# In The Man Cupboard



## Round in circles (May 28, 2016)

I spent most of yesterday & the day before working my way through my must do list , rather than the to do list .
as a result I've made a simple electrolytic de -rustinmg device out of an old fashioned 12 volt batter charger , a 301 litre plastic food barrel cut in half some scrap iron bars ( Anodes ) a few " Dieseldo Onedayz..... IE  " 3 inch long 40 mm gripping jaw... big crocodile 12 volt vehicle starting  slave lead terminal clamps and the cable off the clamps for connections . Plus a cup full of plain old fashioned washing soda to make the electrolyte & an egg cup of washing powder all dissolved in a few cups of hot water before adding the solution to 24 gallons of tap water to help break down any grease based grime on the parts being de-rusted ..

 I must say it is working well a 1930's cast iron body /sole plate wood plane has come out like new this afternoon after being in for almost 24 hrs yesterday and another 15 hrs today .  Yesterday I noticed an area that had hardly been touched , scraped it & found it was thick with dust & oil/grease gunge  . So ( last night ) after looking at it , I used a stiff bristled nylon brush to agitate the muck on the area ,before putting it back in the tank .  
This afternoon it's as clean as a whistle . I'm leaving it in the tank till tomorrow , when I'll  have a bit more time to play .  For I'll hot water wash& rinse it off , then put it in the airing cupboard,  to dry fairly rust free for a few hours before giving it a spray with a silicone based lubricant  to seal it from the air .

 I've also been spending a lot of time learning how to turn a 30 mm free cutting black steel bar x 23 inches long between centers.  I don't yet have a moving steady or a fixed one that I can set up to the right height , as a result it chattered and screeched like a troop of monkeys . I spent a couple of hours  resharpening the cutter , setting and constantly checking the tip height , used various speeds till I came to the conclusion that I needed " TEA ". 
TEA .. Think Evaluate Act 

I then set the gearing up to the smallest feed possible  dropped the cutting speed as low as you can go then put in the back gear reduction. giving am RPM of around 60 turns.

 Setting things up to cut to 1 thou on each pass towards the head stock ,it takes a bit of a scrape off in the reverse direction without any adjustment , using the reverse and forward gear box sent the carriage back & forth very slowly across the work piece .( must adjust the carriage gibs  at the back of  & under the rear carriage mounting . )
 It worked well , albeit a lot slower than a French Snail on strike . there was no chatter , no screeching.and no harmonic generated  scalloped like shave  patterns on the bar .  I must say it took me a while to use TEA and work out what was happening . Result a reasonable turned bar with both ends ( turned at the tail stock for ease of working ) the same dimensions 

Now I have the axle , I am to make two large and two smaller solid 44 mm wide Delrin plastic wheels ,  then do some wood work to set the wheels up ,  one small centrally at the back  , the two large ones in the middle almost as wide apart as the axle is long  , the other small one central at the front like the rear one.

What's this strange beasties for ?
 Moving heavy machinery  out of a building , taking it 20 yards into another part then moving nine cast iron based 22" long work piece wood working lathes the same way & the to the same place . It will be narrow enough to go through all the three doors there and to allow it to turn on itself to negotiate a couple of tight right angle turns too .
 the big wheels are the main mot9oion wheels the smaller ones at the back and front are to allow it to tip a little with out mishap to help us negotiate a couple of changes in walkway heights and a four inch high foot way kerbstone edge  .

 Piccies to follow .... If I can find where I left my camera


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## malmac (Mar 19, 2017)

2016 has gone and 2017 is well on it's way - no photos?

A shame as your work sounds interesting.

Mal


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## LucknowKen (Mar 19, 2017)

Round in circles said:


> I spent most of yesterday & the day before working my way through my must do list , rather than the to do list .
> as a result I've made a simple electrolytic de -rusting device out of an old fashioned 12 volt batter charger , a 301


Making a simple electrolytic de -rusting device was at the top of my must do list. I hope to have the good results you described. Is 1 cup of washing soda per 100 liters of water roughly correct? 
lk


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## Round in circles (Mar 19, 2017)

Try half to a third of a cup instead & stir it well to dissolve it.   Making the electrolyte too ( I think ) conductive  is not as effective as a weaker solution apparently .

When I set up my tank & switched it on it fizzed like mad for several hours then slowed down over night
My old fashioned 40 year old buzz box charger was running at 12volts 8 amps the first time I set it up with a 1/4 kilo of soda .
The next refreshed charge was 1/3 of a cup of soda & gave 12 volts at 3 amps tailing off to 12 volts 1 amp by the next morning .
 I used a stiff plastic hand brush to clean the parts & electrodes off & it rose back to nearly the 3 amp level again .
.
The biggest problem will be having to take out the scrap iron electrodes and wire brush them clean  every few days to keep the biggest active surface area of metal available . I power washed my Re-bars off after wire brushing them  . I also skimmed off the foamy crud that formed on the surface of the electrolyte .

Remember to turn off the battery charger to dismantle or set things up .. for  you don't want to accidentally short it out ....... do you ?

 Putting the plastic water tap  in as a drain point a couple of inches up from the bottom of the plastic tank has been a good idea .  Its allowed me to put a hose pipe on an adaptor , open the tap & drain out the cleaner water to put down our foul waste water drain system .

Then when it was impossible to drain off more water through the tap , I simply tipped the cut down drum on its side & drained off all the remaining rusty sludge into a plastic bucket  &  poured it on the nettle patch at the end of my garden . After rinsing it out & this time letting the rusty water go down the drain I refilled it as above & carried on de rusting.


The iron oxide produced on the cleaned part by the electrolytic action is black ... it stains hands & clothing very nicely . Pressure washing it off  when the parts are in a strong  secured wire basket  is a good way of getting the item/s clean of it .

Most of the stuff I've cleaned so far has come from the outside scrap bin area of a long ago closed down factory ..its been there for donkeys years rusting away slowly but surely . One particular was a forged stressed bar end lump of 4 x 4 x 6 " square free cutting steel  . I found it in a green water coloured puddle , it was so thick in rust I had to knock a lot of it off with a hammer , once it had dried off .  That's when I found out just how effective my cleaner was & how the iron oxide stained things.  It took several clean off's & electrode cleans to get the slug reasonably free of rust & ready for turning up on my lathe .


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## LucknowKen (Mar 26, 2017)

Hey David: Thanks for the information. The weather here is finally warm enough that i can start the de-rusting of  a South Bend 9.
I have to use a full barrel in order to fit the legs and chip pan into the process.
I will try your recipe for the electrolyte.
lk


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