Removing rust and scale

Be very, very careful with phosphoric acid, it is dangerous with a capital D, if you get it on your skin it can leach into your bones and its bye bye.

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Good advice 600Dodge.

600 Dodge, think you maybe thinking of hydroflouric acid. That heads to the bones and you need a license to purchase and handle it..
Any acid can be dangerous, read all the MSDS and have the right neutralizing agent handy
Cheers Steve

Jim
Steel, spring steel or iron is OK with this system but NEVER aluminum or alloys, I tried it and it will eat the alloy.
Mike

Right you are Blackduck, I just had a look at the msds sheets and hyrofluric is the nasty one, phosphoric is relatively nice.

I think it is a good warning though never treat any acids or unknowns without caution
Thanks for all the advise
I hope to get a large plastic drum today
Raining here alot over the weekend so will see what happens
Jim

A few pics from today,
i had all the PPE and was outdoors
I started with a mix of 5 parts water to 1 part acid, i then added a little more acid as i had the bucket full of rusted metal parts
The bubbles were visible from the rust on the metal surface
Some parts i had that have been sitting for a long time waiting treatment
Jim

As i was trying to see the process in action, and learn a bit
i dipped a small part part way and took photos every hour
The only mistake i may have made was i washed the parts in the parts washer to remove any dirt and grease. I probably should have de greased them to remove the diesel residue first.


After 1 hour


2 Hours


3 Hours


4 Hours



Jim

Jim have you skipped the first step, the caustic and battery charger part? It's that first step that does all the work and gets rid of the rust/paint/grease etc and the phosphoric is really just to neutralise the caustic and put a coating on the parts to prevent rust etc. I doubt whether the phosphoric alone will do the job.
Mike

Any body tried vinegar ??

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