Rust removing with lemon juice

[David M Anderson]

I have seen this question quite often
What is the best way to remove rust..?.
Most often I use electrolysis on larger objects, but in the last couple years have been using lemon juice, with some great results.
You can pick up a quart at the dollar store, one gallon..four bucks...not bad.

Here is a pic of my electrolysis set up..

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Not to costly and can do a Stanley #8 bed and smaller with no problem.

Lemon juice set up.
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I have a few different methods,
Vinegar...find it too aggressive.

Lever cap etched by vinegar

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Molasses...to hard to get off..poor results. Sorry no pics, fingers where to sticky.

Here is a pic of a stainless steel diamond disc, cleaned by half submerging in lemon juice.
The rust staining of the disc was do to my improper cleaning of the disc after I was done grinding.
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I will add to this thread on a clean up of a Stanley 71 type2.
Evapo Rust, citric acid also work great..lemon juice is already mixed and is cheap.
Have also used 1 gallon to clean up five small hand planes, so it can be re-used.

[David M Anderson]

Here is a pic of a Stanley 71, needs to be cleaned up and knobs repaired.
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Now after a bath in lemon juice, 24 hours

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Clean up was just with hot soapy water.
Further clean up will be with a green scotch pad.

[David M Anderson]

Here it is after the clean up..

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Some good results...with very little money spent..and labor.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Wow, very impressive results!

[Jim Koepke]

David, Thanks for taking the time to share this.

I have used powdered citric acid and mix it up when needed.

My recollection is one member posted about using a powdered lemon juice product with similar results.

jtk

[george wilson]

Citric acid is good for cleaning brass.

[David Ragan]

Looks like I'll be going to lemon juice next time!

[Mark Stutz]

I'm a little unclear. Are you using lemon juice as the electrolyte solution for your electrolysis set up? or just soaking in the lemon juice?

[David M Anderson]

Mark, just dropping the parts in the lemon juice..fish them out with a telescoping pen magnet.
Hot water and dish soap is used to clean off the parts, have also used brake cleaner to clear the water off faster.
Here is a Seymour Smith & Son spokeshave I have done couple of years ago..

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Have done over fifty planes or there parts using this method..no joke.

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Hope this helps someone

[Judson Green]

I'll have to give this a try next time. About how long does the lemon juice last?

[David M Anderson]

I usually throw mine out after a month, just pour it out in the grass, safe and bio-degradable.
Lol..have greener grass in that area.

Have also d-rusted other tools...one time forgot a auger bit in the LJ for about a month.

Point is still sharp, no harmful effect.
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Some other parts;
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And cleaning with LJ and just brake cleaner and a towel.
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[Mel Miller]

Brake cleaner has solvents in it you don't want to breathe or get on your skin. A better way is to wash the lemon juice off with water, then dry with compressed air.

[David M Anderson]

Brake cleaner has solvents in it you don't want to breathe or get on your skin. A better way is to wash the lemon juice off with water, then dry with compressed air.

Good tip, proper safety equipment and steps should apply using any cleaning solutions.

Here is a pic of the end results, of rust removing.

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[Paul Phillis]

lemon juice is citric acid. same as orange and lime juice. All have citric acid of varying concentration.

[Hilton Ralphs]

Brake cleaner has solvents in it you don't want to breathe or get on your skin.

This reminds that brake fluid must be the most foul tasting liquid on the planet earth. I have an old '65 Land Rover so taste testing the pools of liquid under the vehicle is necessary at times.

I'm going to give the lemon juice/citric acid solution a go.

[David M Anderson]

Heads up on the use of any solutions used for rust removal.

This mourning was cleaning up the shop, and decided to dump my Lemon juice solution in the grass.
Must of missed a brace bit which was in the juice, was cleaning a bunch of them I got in a sale.

This surprised me, for I promote rust removing with lemon juice.

This is the brace bit before clean up
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And when I dumped the lemon juice, this is what was left.
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Wow....!
Was in the juice for about a month...:eek:

[Lonnie Gallaher]

David, the links do not work.

[David M Anderson]

Do they work on your side now..?
Thanks in advance if they do Lonnie..

[Andre Packwood]

Hello David,

I use citric acid in a slow cooker ("crock pot") as the heat speeds up the process a lot. However, I once forgot a Union 4 1/2 iron at the bottom and only fished it out after two hours. It was a butt welded iron were the lower half is hard steel and the top is of a softer steel (laminated iron usually have the lower part made of hard steel only halfway through the thickness). The hard steel was more affected than the softer metal; it definitely lost some thickness and developed an ugly, uneven, darker surface. While you couldn't differentiate the two metals before, now it stands out as an eye sore.

Yes, citric acid, be it from fruit or a commercial product, can be very potent at chewing up steel, as your experience proves.

[Allan Speers]

Just so folks understand -

Any acid, whether citric, the stuff in naval jelly, etc, is slightly destructive. The huge advantage of electrolysis is that it actually makes the micro-layer of "rust" (it has a specific name, but I forget it) hard again. This can be critical on something like a screw or threaded hole, or two pieces that have to mate tightly.

It should also be noted that some folks have reported less-than-stellar results with electrolysis. However, I have found that most of the time (when you can tell) these are the SAME folks who say "you don't need a fancy voltage generator, just use a car battery charger." - Which is a big mistake.
When set-up correctly, electrolysis is fantastic.

I like acids, too, for less critical items & when I'm in a hurry. One big advantage of phosphoric acid (especially, in my experience) naval jelly, is that it will parkerize a rusty tool. - Wherever there was light rust, you end up with that nice "black" surface which then will never again rust. From David's pics, it looks like citric acid also does this, to some extend. I find that surprising, but good to know. Still, there are chemicals in naval jelly that probably do this process better, since true parkerization (as used on firearms, etc) requires the presence of manganese, nitrates, chlorates, etc. I doubt those are in citric acid. - Someone should do a controlled test one of these days to compare the results of using various chemicals.

BTW- the best way to stop the acid from doing any further eating is to dunk or wash the piece in a solution of baking soda & water. This will neutralize any acid deep in the pores and tight spaces, within a few seconds.

[Mark Stutz]

Allan,
The next time you do an electolysis project I would love to see your set up. I've done a little bit with the battery charger set up and have to say I've been quite pleased with the results, but maybe I don't know what I'm missing!:D

[Hilton Ralphs]

It should also be noted that some folks have reported less-than-stellar results with electrolysis. However, I have found that most of the time (when you can tell) these are the SAME folks who say "you don't need a fancy voltage generator, just use a car battery charger." - Which is a big mistake.
When set-up correctly, electrolysis is fantastic.


Ok, I'll bite.

I don't understand the difference between my dumb battery charger supplying a constant 12v or a voltage generator supplying a constant 12v. I think I understand that a smart battery charger may not be the best.

Ideally I'd like an explanation if this is at all possible.

Thanks.