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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:47 pm
by mickyd
tom_k/mo wrote:Mike, very interesting. Looking forward to your "After" photos of the caster assys. Can you expound a little on the electrolysis process? You mentioned Washing Soda, is that TSP or something else? Any other details would be appreciated.
Chemically, washing soda (sodium carbonate) is identical to baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) except wahing soda has an extra H20 molocule and an exta CO2 (carbon dioxide) molocule. This is why you can easily make your own washing soda by taking regular baking soda and cooking it at 300 dgree F for an hour. The baking soda will release the water and carbon dioxide molocule into the air and your left with washing soda.

Washing soda was impossible to find here in San Diego so I make my own with baking soda and my oven.

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:21 pm
by mickyd
dicksterp wrote:A lot of guys over on http://www.owwm.org/ use this method to restore old iron. There they call it spooging. http://www.yankeetoys.org/lee/electrolysis.htm has a nice write up and lots of photos on it. You can just leave the solution in the container and cover it until the next time you feel the urge to remove rust.
Good link you provided to yankeetoys. I haven't seen that one before. You'll notice on thier page, about 3/4 of the way down, that they show a large solution filled vessel for cleaning an entire lathe bed. This is the identical process I am using to derust my bench tubes. See it at, the fifth message down:

http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=3072

If all going well, I should be firing up the process tonight after work. If your lights dim at about 7:00 PST, you'll know why!! I am even going to try using 2 chargers just to see what it does. Hope it doesn't vaporize the tubes.

Bench tubes in electrolysis bath

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:01 pm
by mickyd
Completed the electrolysis on my bench tubes. Came out pretty good with no effort. Still have to polish them.

Update 6-14-09 Try to set up the tank so that it is off the ground like in this postso that you can siphon the liquid out. I had to use a pitcher here since the tank was on the basement floor.

In the container
[ATTACH]3404[/ATTACH]


Filled with "the broth"
[ATTACH]3405[/ATTACH]


After one hour. Notice the foam.
[ATTACH]3408[/ATTACH]

Out of the bath and rinsed off. Check out all the junk that is on the sacrificial sheet metal that pulls the rust off. Update 3-29-09 The cleaned up version can be seen later in this post.

Gotta run. Wife beckons. Going out to eat.


[ATTACH]3407[/ATTACH]

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:04 pm
by mickyd
Almost forgot......got the motor cover painted also. Hammered Silver. Pleased with the result. Learned a lot about getting the texture to come out right. I'll go into details later.

[ATTACH]3409[/ATTACH]

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:13 pm
by a1gutterman
mickyd wrote:Almost forgot......got the motor cover painted also. Hammered Silver. Pleased with the result. Learned a lot about getting the texture to come out right. I'll go into details later.

[ATTACH]3409[/ATTACH]
Nice looking finish!!!

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:16 pm
by a1gutterman
mickyd wrote:Completed the electrolysis on my bench tubes. Came out pretty good with no effort. Still have to polish them.

In the container
[ATTACH]3404[/ATTACH]


Filled with "the broth"
[ATTACH]3405[/ATTACH]


After one hour. Notice the foam.
[ATTACH]3408[/ATTACH]

Out of the bath and rinsed off. Check out all the junk that is on the sacrificial sheet metal that pulls the rust off.

Gotta run. Wife beckons. Going out to eat.
[ATTACH]3407[/ATTACH]
Looks good so far. How do you drain the liquid out of your box?

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:45 pm
by mickyd
a1gutterman wrote:Looks good so far. How do you drain the liquid out of your box?
All I did to take the liquid out of the box was use a pitcher and transfered it into my 15 gallon plastic storage buckets. As it got low, I tilted the box and used a cup.

The liquid is good forever. As the water evaporates, you just top it off with more water. You never have to add any more of the sodium carbonate (washing soda). I also use the solution to restore old cast iron pans that have all the carbon crud on them. It takes that stuff off too. Some people just put them in a fire to burn it off but that can warp or crack them. Electolysis just eats it up.

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:12 am
by mickyd
Got my belt cover painted tonight. Hammered Verde Green. Boy that paint is tricky to work with if your looking for the heavy texture appearance. There is a fine line between getting the texture right and the paint wanting to run. If it goes on too light, the hammered effect really doesn't show. Too heavy and it wants to run on the vertical surfaces. Right before I spray, I do a few practice passes on some scrap sheet metal to get the timing right.

[ATTACH]3436[/ATTACH]

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:10 am
by bucksaw
Nice job on the paint! Did you prime before you put the finish on? I'm rebuilding a second headstock currently and I think I'll attempt a more hammered look. I guess practice makes perfect!

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:30 am
by mickyd
I didn't use primer. When I had done a few practice sprays on a test piece with unprimed vs. primer (rustoleum white stop rust primer), the texture was noticably different and less pronounced with the primer. This photo shows the difference. On the left was primed, right was unprimed. This is one coat medium spray. These are side by side, sprayed at the same time and the same piece of sheet metal, so the only variable was the primer

[ATTACH]3437[/ATTACH]

I am not sure if not using priming will give me the paint durablitily over time and I was hoping someone would address this in my post "....to prime or not to prime" http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=3123 but I only got 1 response. I was hoping to get some replies that address long term durability. Oh well, worse case is I'll have to do it again at some point in the future.

When I get a little more time, I am going to experiment more with the primer on steel. Just when I get it figured out, I'll be done!!!! Don't ya hate it when that happens?

Before I do my aluminum parts, I am going to experiment with self-etching primer. I was told aluminum really needs primer to ensure a decent bond and since there is so much on the SS, I need to get it right the first time.

I'll keep you guys posted.