From: John Seidts (jseidts@astory.com)
Date: Sun Jun 27 2004 - 15:59:23 PDT
> How do we restore the steel (rusty) data plate without destroying it? It
> has raised letters, not stamped. Soak in vinegar? Some other chemical?
> Which paint dealer offers a mailable paper color chart so that we can
match
> the O/D that's on it?
I considered the process I am about to describe part of urban legends until
I did it, several times, with great success. Go to your kitchen cabinet,
and if you don't have any shoo-fly pie, secret barbecue sauce, or rat-trap
baiting to make or do, take out the molasses. Mix it 1 part in 10 parts
water to a volume that will completely cover your object. Place the object
into the mixture, find a place that the rats, kids, and sensitive-nosed
spouse won't find it, (in winter time, where it won't freeze- 50 degrees F
seems to be an all around good temperature), and wait 6-8 weeks.
The Iron Oxide will be converted to (mostly) Iron Phosphate, from the mild
phosphoric acid located in the molasses. You are basically parkerizing the
part. When you take it out, it will immediately form some rust on the
surface. In my experience, this hasn't seemed to harm the base metal, and
is just a side effect of the ongoing chemical reaction being exposed to the
oxygen rich air, and can be carefully brushed off.
Fair warning that this stuff will smell foul and feel real nasty when you
reach in to pull the parts out. But it will also be useable again. I have
used the same mixture for up to three runs of parts and it did the same job
on all three. I am about to try this on a larger scale with some WC51
series combat wheels that need some TLC with a 55 gallon drum and a 5 gallon
bucket of feed store molasses.
To restore the data plate facade, you will need a women's hot wax kit and a
dental pick, but that's another chapter once you get the rust off.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:33:26 PDT