Derust with vinegar

It's not the most powerfull, but it's one of the most benign, and disposal isn't a problem.

When I've got rusty parts or hardware, I tend to toss them into a jug of vinegar and let them sit for about two days. Take them out, and the rust is laying in the bottom of the jug. Rinse and use the parts.

There certainly are other methods, but of the many I've tried over the years, I keep coming back to vinegar, over and over again. It just works, and it's cheap.

My wife will laugh her ass off if she sees me doing this. I tease her because she uses vinegar to clean everything.

a 50-50 mixture of vinegar and water is a GREAT window cleaner … for all intents and purposes it's streak free … and cleans very well

I find a small jar of vinegar particularly helpful for old hardware or tools that have rusted. It's been a while since I have used it, but I agree...if you're not in a hurry and appreciate the harmless disposal...it's a great choice. Cheap, and they sell it at the grocery store!

It also prevents spotting on glass AKA washing machine rinse aid.

In reply to foxtrapper:

I've used this method before for small parts and it works GREAT. Plain old white vinegar from the cheapest grocery store you can find is perfect. The only downside to the whole process is it's STINKY.

You can find citric acid in the canning section of Home Depot, and probably your grocery store, as a white crystalline powder. It fiercely removes rust. I am not sure that it is benign as far as the underlying steel or cast iron. Same idea as vinegar, but maybe even beefier. I have heard vinegar is good for removing mill scale from steel, as well.

Can you use it to free rusted bolts?

Vinegar, is there anything it can't do?

Funny, I was going to ask what the recommended salt to vinegar ratio was for a derusting dip, then I found this thread.

I guess the chorides in salt REALLY make the stuff work, way better than vinegar alone.

So is there a recommended salt to vinegar ratio?

From what I've read, basically a saturated solution, to the point where it's okay if there is undissolved salt in the bottom. And that the chemical reaction produces loose hydrogen, so really should not do it indoors. It also produces hydrochloric acid (part of how it works) so don't do it indoors near anything you don't want to get rusty.

Smurfing around also brought up an interesting thing that I'm going to try today - ketchup apparently works great for things you can't immerse. In hindsight, it is fruit acids, and vinegar, and salt.

Muriatic acid ("Pool Acid", HCL) is faster, nastier to have around (do not breathe the fumes!), and a whole lot more dangerous! I've been using vinegar for a couple of years after getting tired of the fumes from the muriatic acid rusting anything steel that they land on.

Overnight in vinegar will also remove any plating on parts that you need to weld to/on. It also works well for cleaning fuse blocks with corroded terminals.

Something not mentioned, unless you're in a really dry clime parts fresh out of the rinse will flash rust. I blow them dry with compressed air immediately after rinsing.

Last spring I experimented with using vinegar and or baking soda. Both worked. A very heavy concentration of baking soda was best for some heavily rusted old tools. I had to leave them for up to two days to get it all though.

Mmmmmm salt and vinegar potato chips

I have heard that Orthophosphoric acid can also work, with advantage that post-cleaning, it does not flash-rust. Bodyshops use a commercial version, Ospho for rust prevention. Good news is you can buy in bulk from Tractor Supply, etc, as it's also used on dairy farms to clean and sterilize. (NFI, etc.)

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/dairyland-milkstone-remover--acid-rinse?cm_vc=-10005 http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&catalogId=10051&storeId=10151&productId=10657&langId=-1&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&categoryId=&parent_category_rn=&top_category=&urlLangId=&cm_vc=-10005

Vinegar is also great for removing lime scale if you have hard water. When trying to remove it, I start with vinegar, then move up to CLR, and then Rust Away if it's really tough.

I learn more stuff on this site.

When I was lettering lots of winged sprint cars, I tried lots of different ideas to make sign paint stick to bare aluminum. A vinegar wash worked about the best of any. Usually, I would use wax n grease remover, then vinegar, then some rubbing alcohol, then more vinegar. The combo took out most any impurities, and left a decent shine.

I always flush radiators with vinegar if it has any aluminum parts. I've let them sit for several days (in non running applications) then just flush with water.

If it's an aluminum free system and really corroded I dose CLR for an hour or so. No more or it will do more than clean. Then neutralize with baking soda water. Just a jag. Flush and go on.

Always use distilled non mineral added water to flush or fill. Those garden hose kits just put your water deposits back in the system especially if your town has cast iron in the system or hasn't flushed their lines in a while.

I haven't had a problem with using hydrochloric in cooling systems, even with aluminum radiators/heater cores/cylinder heads. The only trick is that the acid adds a lot of heat so you can't run the engine for very long. What it ends up being is removing the thermostat, putting in acid and water, run until it gets hot, drain the system, run the engine full-loss with the garden hose in the radiator and the upper hose dumping to ground. Sometimes you have to do it two or three times. Then baking soda/water rinse AFTER the system is already well rinsed with water, then flush out again, then coolant as per normal practice.

The first time I did it was on an Escort that had such a horrible cooling system that the water pump impeller and backing plate had corroded away. I found a sliver of backing plate buried in sludge in the back of the block's water jacket. All of the core plugs were ready to go if not already only sealed by the thick paste of sludge everywhere. Even after manually picking gunk out of the block, flushing the heater core manually, and rebuilding the cylinder head, it kept puking pea soup from the cooling system. Took a lot of flushing before it came out clean.

Sorry to bring back an old post but I had to add some pics. I heard vinegar worked great and tried it 5 or 6 years ago on a crusty turbo flange. Worked a lot better than I expected. Since then I always keep at least one gallon on hand.

Mmmm, crusty. About 24 hours later, no rust! I didn't scrub or wire brush the part, just wiped it down with a shop rag to clean off the vinegar. All the rust was sitting in the bottom of the container (wish I grabbed a shot of that). The red that looks like rust, the metal is actually sort off stained. This side had the worst rust and the metal has some pitting but it's all rust free. After taking the pics I soaked the part with penetrating oil a couple times and then it sat on a shelf for about a year. I think I soaked it once more at some point but in that time the part never started rusting again.

Vinegar is also great to for attracting fruit flies. When they land in it, they are not bothering you anymore.

I used vinegar to refurbish the fuel sending unit in the FX16.

It's alittle cold, but I think I'll pull my canoe out.

mrwillie wrote: It's alittle cold, but I think I'll pull my canoe out.

Isn't calling a generic product like vinegar a canoe a bit of a reach?

Just to add to the mix...I tried derusting with vinegar for the first time on an old cam gear and it worked beautifully.