Thread: Electrolysis

Finally got everything together and the first razor went in today. So here's what I'm using.

1) 6A SEC P/S
(normally use this to help my RC Battery charger charge more than 6 cells)

2) Plain Steel sheet metal from Home Depot.

This was cut and made into a little box as can be seen, all sides are electrically connected by sheet metal that was cut and bent into 90 degree angles at the sides and bolted together with plain steel bolts. This is being used as the anode, positive side during the process. Note here that if you use stainless steel you'll end up with a toxic solution after the process that is really poisonous and would have to be taken to a hazmat center or something to be disposed of. Also plated steel, zinc plated or galvanized should be avoided, need just some plain steel.

3) 100% Sodium Carbonate

This is used in the water to make an alkaline solution. Sodium Hydroxide could also be used. Both of these have a lot of different names, I found the sodium carbonate at a pool & spa supply shop used as a pH increaser for pools.

4) The little white box

This is used to limit the current being put out from my power supply. It's just a switch, with a fuse and an ammeter on the positive side followed by a potentiometer 0-2.2k ohms and some I/O connections to connect to the power supply and the razor and sheet metal. This allows me to see the amount of current during the process and adjust it via the potentiometer, I started the process with the pot turned all of the way up - 2.2k ohms - and then turned it down to desired current level. I'm using about 2mA per square centimeter, something like that.

5) Connections.

These were all home-made, I bought a bunch of alligator clips and some wire at home-depot and made the long cables so the power supply could be inside and bucket outside. I'm in an apartment and don't exactly have a garage to do this in. If doing this the positive connection goes to the sheet metal and negative connection to whatever you want to remove rust from, in this case the razor.

6) The razor is a rusted Genco that is in a pretty poor state right now.


Ok so everything is in and this is going, hit a little snag about 3 minutes in as a filter capacitor in my power supply decided to blow it's guts all over the place. Nevertheless the P/S is still working, so for safety I stopped it and moved the whole bit onto my Lanai (balcony). It's stamped made in Hong Kong ... never had a problem with it charging my batteries before duno maybe the low current caused a problem. Then again I haven't used this thing in over a year ... well it's still going. Will update when I take the razor out in a day or so.