Remove Rust With Electrolysis 

The anode will erode during this process. If you do a lot of this you'll notice the rebar gets thinner over time. If you reverse the polarity your part will erode. The surface will become grainy as metal is lost. Electrolysis has been heavily studied by the archeology departments of various universities (Texas A&M for instance) where it is used to conserve iron artifacts. They have recommendations for how much current to use based on the surface area of the part. The 1st choice for chemical to dissolve in the water is lye (NaOH) - its supposed to give the best results in a 2% solution by weight. Sodium hydroxide is a bit nasty though and so a close second would be the sodium carbonate (washing soda) in a 5% solution by weight. Its usually available in the laundry aisle of the grocery store but if you can't find it, you can make your own from baking soda. Put the baking soda in a glass baking dish and bake it at 250F for an hour or so. The sodium bicarbonate decomposes to sodium carbonate with the release of some carbon dioxide gas. You can easily tell if you've achieved the conversion because baking soda has a salty taste and washing soda tastes bitter (spit don't swallow!). After electrolysis your part will have a black coating which is another type of iron oxide called magnetite. Its essentially the same stuff as mill scale. You can take it off mechanically as with the wire wheel. Another way is with HCl (hydrochloric or muriatic acid) which should be diluted with water 3:1. Follow up with thorough rinsing and drying before you prime and paint. Avoid heating the part to dry it faster or it may flash rust. Magnetite will not hold a paint finish so it must be removed.

I tried this for the first time on a couple of pairs of pliers that we're in the bottom of my toolbox. Totally seized with a heavy layer of rust. After about ten hours I cleaned them off with a wire brush and both worked excellent. After I cleaned off all the rust I sprayed them down with some good quality penetrating oil and put the in a Ziploc baggie for a couple of days. Now I have two more pliers back in service.

its a door latch for an early model t ( around 1918). I have several.

Thanks for this video! I was looking for a material to show to my class about the use of electrolysis. It just isn't enough to discuss it to them , they need to know its meaningful use too!

I think it was this video that first led me to BleepinJeep, a few years ago now. Can't even remember what I was looking for rust removal for, but glad I found you guys. Thanks!

Hailing from Barbados, and thanking the Bleepin Jeep team. i have and 89 xj and i have learnt a lot from you guys... But the electrolysis video.....LOVE IT LOVE IT. keep up the good work guys

Electrolysis will release hydrogen at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. So don't do this in an enclosed space. Just a heads up for everyone else wanting to do this.

The best, most informative video I've seen on this subject. Thank you greatly

*starts digging a hole to put my trailer in and do this.*

I learned more watching this video than I have learned in quite awhile. A+++

I just wanted to add a little helpful info , Some battery chargers are automatic , If they do not see a 12 volt current they will not turn on and perform like you want them too , I have found using a car battery to be useful by using wires to hook up the part you are trying to de-rust and then attaching the other ends to the battery then hook up your battery charger to the battery to keep the battery charged and complete the electrolysis cycle ...

Wow that came out minty mint! Nice job there Tyler, this was awesome. Another trick of the trade to try and store in the memory bank. Cool stuff, and very well explained. Thanks guys. Pidge.

Fantastically informative, before and after condition of parts, I really enjoyed it and learned a few things...great

Really like these secret of the trade videos lately keep em coming!! Cause I don't own a jeep, but these videos are great too learn something from

Works really well . Great way to restore a little life to some old parts

The one and only way that I know is better than what you showed in this vid is to increase the size of the anode. A flat piece of steel as large as can be fit into the container works best. Increased surface area increases the speed at which the process happens. Otherwise, yet another great vid. Thanks Tyler.

I don't know about anyone else but I was pretty amazed. This is awesome.

Great job, I love watching electrolysis videos. Also electrolysis videos to help dye aluminum different colors and turn titanium pretty colors. One thing to add, don't mix metals in electrolysis like aluminum or copper it can ruin one metal while doing the job on another. Stick to iron in one bath of solution. The bubbles forming are the gases of the molecules breaking free from the chemical bonds. A good example is 2 electrodes in distilled water, a negative and a positive rod. The negative rod will have hydrogen(H+) gas bubbles since neg-pos and the Positive rod will have oxygen(O-) gas bubbles Negative->positive rod.

Great video! I think I'm going to give it a try on some of my control arms that have surface rust.

I did get a old battery charger couple of weeks ago can't wait to try this thanks for sharing

You can use the same process to electroplate items. You can also create a mask for your part out of tape and electro-etch patterns and cut outs. Pretty cool stuff, though we always used pool pellets to do it.

Suscribed for life!! people like you that actually take the time to prove things like this actually works. dumb question, does it matter if you use tap or distilled water?

Oh my this is an old video. You've come very far!

I have heard that after you have electrolysed the rust off, you can zinc plate the part to protect from future rust by replacing the iron anode with a zinc anode and electrolysing again.

Great instructional video. And the injection of your humor ('doesn't work on cats') only makes it more entertaining. Well done!

Tyler, great tip. Well explained. Awesome video. Thanks.

I always always forget my tools outside this works perfectly for my ME and for a bunch of my friends thank you

That is absolutely insane! Thank you so much for the vid!

AWESOME VID and thanks for sharing

I like the tip on placing a piece of PVC, with holes drilled in it, around the rebar to keep it from touching the part. Clever.

A easy way to remember the polarity is the + side will add material and the - side will lose material . + get / - give

great video. very informative!

Great video! Am making sculpture for neighbor as going away present. Currently electrolysis-ing a strange piece of antique piping from our yard!

Awesome! Very informative

Thanks for this.It sure helps in removing rust effectively😁

Having done this many times over the years, I can tell you that the amount of washing soda (sodium carbonate [not bi-carbonate]) **does** make a difference, as this is what creates the conductivity between the anode and cathode. With higher amps (up to several hundred) and higher voltage (12-24v) and a1/2c to 1 cup of washing side dissolved in the water, you will see a LOT of bubbles and fizzing activity, and it's unlikely you will need to use a wire wheel at all.

That's cool, I've heard of this but never seen it. Thanks for vidya!

Awesome video!

Hello, Thanks For The Great Video...... What Happens If You Use A Higher AMP. 10amp For Example??

Thank you. very nice!

nice video man! thanks!

Awesome video man.

Best part was the horns on the head at 9:20. LOL I am definitely going to use this for something. Thanks.

Great video 👍🏼

Good tip about the drilled holey PVC tube

thanks for this video...

great tutorial,the only thing i would like to add is it does work with baking soda. (i couldnt get washing soda in ireland) just used some baking soda and it worked great, might take a bit longer but it still works

This video really gets me amped up

Wow! Awesome,I'll do my trans am seat frames.

this is awesome

Could you use wire hangers to hold both steel anode and object, instead of wood and clamps etc.? Wire could loop around objects then have hooks with "terminals" since wire is easy to shape.

That's soooo cool!

Sweet! Thanks!

Very cool

You the man!

Awesome im so using this to just try it. Best thing I seen i a while.

What other Products are good instead of washing soda? my dad used vinniger and Electrolysis to clean out a motorcycle gas tank it worked really well. let me know

I tried this a few times and started to think the charger was a type that couldn't do the job, I was wrong and almost bought another. Turns out adding MORE washing soda is all it took. The stuff is cheap put more in! After adding about 3x more I could see the bubbles forming and it was working.

Thanks I have heard of electrolysis but never thought it would be that easy or work that well. Better that using Rust-eze (sorry lighting)

Will this also work on plastic chromed part which has got some rust on it? And any side effects?

Will this work on carbarator housing. My friend has a old one off of a old bobcat from the 70s. I know a ultrasonic cleaner would be best but he doesn't have one.

Got myself an old 200 amp linear power supply and a kiddy pool ( Turtle shape of course) it srsly took bout 10min to shine up my 8.8 solid rear axel like new

NICE

What do you do with the toxic-looking slurry in the bucket?

Hi can I use dc adapter plugged in to home electrical (will be stripped off) but with different volt and ampere? e.g 19v 5a? What's the point of using 12v 2a? pls reply thanks

Do you still have that latch? Could you measure it and would you sell it?

Use baking soda in the water, you'll get better connectivity. Don't purchase the Soda Wash, it's like $11 more than generic baking soda which is around $3.50 for a big box. It's all just Sodium bicarbonate. A half cup in a five gallon bucket is plenty. You'll see it fizz, it's pretty cool. You can do it in different time settings if you want the patina to stay. Leave it in long enough and it will vanish.

Will this process damage wood parts in the solution ? I have an old hand crank drill which has some wood parts.

If you put more curent and more voltage the proces will be faster? I have a 50 v ,65 to 120 Amps trasformer and sure its has a 200A ,4 diodes bridge rectifier.

But what do you do with the bad water after this process? Like disposing the waste

Thanks for the informative video. I set this up at home to de-rust a corroded BBQ grill. I bought the cheapest battery charger, but sadly it had some built-in analytical system which automatically switched the charger off because it recognized that it wasn't attached to a car battery. Oh dear, so frustrating. Be careful if you are buying a charger, why does it have to be so complicated!?

Another H&S point. Don't use any stainless steel in the system as I have been told that it decomposes into some very nasty/toxic chemicals, hexavalent chromium. Love the video and the humour, and no I don't want to derust me parts.

cool thx

Dude the birds in your yard are loud and going crazy! If I were you I wouldn’t go outside without a blindfold on😳

Nice video, thanks. Question, does the entire part have to be submerged? The reason I ask is that I have a bike frame that has rust in one corner and if I could just dip that corner into the liquid, that would make finding a container easier.

Electrons flow from positive to negative. For best results make the re-bar the cathode and the part the anode. This way the rust will move more quickly from the part to the re-bar.

F'n awesome!

Can this be done on a dana 30 axle housing

will this be hard on the charger in anyway? (i would think not)

would washing liquid do the same thing

Visegrips, clamp and 2x2 ! Way to Macgyver that suspension Sir!

you kinda sound like Richard Dreyfuss LOl :) Good video .

There are also plenty of 12V power supplies that can supply enough current.

Does it have to be 2 amp. I am in UK.

wow!

Now that is awesome. Will that work on Break Calipers?

Why washing soda and not baking soda? Baking soda also makes the water more conductive

Simple enough process. Seems like it would be good for many things from fishing hooks to gardening tools, kitchen to bathroom to garage! Think of how much has been wasted by not knowing this...

What about something like calipers (including the rubber that's on it) or a driveshaft yoke??

Hey Tyler! If you use scrap stainless steel for the anode it won't dissolve near as quickly, your water won't get all gunky, and your electrolyte will last about forever.

Can i use salt instead of washing soda ?

Could a car battery be used?

Probably going to go out and do this on some of my own brake calipers - what do you do with the rusty water when you're wrapped up?

I don't have washing soda, can I use salt?

cool. My battery charger seemed to cycle off for a while every 15 minutes or so. I reckoned it was some thermal safety shutoff nonsense. I set up a small desk fan pointing at the charger and it doesn't seem to be doing it anymore. Pro tip for cool kids - you need a crappy old school battery charger with nothing but an on off switch and an amp meter on the front. The fewer "smart" or safety features the better for this kind of thing to work properly. You should us a GFCI protected outlet though...for realz.

I have a new ac Delco 8a charger, can someone help me out with bypassing the safety? It won't give power without its hooked to a battery that already has enough power.

Can u use this method to remove rust from other non steel items such as iron weight lifting plates...thnx so much!

Also it's a self regulating process so you can't leave it in too long

Yes, Negative to positive. Most of the world has it wrong. Even after it was proven, the majority of the world wont accept it. So your on the right track. DC. leaves out at Negative, and return to positive. The hot side of a battery is the negative post. It leaves the negative post, goes through ur car back to the positive post of the battery. Notice that you put the charging cable from alternator on to the positive post. Adding power back to the battery. So as the electrons move from the negative charge, they carry the rust toward the positive charge in their wake. Hope this gives a better understanding of how it works.

Great video. What I can't understand is why your battery charger doesn't cook. I have tried this and the external fuse on the charger blows the moment I switch it on. Its a 12 volt charger, same as yours but with a non variable amperage setting. Any ideas on how I can make it work?