Washing Soda In Electrolyte Bath-removal Of Paint And Grease?

Earl said:
Some second hand information - i.e. I have not tried this myself .... I have heard that if you use carbon rods instead of iron/steel, you will not get the brown crud that ends up on the top of the water.
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Graphite rules.
Once you go black, you'll never go back. ;-)

No brown sludge and no stopping to clean off or replace crusty anodes since they stay 100% free of any accumulation.
They also last a long time.
About the only downside is that they leave a black film that's just a little worse than you get with iron or steel anodes, but it comes off pretty easily with some Scotchbrite and water.

A couple 1 x 10" graphite rods or 2 x 1 x 10 plates will do a dozen vises.
If you search eBay for graphite plate / rod you'll find plenty of them and they're pretty cheap.
 
I pulled a few parts out of the tank today and pressure washed them off. Here is a link to a video of washing them with a hose after pulling them from the dip. You can see how the paint came off in sheets.
https://www.facebook.com/jim.joyce.39/videos/984812134862642/?l=64922752618798927

BTW this tank has been in constant use for 2 months.


And here a few pics of the parts after pressure washing them.
aa covers.jpg after pressure wash 2.jpg after pressure wash.jpg after pressure.jpg taper attachment.jpg aa covers.jpg
 
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Hi ALL,
Thanks for all your input, I will try a couple of the suggestions and will post some pics in the near future of the what I have done so far(not to much !)
 
Thoro said:
I have had great success with an electrolysis setup removing paint, grease and grime. I have noticed that some paints tend to not want to release as well as others, but my 1942 heavy 10, the paint would come off in sheets when I restored it. It's not the be all end all for paint removal, nor is it elbow grease free, but it sure makes a big dents in the removal process. I found that what paint was still clinging on after a 24 hour soak would mostly wire brush off in the wash tub during the rinsing step.

Something else to note. A friend of mine swears by washing soda dissolved in water with no electricity to clean parts and remove paint. I have not tried it, as I usually want the rust removing factor too, but it may be worth a try. He says just soak the parts in the solution. Can't hurt I guess, if not, ZAP it!

Hi Thoro,
I will try the washing soda in water to see how it works............
Thanks......Razinman
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I took the bed of my Heavy 10 to the local diesel truck machine shop. They put it in their cleaning tank and it came out spotless and paint free even in the X braces. No other place local had a tank big enough.
 
Interesting solution, up to now I'm doing ok with Citristrip, I will consider it when I get to the BIG PARTS.

Thanks
 
I had to use Citristrip on the motor housing and it did not do nearly as well as the electrolysis. When I did my bed I put one end in and then turned it end for end in the tank, it did very well.
 
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I use a piece of sheet metal lining the inside of a bucket, Lots of surface area stripped my SB 9 with it hardly any scrubbing. I use a 25 amp forklift battery charger water gets warm pretty quickly and the paint comes off in sheets.
 
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