Lazy way of cleaning part/bolts?

JAFO · 08-22-07, 06:48 PM

I used to buy vintage tools from a ol' farmer at First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. He resto'd the tools by soaking them in vinegar, and after the vinegar bath, he gave the tools a quick bath in baking soda and water to stop the acid of the vinegar. Works pretty good.

Trollhole · 07-08-09, 02:27 PM

Well it's been a long time and now I have 10 gallons of bolts to clean. Found a local company that will strip the metal in some sort of tank for about 80 dollars. I figure it's worth a try.

rockcrawler · 07-09-09, 10:40 AM

Caustic Soda will do it, but don't expect it to do it overnight, leave them in there for a couple of weeks. It will even get rid of the most stubborn hard carbon on steel engine parts. Save some bucks.

White vinegar once clean to remove plating if you want to do that.

davegonz · 07-10-09, 08:25 AM

Vinegar works really well. I've read that the brown stuff (Apple vinegar?) works better. I think it has a higher percentage of acetic acid.

rockcrawler · 07-10-09, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davegonz

Vinegar works really well. I've read that the brown stuff (Apple vinegar?) works better. I think it has a higher percentage of acetic acid.

Yes I think you are right on it having more acid, never tried the brown stuff but will give it a go next time.

Degnol · 07-14-09, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zebrabeefj40

Ask the plating co. if they'll clean them too. Most plating shops I've dealt with would run your parts through a cleaning step first regardless.

Or you could toss them in the dish washer when the SO isn't around...

Nick

Exactly my experience. No matter the condition I brought them in, the plating company put all my parts in their cleaning system.

GL

Ed

Trollhole · 07-17-09, 01:16 PM

I'm gonna try the vinegar. Will post the results.

Trollhole · 09-04-09, 06:38 PM

Well I have tried just about everything. The four below were soaked for 4 days.

Here are my results.

Vinegar
It did ok. Was cheap so I guess it was the most cost effective. Left a blackish patina on the bolts and didn't really clean the caked on grease well and if left out the bolts would rust quickly. Biggest surprise was the plastic bottle I had it in exploded when I started to take the cap off. So don't cap it!

Simple Green Max

By far the best results from my four attemps. Cleaned most of the grease but had a little trouble removing the paint.

Castoral Superclean

Did a good job but not as well as the Simple Green. Just had a hard time with the caked on grease.

Monster House Wash

Yes not what you would normally consider when cleaning parts but I had some handy. Did ok.

None of the above products removed rust, paint, or caked on grease. somewhat of a dissapointment even with the long soak and frequent shaking.

So today I decided to use the heavy hitter. I bought a gallon of Muratic Acid. Filled the 5 gallon bucket of bolts with enough water to just cover the bolts. Then slowly added about half a gallon of Muratic Acid. The fun began. Within seconds the bucket started bubbling and the grease started floating to the top. An hr later there was a thick coating of grease on the top. At this time I poured the liquid into another bucket and inspected the bolts. rust was gone, caked grease was gone, and the paint was gone. So I poured the bolts into a basket at hit the with a pressure washer. Any grease left came off easily. Next week it will be off to the plater. I coated the bolts in the bucket with a little rust preventative until the.

Going to try this on all my parts. Sure beats the heck out of bead blasting them.

Took me all of about an hr and a half to clean these.

JLH911 · 09-13-09, 12:58 AM

updates?

bogus one · 09-13-09, 11:45 AM

I've been using the vinegar process with excellent results since this thread started

Trollhole · 09-23-09, 11:37 AM

Mmmm freshly plated bolts. Nice. Very nice. Now I have to sort them all.

AGreekBoy · 09-23-09, 03:50 PM

those turned out nice man. will you be selling these? if so let me know. i also have some more parts that you are welcome to. let me know through pm when you want to stop by.

john_eckels · 09-23-09, 06:42 PM

If you have aluminum parts, you may want to proceed with caution when using muratic acid. It will etch aluminum and possibly dissolve it if left to soak for an extended period.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollhole

Going to try this on all my parts. Sure beats the heck out of bead blasting them.

Trollhole · 09-23-09, 07:40 PM

I'm half way through sorting.

Trollhole · 09-24-09, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_eckels

If you have aluminum parts, you may want to proceed with caution when using muratic acid. It will etch aluminum and possibly dissolve it if left to soak for an extended period.

I call those fun bolts as you could tell where they were from all the bubbles coming out of the bucket. They were toast only after a few minutes in the acid.

Trollhole · 09-24-09, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGreekBoy

those turned out nice man. will you be selling these? if so let me know. i also have some more parts that you are welcome to. let me know through pm when you want to stop by.

Lol. Always willing to help someone out. But you do know you can take all your hardware and get it plated for 75 dollars. It's not the real bright shiney yellow zinc. But it's pretty darn close.

AGreekBoy · 09-24-09, 04:17 PM

i had to brake alot of mine taking the truck apart.

dtrain · 09-24-09, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollhole

I'm half way through sorting.

I take it you dont have young kids

Trollhole · 09-24-09, 08:35 PM

Last sort done.

79fj40 · 09-24-09, 08:47 PM

Looks good. I have used muratic acid on alot of my parts with great results. I accidently put a bunch of stainless nuts, bolts, washers and they turned very dull grey and start to rust. Those I will be painting if I re-use them. I spray wd-40 on the stuff I am not going to use for awhile. Keeps the rust away.

dtrain · 09-24-09, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollhole

Last sort done.

I retract my question about you having little kids

Perfect placement on the sippy cup...

or is that your sippy cup

Ratpuke · 10-25-09, 08:35 PM

For what it's worth, you can typically get paint off of metal by boiling it in water mixed with baking soda.

Trollhole · 10-27-09, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ratpuke

For what it's worth, you can typically get paint off of metal by boiling it in water mixed with baking soda.

Interesting. Very interesting. Will have to give that a shot.

Hugh Heifer · 10-27-09, 06:04 PM

FYI - all this monster stuff blows, Some of it has aloe in it.

Ratpuke · 10-27-09, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollhole

Interesting. Very interesting. Will have to give that a shot.

I'm not exactly sure what types of paint will come off as my experience with this method is constrained to boiling paint off of old metal fixtures during home renos.