DIY Rust Remover - Can We make Our Own Rust Evaporator??? 

When you dont have enough liquid to cover your parts, add something to displace more volume in the bucket. Something like a 1 sealed 1 gallon of water or sealed full 2 liter bottles.

Evaporust generally takes 16 to 24 hours for most rust. I use an ultrasonic with heat and it takes 30 minutes, maybe less, but I just have the timer at 30. Rarely, bad rust may take another 15 minutes or so. It’s reusable, so not as expensive as it seems at first. Don’t see the purpose of molasses in the mix. Just remember to wash the parts off right after and spray with WD-40 right away to prevent flash rust.

Cool! I watched the Australians using mollassas a few years ago. They get it cheap in 55gal drums and submerge whole car bodies in large cattle water tanks. I tried it with 16 inch wheels and it worked, just slower. I like this EDTA better for the small stuff. I have a fiberglass fishing boat that I use as an electrolysis tank for large things like bumpers. That works extremely well too.

I think I’ll make some of this Mark. I’ve been using Evaporust and have had good results. Like most chemical reactions, it seems to work better when the shop is warm. When I don’t have enough volume to cover parts in the bucket I just put in a few ziplock bags filled with water. They displace the solution to cover the part but don’t affect the concentration. I’ve also used clean gravel in ziplocks to do the same thing.

The manufacturers of commercial similar mixtures had to choose a chelating agent. They want to be able to advertise safety of their product (and don't want payouts and litigation down the time line), so they didn't choose EDTA. I can see how EDTA might sound harmless. But i've used it to break DNA into tiny bits. Just something to consider when you choose whether to put gloves over your DNA based hands when working with this solution.

Very well done 👍 It would be very interesting to fill an old rustic engine block cooling jacket with your solution and see how it would work. Maybe give it several days.

Evaporust uses water, triethanoamine phosphate, aluminum sulphate, citric acid and dipropylene glycol methyl ether. It is in their msds. The secret ingredient is the triethanoamine phosphate.

Would be interesting to see if adding fumed silica to make a gel would let it be used on things like chassis and fitted panels. I have seen phosphoric acid solutions turned into a gel for stripping rust so it may work for this as well. Probably be less harmful to people too.

Excellent video! Thanks P.S. EDTA sure has skyrocketed in price over the last few years. One used to make this for less than $1 a gallon.

I wonder if heat and agitation would help? A stock tank heater and aquarium circulation pump would work. The mechanic from Wheeler Dealers submerged an entire frame in Evaporust, and it worked perfectly, but the chemical's price makes it prohibitive for the rest of us. Your recipe would change all that!

I believe that the molasses used for rust removal is the type produced from sugar beets versus molasses produced from sugar cane. Sugar beet molasses is very bitter and is used for industrial uses and some animal feed production. I don't know what the chemical differences are between the two types, but it may have some affect as to de-rusting.

Oh boy.... the acfive substance in molasses removing rust is..... tadaaaa: Citric acid.

White viniger in a 5 gal bucket

Yes EDTA has been used to chelate toxic metals out of your body by the medical community. I actually have a bottle of it in capsule form around here. How'd you get the idea to use EDTA as a rust remover? That's pretty slick. I've always used acid or vinegar. The acid trick is super fast but it is toxic as hell and then dealing with it safely is just a super annoyance. I always wanted to try OSPHO which is basically a phosphoric acid rust converter but I just never got around to it. Last week I needed to remove some galvanizing off of some parts that I wanted to weld and I used muriatic acid. The fumes and the toxicity of that stuff is just horrendous. I managed to get it done but I made sure that there was nothing around that would get splashed and ruined by the acid. I wonder if EDTA would work to remove that zinc coating? This is a very good video! Thanks for taking the time to show us.

Crikey, just use vinegar. EDTA is just a weak acid. Not sure why you think adding another acid (citric) lowers ph to 7. The ph of water is 7. Neither acid nor alkaline. Neutral.

I don't know about the sulfur part. It is dispensed out of a hose like at gas pump. I just bring my 5 gallon containers and fill them up. Farmers fill their tanks of hundreds of gallons. I just came in from my shop where I have several 5 gallon pails that have been working for a week. I pulled out some wire chain that was just a ball of rust. It now looks new. If you leave your metal in for three weeks or more it will develop a black patena like it was painted with flat black paint. I have heard what that patina is but have forgotten but is used for restoring things like old canons etc.

Any idea what you can do to turn your edta into a gel form that will stick to a surface like the undercarriage of a car you want to remove the rust on? Thank you

Very impressed Mark, I really like the fact that you could make small batches for nuts and bolts etc. I will order the ingredients and make some up. Thanks for the information! Happy Thanksgiving. .

I use molasses and water, then rinse and drop the part into phosphoric acid/ water mix. The phosphoric acid leaves a coating that protects from flash rusting.

Yeah, I invested in some Evaporust a while ago, I remember not being very impressed..... Of course before that I was using muriatic acid. Much faster but kind of dangerous, I put a small part in it once and the next day it had vanished! 😂 I have a sandblast cabinet, but your method looks much easier. Thanks Mark.

I've messed with this as well. if you lightly wire brush the rusted parts by hand (what I think of as breaking the surface) it really helps. it only takes a minute. same with Evaporust.

tetra sodium is what spray Nine cleaner is made from 1/10 of 1 % solution, gotta get some

100g of citric acid, 40g washing soda, 1 Litre of warm water.

If you want the paint removed, soak for a while with Easy Off then rinse (don't get any of this on or in you). It may take more than one application but it will remove the paint. Then do the rust removal.

Great video Mark. What a tip. I didn't think it was going to work that well. So now you have a gallon of molasses. Break out the pancakes?

Good tip and demo Mark, this looks easier works good and less smelly than using vinegar and water mix we used years ago as rust stopper

Thanks for the in depth explanation!

Great video. I've been looking for an alternative to acid. I'm confused though EDTA is an acid so why when you mix it do you get a ph of 10 that you need to neutralise. Sure an acid would be beliw 7 when mixed with water. What did I miss?

Rust doesn't evaporate. What planet are you on?

Wow, that was impressive! That stuff worked like a charm. I'll have to make up a batch for myself. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family Mark!

Very cool Mark. Thanks for doing this video!!

Excellent vid Mark! Just in time as I have a bench full of fabricated parts for the 37 chevy and was going to use vinegar as in the past but the EDTA solution seems to do the job without all the foaming and odor of the vinegar... Got a guess on how long the cleaned and dried parts will stay surface rust free? Lot of humidity here so was thinking need to get some DTM etch primer or something on them right away? Thank for including the links and Happy Thanksgiving to you and fam.

any one try edta 2na vs edta 4na

Nice demo 👍

Это круто, спасибо брат

forgot EDTA and molasse. I made my own evaporust with cheap houseold chemicals available everywhere. it work far better than EDTA, and in one or one and half hour it's done. 10% solution at PH7.5 and 20°c. the chelating chhemical I use is mentionned in a free patent. It cost less than 10€ for 5L, reusable many times.

Vinegar. Easy, cheap

Looks good but your addition of molasses was of no use in that it needs to be a much higher percentage of your mix. I buy feed molasses from a local farmers coop for very cheap. Most of your parts were lightly rusted and can be cleaned well with the solution you propose but a 9 to one water molasses solution will derust heavily rusted items much better without damaging the base metal like many other methods do. The drawback of using the molasses mixture is that it takes 1 to two weeks to complete. The other thing is that some folks dont like handling the scummy solution even though it cleans off easily. A funny story is that one time I had the solution in a plastic tote soaking my parts but the lid wasnt on all the way. I didnt get back to it for about three weeks and when i looked at it the solution was churning and rolling like it was boiling. Turns out that flies had laid their eggs in it and it was a mass of swimming maggots. We are on a farm so it was no problem cleaning up the mess but if you are squeemish you may have a problem with that. The parts were perfectly de-rusted.

Very cool thanks 🤗🤺👍🏋️‍♀️☦️

I wonder if that (still, after 1st soak, molasses) rusty stripe was a finger print, where the rust was protected by oil.

Molasses is really the better choice. It is cheaper and the liquid can be dumped without causing harm. Remember, when handling chemicals bare handed that your skin is not made of armor. EDTA is a synthetic chemical and not found naturally.