Rust Arrestor

[weirdjim]

I'm not telling you to use this on your aircraft, but if you have a tool that has seen some abuse (like these longnose that fell out of my pocket into the rose garden and stayed there all winter) then here is a good rust remover.

One third acetone, one third automatic transmission fluid, and one third Marvel Oil. Soak the tool for an hour or for a week depending on the depth of the rust, then use a paint removing "brillo pad" type (green nylon) scrubbing pad to take off the softened rust.

Here are before and afters.



The Marvel oil is only there to lubricate the mechanism and keep it from rusting again (and the acetone makes sure that the lube gets into the tiny crevices). The actual rust softener is the ATF.

Jim

 

[steingar]

Cheaper to get a new tool, isn't it?

 

[MSPAviator]

I use a product called Evaporust, easy to handle, non-toxic liquid. Works well on car and gun parts. It will remove blued finish though.

 

[weirdjim]

Cheaper to get a new tool, isn't it?

For cheap Chinese longnose, probably. If I had dropped a Greenlee chassis punch or carbide countersink bit, probably not.

I generally don't try unknown experiments on the expensive stuff until I see if the cheap tool fix works or not.

Jim

 

[ebykowsky]

For cheap Chinese longnose, probably. If I had dropped a Greenlee chassis punch or carbide countersink bit, probably not.

I generally don't try unknown experiments on the expensive stuff until I see if the cheap tool fix works or not.

Jim

Out of curiosity, why would a top-of-the-line tool like that not be stainless steel? I'd imagine there's some structural reason?

 

[Henning]

Best rust remover is phosphoric acid, easily found under the brand name Ospho or in Cocacola. Phosphoric acid converts iron oxide to magnetite.

 

[weirdjim]

Best rust remover is phosphoric acid, easily found under the brand name Ospho or in Cocacola. Phosphoric acid converts iron oxide to magnetite.

According to the best chemical websites I could find, magnetite is just another version of rust, and phosphoric acid has no function in its formation.

HOWEVER, I also found that magnetite has a crystalline structure and a Mhos hardness of abut 6, which makes it darned near as hard as steel. That's not exactly what I want when I want to soften something to scrape it off.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Henning]

You don't scrape it off it dissolves, you lubricate (or coat with paint) and move on. The black that is left is thin, and a hit with bronze wool will polish it smooth.

This is standard stuff in the marine industry for dealing with steel and tools. Pliers rusty? Dip them in Ospho, wiggle, work and wipe clean, dunk in whatever oil, wiggle, work, and wipe clean (also keeps the joint working smoothly). I can hit them on a polishing wheel if I want, but usually not worth it. I buy all pretty good or better quality tools depending on budgets.

 

[1600vw]

Brake fluid works to remove rust. Drop your whatever in some Brake fluid. Let set for a few days. Pull out and wipe clean.

 

[weirdjim]

Out of curiosity, why would a top-of-the-line tool like that not be stainless steel? I'd imagine there's some structural reason?

I've been collecting tools for as long as I've been an A&P (and that's coming up on 50 years real hard) and as yet the only stainless steel tool I have is the body of a gasket scraper that uses Gillette Blue Blades as the working face.

Stainless makes a lousy tool material.

Jim

 

[Henning]

Out of curiosity, why would a top-of-the-line tool like that not be stainless steel? I'd imagine there's some structural reason?

No, stainless steels typically make poor tool steels.

 

[Dan Thomas]

No, stainless steels typically make poor tool steels.

Yup. Too soft, and hard to heat-treat to get any hardness or strength. Stainless in its many forms has its uses, but hand tools aren't one of them unless you're a surgeon.

Stainless is a fad right now. Stainless kitchen appliances. Stainless tool chests. All of that stuff is thin because stainless is expensive, and it dents easily. Stainless is iron with chromium (an expensive base metal) and some grades have nickel, another expensive metal.

If you're ever near Kokomo, Indiana, see the Elwood Hayes museum. He built the first commercially successful cars (some dispute over that) and went on to invent stainless and Stellite, a tungsten-iron-cobalt-chromium alloy used in turbine blades and such. The museum is his old house, with the dining room all set up, and there's a set of stellite cutlery and candlesticks that are amazingly heavy.

At the shop here we have some tungsten bucking bars that outperform the usual chilled steel bars since they're so heavy. Neat stuff.

Dan