Best DIY rust remover on the planet

[Eddyde]

True about the black residue. And true that it could be either a feature or a bug, depending on your particular desires.

I found that most of it washes off in fresh water, and the rest can be easily removed with a wire brush (brass or steel).

Black iron oxide or carbon, perhaps? It seems to occur more with alloys and not so much on softer steels. It also seems to have somewhat of a rust preventative quality.
Maybe someone who knows more about chemistry will happen along and chime in...

 

[Pevehouse]

The day has finally arrived.

This is --- hands down, by far and away --- the best, easiest, cleanest, cheapest DIY rust remover that I've ever tried. And I've tried just about everything from Coke to electrolosys. It works on the same principle as Evaporust, but costs about 1/10 the price.

I simply cannot over-emphasize how good this stuff works compared to anything else I've tried. Add this to the top of your to-do list.


I just mixed up about 4gal (to keep in a 5gal bucket) and have been de-rusting everything in my shop that looks at me the wrong way.

Recipe:

1L water
100g Citric acid (I used this)
40g Sodium carbonate (I used this) OR 63g Sodium bicarbonate OR 30g sodium hydroxide
Some dish soap to act as a surfactant




To get a good volume for a 5gal bucket, I weighed out the following (pardon the unit mix/match; I weighed the water on a bathroom scale and the other stuff on a kitchen scale set to grams)
29.3 lb H2O
1330g Citric acid
532g Sodium carbonate

Yes sir, sodium hydroxide does not **** around