My trial run with Evaporust (R) rust dissolver.
I bought a gallon of Evaporust (R) at a swap meet recently to see how it
works. I filled a coffee can with some miscellaneous nuts, bolts, washers and
small metal parts and poured the Evaporust (R) to cover. Due to scheduling I
was
unable to retrieve and rinse the parts for 5 days although a quick peek
showed that after a day some parts were completely devoid of rust. For
reference I
took before and after pictures (
http://www.sltoa.org/members/massey/fastener/index.htm ). As you can see the
Evaporust (R) didn't touch paint, dirt,
plating or anything but the iron oxide on the parts. They didn't come out
shiny
or necessarily clean but the rust was removed except for areas where the rust
was extra heavy. You can see some fasteners still have some rust on them even
after a week's soak. A second soak may clear it up. A small circulation pump
may have prevented the problem.
Is it worth $20 a gallon? I dunno. Sandblasting will remove rust, too.
Along with paint and other embedded dirt. But sandblasting will also ruin a
very
smooth, honed or otherwise precision ground surface. Evaporust (R) will not.
If you have some precision machined parts with a little bit of surface rust
this will remove the rust without effecting the machined surface. Of course
if these machined parts have serious rust they probably ought to be replaced.
Evaporust (R) is organic and non-toxic and when it becomes fully laden and
stops working you can pour it down the drain. Or even spread it over your
garden to provide valuable iron nutrients for plant growth. The guy I bought
it
from said he poured some on his lawn to see what would happen. Nothing
happened.
So, as an alternative to sandblasting you can soak your parts in the
environmentally fiendly evaporust (R) to rid them of rust. Then soak them in
paint
stripper (a known carcinogen) to remove the paint.
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