miranthis Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 The acid bath (vinegar) works well for me for rust removal. Is it possible for it to be in the bath too long. I usually leave it submerged for a couple days, scrubbing it each night. The last plane I did came out pretty pitted and dull and every time I scrubbed it in the vinegar it had this thick black coating that I had to scrub off.....it is polishing up as I lap it, but it had a very rough texture to it on all the surfaces of all the metal parts. Can the vinegar bath hurt the metal? I always heard it just attacked the rust. Thanks! Jeff in KC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick A McQuay Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 Acid will pit the metal and can expose hidden structure.-- Rick M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjk Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 The longest I've soaked a plane in vinegar is about two hours. That was enough to bring back an eBay plane whose sole was pure rust. I'd go for sort times and removing the surface rust every 20 minutes or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilgaron Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 Vinegar will eventually destroy the iron, it is intentionally done with steel wool to make an iron acetate solution to ebonize wood. For long term baths I'd use Evaporust. It won't hurt anything. As far as other acids I've heard good things about lemon juice but not tried it. I'm not sure if it is gentler than vinegar or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Bridges Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 I use citrus acid on the planes I have re-done. It worked great and it did not leave a film. It only took a few hours. I used a purple scrub. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 I never soak in vinegar longer than 12 hours. Honestly it rarely takes that long to loosen the rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 miranthis it sounds like this was perhaps a case where the metal had gotten badly corroded and the acid has simply removed all the oxidized material. White Vinegar 2.4 pH - Lemon 2.0 pH, therefore Lemons should be more aggressive than Vinegar.Evapo-Rust http://www.evapo-rust.com.au/How It Works.html witchcraft! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 Evaporust is the best. I've used it on a lot of iron with no damage to the iron after days and days of soaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 I have to agree on the Evapo rust... The only thing there is sometimes there's a fair bit of cleaning to do after, but it does an amazing job on the rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted November 11, 2015 Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 If you use evaporust, get some scotchbrite, and the black stuff wipes right off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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