Jordan Report post Posted November 10, 2007 I have had good results cleaning stuff with a can of spray called PB-Blaster very strong stuff do not let it stay on your skin for very long it will BURN, Co-worker was cleaning an asphalt laydown machine and did not realize he was spraying his crotch area also! It was halarious to see him jumping around yelling and stripping out of his clothes and rolling in the snow. Felt bad for laughing once we found out the reason for his bizarre behavior. It works real good on rusty frozen bolts. You will have to clean the blaster off with mineral spirits or the residue will discolor your leather. Worked real good cleaning up all the nooks and crannies on my brass/bronze? imprint rolls for the strap embosser machine. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Luke Hatley Report post Posted November 10, 2007 WOLVERNSTIEN..... use your buffing wheel with the fine grit(jewlers rouge) buff untill the tools shine. Use them, if the design is pitted, sell on e bay. i bet you will not see any bad marks on the leather. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardb Report post Posted November 22, 2007 Try phosphorizing them. Look up "Naval Jelly" and no that's not the bits of jam that drop into your belly button when you're not looking. I used something of this ilk to remove rust from a tractor seat prior to painting. I think I had to remove the very loose stuff and then just painted it on. It does a chemical reaction on the iron oxide and replaces the iron with phosphorous (I think), which ends up being a suitable primer for painting. Worked like a champ on a tractor seat. I've got some of my FIL's older tools that have corrosion on them. I will be trying some tartar and possibly some vinegar dunks to clean them up. Metallurgy info: Oil / kerosene / wd40 / etc plus brushing will remove the rust but will also remove metal. It also exposes bare iron again which will rust again. The cream of tartar / electrolisys / vinegar / naval jelly solutions will CONVERT the rust chemically and can save the metal that isn't flaking off loose. Might be worth comparing a couple of these before jumping in. Brent Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardb Report post Posted November 23, 2007 I felt like experimenting today. I'm attaching before and after photos of two of the suggested methods. I didn't have any of the chrome plated tools that needed cleaned, so I used the ones that were yucky to see what would happen. The first picture is the before for the heated cream of tartar bath. The second is the after. It peeled off the corrosion, and the plating, and was probably starting to eat the metal. I got a funny feeling these are cast zinc tools with a dichromate finish rather than steel tools, so this may sway the results somewhat. The small nosed tool (topmost in the first pic) has a bright and shiny tip which is unscathed, but the rest of the tool is pitted. The others don't seem pitted, but no real improvement either. The 3rd picture is the before for a vinegar bath, room temp. The second is the after. No real change for these. Again, the metallurgy may be an affector. One of the tools clearly shows a reddish (iron) oxide both before and after though. Sometimes, I just have to try. I'll rig up an electrolysis bath one of these days and give it a shot. What it will do to these funny yellow tools is anyones guess... Brent Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolvenstien Report post Posted November 24, 2007 Well... LOL. Too cool. I have been playing big time myself but not taking pix.... I went and found a 6 inch brass wheel for my grinder.... it ground the tooling pattern right off the small pear shader i tried to clean up with it... now I have a nice smooth pear shader. I figured i needed something smaller and not as fast to use on it... I found a Dremel kit that had a small wire wheel (not brass) and used it in conjunction with the red compound and it worked great but the little wires kept flying off and sticking me in the arms, forehead, hair, and all over the floor, making it not a good idea to walk in here with bare feet.... I then went to Home depot and found a couple of brass wire wheels for the Dremel and a friend gave me his old 4.8 volt cordless Dremel so i use the brass well on the 4.8volt and a buffing wheel on the corded one... along with white compound and it was working ok.... Then I looked up on the shelve and saw a 3 inch grinder I bought years ago and thought... Hey... it has a buffing wheel and it will go slow... So i got it down and have went through half the tools already with it. Using white compound with it, and when I cant get deep into the patterns I use the 4.8 volt with the brass wire wheel. The tools are getting cleaned up real well. Some of them have damage on the patterns but I think it will add character... We will see.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolvenstien Report post Posted November 27, 2007 Ok, I am totally finished with the tools.... Along with the above mentioned method of cleaning the tooling heads of the tools, I then took everything over to the work bench and put the "brass" colored 8" wire wheel onto the grinder along with the cardboard buffing wheel I have been using from my buffing/sharpening kit. I used the wire wheel to clean all the shafts of the tools... on several there was a minute speck of rust on the shaft and when i hit it with the wire wheel it removed it along with the plating showing allot of rust beneath the plating. I was able to clean all this up and put then on the buffer using white compound and buffed the metal to a nice shine.... some of them (more vainers' than anything else) had under the plating rust all the way to the tip of the tooling head so I knocked it all off.... the metal was in good shape and buffed up nicely.... on a few the tools had been banged around where the tooling pattern was slightly messed up and I buffed them as well as I could and left them... I will keep them as they.... give them character I hope... all in all I only lost one tool in this whole thing and it was the very small pear shader that I tested the 8" wire wheel on and the wheel tool the tooling pattern off the head.... I smoothed it out and buffed it to a shine so i can use it as a smooth pear shader instead of a patterned one... I will get pix as soon as I remember to get the camera back from the wife..... Now to start another thread asking for pix of tool boards... I have over 400 tools and need ideas on how to make tool caddies to hold em all in.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BevJones Report post Posted December 10, 2007 My brother told me coca cola will remove rust off chrome. He uses that on cars. I wonder if the cream of tarter would have gotten to all the rust uner the plating. Bev Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodiak Report post Posted December 10, 2007 I found a non toxic chemical I have used for old gun parts and gunsmithing tools. It's called Evapo Rust. Put some in a pan. drop the tools in and wait a day. It takes all the rust off and also adds a coating to boot. You can keep reusing the same stuff until it stops working. I have used it on old tools, old gun parts, old reloading dies, and it works great. Last time I checked, the Auto Zone was supposed to start carrying it. I get mine from a place called The Rust Store! Jim Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
