I pick up a lot of random steel at the scrap yard for various projects dirt cheap. I find all kinds of rusty shit like tools such as hammers, wrenches, ax's, shears, etc, steel for welding, and all sorts of various random shit, some of it EXTREMELY rusty. last year I did a lot of sanding and grinding to remove rust, but I hate that shit, and have been wanting to try my hand at reverse electrolosis . First of all, this is a stupid easy process and its dirt cheap. you can buy everything you need to do it for under $30 bucks, and that includes the battery charger, just snag a old used one from a garage sale or pawn shop.

You need....

1. a plastic container.
2. washing soda, available on the laundry detergent isle at Walmart for about $2.00
3. a few feet of copper wire
4. 4 pieces of steel rod / rebar
5. some steel wire.
6. a battery charger. note, you need to get a older battery charger, the newer ones with processors, sensors etc wont work. you need a cheap old school one that just sends out a charge and wont stop until you turn it off. all the never ones will auto shutoff trying to do this.

I wont get into how to hook this up, its super simple and youtube is full of how to videos. however, the positive goes into the metal rods, and negative goes into the steel wire holding your rusty part.

heres my cheap creation I made to see if it would work. ( planning to build a bigger one in a big plastic tub and doing a lot of this shit in the near future )

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I have about a dozen super rusty horse shoes I wanted to clean up to make a throwing horseshoe set up that was largely tetnus free, and I didn't want to have to sand this crap.

before and after pics. all I did was put the horse shoes in the solution, turn it on for a few hours, then remove them and scrub them with a nylon brush and wash them off. super, easy. also this is nice because it removes all the rust even in places you cant get to easily, holes, bolt holes, blind spots etc. you can even use a metal basket and fill it with small parts and do a lot of stuff at once. its a super work saver and it does a amazing job.

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As a bonus you get a pseudo-phosphate conversion surface that is somewhat corrosion resistant, for a little while anyway.  I use a phosphoric acid solution to descale HRS, it will also remove surface rust. No current required with that solution, it would probably work faster if I wired it up though.

Cool!

Tried out this method for fun

Im going to get a big plastic tub today as well as look for a old beater charger that will work well for this.

I saw on some auto board where a guy built a huge tank and used a welder for the power supply and derusted a a whole frame.

I picked up a battery charger that I thought would work last week, as its a older model, but apparently not old enough. it works on jump start @ 50 amps, and iv used it like that for a few hours, but im trying to find a older one. id rather run at 2 amps maybe 10 tops.

Old computer power supply should do that no problem.  Even have a choice of 12V and 5V.  For 2A@12V you could find an old wall wart for a printer, modem, etc form the thrift store for next to nothing?  Or a 12V DC "desktop" power supply all the HAM and CB guys use?

I never considered using one of those, thanks for the idea !

If you want to get fancy with a PC Power Supply:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Bench-Power-supply/

I just finished building my rust removal tank, I bought a tub from Walmart, and used scrap metal I had laying around, even still It turned out pretty well I think.

My main goals here was to have a way to clean a lot of small stuff / a lot of stuff at once, and to have it secure, so my stupid assed cat wont fall into it. I just started testing it, I think it will work ok like this, but I might need to add some more wire connections to get better grounding for it to work. I saw some alligator clips at Walmart the other day, figure I could make up a bunch of short wires with gator clips on each end for quick easy connections.

I think its going to work as it is though.

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Nice setup, I used under bed storage containers from walmart so you could see through the plastic and they are long but not too deep.  I also used copper pipe for my cross bars later and I had an old 200 milliamp charger.

I have an old A/C Delco garage one on wheels that goes from 2 amps to several hundred amps for starting, would something like that work. It uses a big rheostat I think.

My new charger is old, its got 200amp capability.  I like your clamp setup, I was considering that myself.

Does the copper wire cause issues in the solution ? I thought you had to use steel wire in the solution.

Should work fine.

Well 200 amps would pull rust fast and cause embrittlement in the what you are de-rusting, I keep mine in the milliamp range to keep from having the embrittlement happen.  You can see the bubbles in mine and it worked well. Those barrels had a slight surface rust and sand blasting would have taken for ever.  This was a lot faster and it was some what set it and for get it. I don't think the copper caused any issues.  I used clips I got at the dollar store or someplace.  I did file a small bit so the clips where engaging bare metal.

Keep in mind your Iron displace metal has to be significantly more in volume then what you are trying to de-rust, notice the large iron plates in my solution.

If true I REALLY need to add more mass to mine. I'll stack 50lbs of stuff in mine, it will eventually remove the rust but takes several days.

That’s what I did when I refinished an old Stanley 607 Bedrock plane.  The jappaning was mostly gone, so I could care less about keeping the original finish.  Even though it was an early round sides model, it’s a user, not a collectors plane,
The reverse electrolysis took off most of the jappaning and all of the rust.   I ended up grit blasting to clean up the remaining jappaning paint.

I used a piece of angle iron for the anode, and borax for the electrolyte, with an old battery charger.  It does eat up the alligator terminals.

If you want even easier, just toss it in a bucket of evaporust and walk away.

Wont the anodes get rusty / unusable eventually, due to rust buildup ?  Figured I could reverse the process onto scrap steel to keep my welded frame / permanent setup running long term. I really like my setup, and hate to have to scrap it. Thinking of welding thick expanded metal between the rebar on mine for extra mass / surface area.

Most of the time, I just use a cup or bucket full of vinegar, takes rust off

I keep meaning to make one, but use a wire brush more than anything.  Buddy of mine built one big enough to do Dana 60's, he swears by them.

i scored at the scrap yard today. paid $50 bucks for everything pictured. not pictured are two big files, another big chisel, and two small galvanized buckets i got the woman for planting flowers in.

craftsman atv lift.
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two vices for my work bench. ( this brings my total to 5 now. )
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70lbs of welding rods.  i tossed them in the oven for a little bit and they are GTG. i refilled my empty 10lb hobart rod boxes, and sealed the two metal containers with plastic.
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big set of cable cutters
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set of big chisels
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cast iron bench parts
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toolbox with various tools.  be great addition to my barn toolbox.
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a trailer axle. planning to build a hunting trailer with this.
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stainless bolt tray
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Nice score, especially on the vises, axle, and cable cutters.

i actually bought that exact same clear tub, but later bought my deeper black tub, so it could fit larger objects. mine works pretty well, im just trying to tweak it right now. i was hoping i could just dump rusty objects into the metal basket and not have to run a wire to each and every object, but im not sure its going to work. im also not sure i can get away with doing 50lbs of metal at once.

i am considering getting " clamps" to attach to each object for a better connection than im getting currently just by wrapping wire around them.

I rebuilt my rust removal set up today. i took the rebar frame out and welded expanded metal across the bottom, and on all of the sides. that increased the surface area a HUGE amount. i also added long copper wires to the set up to wrap tightly around each metal item, i noticed a HUGE improvement in performance immediately. its really kicking ass now, im super impressed with it.  

Cool, but it's gonna be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time before that is as cheap as a bucket of water and washing soda.

iv been playing around with vinegar lately. it seems to work as well as anything. plus you dont have to dick with electricity, etc. i reccommend it.

I tried vinegar once on a rusty set of channel lock pliers that got rained on.  Soaked them a few days and they looked great.  Went to use them and they broke, crunching my knuckle when they did.  I no longer use vinegar to remove rust.

YMMV, IANAL, ETC

I got a gallon of ospho from Sherwin Williams.

Muriatic Acid works quick.

You're slowly getting to the correct solution. EvapoRust. Seriously. It's a chelating agent, not an acid, so it does nothing to the base metal like vinegar or other acids will. Works faster than vinegar, and is food safe. Buy a bucket off of Amazon and use it over and over and over(it will eventually lose strength but I've used mine a ton with no noticeable effect yet). Or just buy a small container from Harbor Freight and use an old jar for small parts to test. Stuff is freakin' magic, won't hurt good paint or chrome. Just rust removal and a protective coating afterwards with no effort whatsoever. Vinegar treated parts are gonna re-rust quick. I've been using a set of formerly rusted needle nose pliers in the garage for a year with no new rust.

Even comes in a gel now to wipe on big parts, haven't tried that yet though. Looks like snot.

ETA:  D'oh!  I didn't read far enough in this thread to see that p.c. power supply had been suggested.

A computer power supply from an old p.c. is also a cheap alternative.  They deliver 12 volts and 5 volts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)#Power_rating

Every geek friend probably has a few old desktop computers laying around.

Also, laptop power supplies work.  I use an old Dell laptop power supply to run a charger for my collection of lithium batteries. It's rated at 90 watts.  Only downside is the output is 19 volts and my charger refuses to run with an input over 18 volts.  I had to put a DC to DC converter to knock the input voltage down to 12 volts.

I bought A harness from Amazon, it plugs into the power supply and has a switch. Otherwise you have to jump a couple wires to turn it on

Electrolysis is great BUT, do it outside or with positive ventilation to avoid breathing poisonous fumes.

ESPECIALLY when derusting chrome or stainless metals. Wear gloves and in the case of certain metals, take care where you dispose of your waste water.

Stainless anodes will produce extremely toxic chromium 6.

Be safe and do your research.

Haha!  The thread about the Panzerschreck, the WWII German anti-tank 2nd generation bazooka https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Panzerschreck-rockets-/5-2264377/
led to a youtube video of a couple of collectors cleaning up an old battlefield find using, you guessed it, electrolysis!

About two minutes in,  they started bubbling away at this rusted hulk that was hardly even recognizable and ended up with a freshly painted and functioning anti-tank weapon.

^THAT^

Am I thinking that DC current will also likely be putting out some Hydrogen and Oxygen?

Used to use a CB radio power supply to do that, and collected the gas. Makes the water jump out of the container violently when a spark lights it off

oh, I do miss the days of youth and ignorance

More recently used electrolosis to remove a lot of crud from the bore of a mutt pedigreed Mosin rifle.   It still shoots mediocre, but I feel better!