steel parts, simply hooking them up to a battery charger and lettin 'er rip!
Quote:
|
If you try to derust electrically would you mind trying to soda bast the smut off?
|
Will do, but I don't forsee trying it for a while.
Quote:
|
I have not looked into soda blasting very much. What does the price of a small unit cost?
|
I haven't invested much of anything at this point, wanting to see how well it worked first.
I got one of those cheap spot blasters w/about 14-oz hopper, and a 50lb bag of medium grit soda from an abrasives supplier. Fill up the hopper and blast outdoors. I don't have many parts to do this way, so the media is lost.
It works well, but since it's not as aggressive as glass bead, it takes more time and media. On the positive side, it doesn't peen the surface or erase any detail, and washes away in water. No glass embedding problem.
I pre-cleaned this 1946 carb body in Berrymans carb cleaner, then soda blasted it. Remnants of the original irridescent chromate are clearly evident in the before photo, and it's all gone in the after photo (photos link to larger images):
__
___
Unfortunately, this particular carb body would appear to have little to none zinc content. I got NO reaction whatever out of it in the acid pickle, and it would not take any chromate. So I'll be plating it one day (hopefully thiss weekend).
Sean