Comanche County Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Just wanted to share my electrolysis experiment. This is so ridiculously easy and cheap it should be illegal. I've got the exhaust manifold off my CJ3A in it now and it should be done by morning. This is something I should have done a long time ago and it would have saved about $75 bucks worth of wire wheels and a lot of time. I built it with scrap metal and it didn' cost me anything except a few bucks for the "Washing Soda". The sacrificial anodes are the leaf spring u-bolts I cut off my CJ3A and welded to other scrap pieces. I see no downside to electrolysis at all and I'm thinking of digging a hole, lining it with plastic and doing the entire tub. There's a lot of info on this technique out there on the web, but after doing it myself I am really happy with it. After an hour, the rust is bubbling off nicely. We'll see what it looks like in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimoshel Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 A couple years ago I spent many a night trying to discover a universal solvent. Something that would dissolve anything, especially rust. After discovering it, I couldn't find anything to keep it in. Anybody besides me noticed that the worlds getting smaller? :huh???: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvusse Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Electrolysis is great for smaller parts, but for large parts you'd pretty much a swimming pool (or make a red neck one yourself like you're talking about). But wire wheels still have their purpose as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue88Comanche Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 :wrench: cool, can't wait to see the end result! did you have a before picture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Don't have a good before picture but you can see by the results this morning what it looked like before. There's a heat riser valve in the manifold which I'm hoping to get freed up. We had some rain last night so I unhooked the charger and let it go on the battery which was drained from 12V to 4V overnight and that slowed the process a lot. It may also need more electrodes (I incorrectly called them anodes earlier). I've read to get 360 degrees of coverage some guys line the bottom and the sides with thin sheet metal as an electrode since the electrons flow in a straight line. When its done, it should be covered in that black sludge which wipes right off. I've got it cooking again now and I'll let it go all day and check again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue88Comanche Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 can you use a old metal oil drum? that would give you complete coverage then just use a wood frame to hang the part to insulate it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 I guess that would work if the drum was isolated from the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hick92 Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 a metal drum wouldn't work because it will get thinner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 Had the cables on wrong.... :dunce: Negative goes to the object, pos to the electrodes....much better results but the heat riser still won't move so its going back in. Its wet in the picture but almost all the rust is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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