I saw people discussing boiling and this electro method. I was wondering what it did to the finish of magazines. Has anyone tried these methods?
A guy named Andy posted this in 2006 on another forum:
A really good way to pull off rust is:
5 gal. plastic bucket of water with 1 tablespoon of baking soda.
A piece of steel sheet metal or better yet a piece of stainless sheet.
Battery charger either automotive or one you steal from your kids toys, 9 or 12volt.
A length of heavy wire and a 2x2 long enough to go across the top of the bucket.
Clamp the piece of sheet steel to the side of the plastic bucket. I at first used banding taken from engine block skids but found they did not last long and now use a strip taken fron old stainless stove pipe and it looks like it will last forever. Suspend your rusty part with the heavy wire in the water. Looping the wire over your 2x2 to keep the rusty part off the bottom of the bucket. Hook the negative clamp to the wire suspending the part and the positive to the sacrificial steel sheet. Plug in the charger and in a few minutes you will observe very small bubbles coming off your rusty part. The effect is somewhat directional so the rusty part will have to be turned around to face the positive sheet after some hours.
I have used this for 2 sets of lathe change gears, a set of index plates, machine parts, lathe tool holders, etc. After perhaps 24hrs. parts will have a thin dull black residue which comes right off in hot water with your thumb or a rag. Only problem I've had was having rust pulled out from under the casehardening on some screews for my Hendy lathe.
This process I was told is what the Smithsonian uses. I have do idea what is really happening in the bucket and when I ask my smart kids all I get is a dull stare but it really does work well. Try it-you will like it.
Supposedly boiling hardens the rust? Hopefully someone here has experience with these methods.