The process . Mix up in a plastic container washing soda and warm water ( about 75-100 grams per litre )
Clean up one end of the electrode ( I use a piece of rebar ) The positive lead goes to the end of this . Don ’ t submerge the charger clamp , as it will get eroded .
The rusty work must be submerged , and the negative lead goes to this . You can submerge this clamp without problems . You might need to scrape off a little rust to get a good contact .
Make sure the rusty part and electrode cannot slip and touch each other .
Switch on the charger . If the current is too high on the chargers meter there are a number of things you can do to reduce it ;
• Increase the distance between the rusty part and the electrode .
• Dilute the washing soda solution by adding more water
• if you have a 6 / 12 volt charger , change it to the 6 volt setting
If it ’ s working OK , bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen will come off the electrodes . The time to clean a part will depend on the current , the area of the rusty part and just how rusty it is . Keep checking it , but I find 1 – 8 hours is typical
Then use fresh water , a plastic or maybe a wire brush to clean it up , then oil or wax it , or the rust starts all over again , and all too quickly !
So , how does it work ? Well in Picture top right you can see an old rusty lathe tool rest , after 3 hours in the bath , it comes up like Picture lower right .
One warning , it is possible that metal cleaned this way may be subject to hydrogen embrittlement . This has never worried me , but be aware that it can cause cracking in some high-strength steels , For instance it would be unwise to de-rust , say , critical axle parts this way .
Now , for a brief mention of some higher tech stuff .
If you really want to get into a fancy RC system , that is completely open source , meaning you can fiddle with all aspects of the hardware and software take a look at this site . It ’ s mighty interesting , but not for the faint of heart . http :// www . os-rc . com / en /
And here ’ s a puzzle . A while ago , and in anticipation of the recently arrived Digital TV switchover I purchased a TiVo recorder . I ’ m very pleased with it , it does all that I want with dual tuners , a massive recorder built-in , all for a very reasonable cost in a sale . Furthermore the manual has obviously been written by a person who speaks English as a first language , and a lot of thought has gone into the human-machine
interface . None of this “ unkwon application layer error . Please be waiting to be rebooting the keybaords ”
However , in the past couple of months , the remote has become dodgy , and a quick look around Google showed this is a common enough problem , despite the retailer proclaiming “ Oh WE haven ’ t heard of that !” There were several theories : - too much sunlight , IR off other devices , or CFL lamps , or this and that . None proved to be the problem . I was a little lost until a couple posted that all one has to do , was to reverse the batteries for a couple of seconds , then all will be well .
Very dodgy advice I thought , but in desperation I tried it , and guess what , it works ! I ’ m not really certain why , but have a few ideas . But it ’ s just as well our car computer , our RC transmitter , or medical electronics , or cellphones , or whatever else in our weird , wired and digital world does not require this funky chicken treatment ! I ’ m off to try to learn why . See you all next issue .