Thread: Rust removal

Common white vinegar will dissolve rust as well, just keep an eye on it while it does, and don't leave it in more than 30 minutes at at time.

Hey There

So I was wondering if anybody had used EDTA to dissolve rust? I know citric acid works by the process of chelation, EDTA is super powerful at this. After reading this post I immediately went to eBay and bought some EDTA lol.

Thanks

Carl - SRH

Originally Posted by Eekspa

Common white vinegar will dissolve rust as well, just keep an eye on it while it does, and don't leave it in more than 30 minutes at at time.

I keep hearing that warning, but I've never seen any evidence to back it up. On separate occasions I've experimented with white vinegar on rusted cast iron pans, steel nails, and an old SR. I have left and checked on these materials in the vinegar for 10+ hours--in the case of the steel nails, I left them in there for 5 days-- and found that the vinegar did not harm the material. The vinegar loosened up the rust and made it easier to scrub it off. The SR got a patina on it, which I was able to easily scrub off.

Evaprrust works well and quickly. Posted a thread on here a couple of months ago with photos, Search Evaprorust. You can reuse the same solution over and over again. A good value, over night is usuallly enough time to remove all rust. I put a couple of blades in a enpty 12 oz water bottel.