How not to remove rust
Posted: April 1, 2016, 6:54 am
There's always been a lot of talk about how to remove rust. This is more of moral lesson, about keeping our enthusiasm in check.
A few years back I researched how to remove rust from a gas tank. I was totally disappointed in the kits. They did not get the tank clean and then the sealer did not stick. I finally found a thread on using muriatic acid and water. Filled the tank mostly full with water, added some muriatic acid and left it over night. Voila! Next morning the tank looked absolutely new. It took a sealer and problem solved.
My next experiment was to build an box big enough to hold a slick bedside. Same trick, put bedside in filled with water and added the acid. Again great results!
I started trying to figure out how to do a cab or whole bed, when my eye caught sight of the pool that had just been closed for the fall. I had to wait for the wife to be out of town on a girls trip. 3 Friends and I walked the cab into the pool down the steps, it slid to the deep end on its own. In went 5 gallons of acid. Started bubbling right away! We drank a few brews a watched the action. Finally went in for the night.
Next day I had a few surprises. The first thing I noticed outside of the massive rust based bathtub ring, was that the water as down considerably. I had a half submerged partially cleaned cab sitting in a toxic bath with the wife due home in another day. When I went to open the drain, it was already flowing - so I knew where the water went. Well muriactic acid does not like aluminum or visa-versa. It had attacked any aluminum fitting with a vengeance.
I waited for the pool to empty, and called the boys back. Second surprise - very hard to get it back out of the deep end with the slimy mess that was left and the steepness of the drop off. Garden hose was too slow, ended up renting a high pressure pump to wash the pool and cab down so we could get some traction. It was getting dark by the time the cab was recovered and the pool somewhat clean.
Instead of fessing up, the cover just went back on and I faced the music about the pool in the spring, boy was I surprised to find out that termites must have eaten the PVC over the winter. They also left a strange rust colored mess on the pool surface. So to save a little cash on de-rusting a cab, I lost the pool as it was too expensive to dig everything up repair and re-plaster.
How'd the cab come out? OK, still had to remove the remaining paint and blasted it anyways.
The moral of this story? Always check the date on the post!
A few years back I researched how to remove rust from a gas tank. I was totally disappointed in the kits. They did not get the tank clean and then the sealer did not stick. I finally found a thread on using muriatic acid and water. Filled the tank mostly full with water, added some muriatic acid and left it over night. Voila! Next morning the tank looked absolutely new. It took a sealer and problem solved.
My next experiment was to build an box big enough to hold a slick bedside. Same trick, put bedside in filled with water and added the acid. Again great results!
I started trying to figure out how to do a cab or whole bed, when my eye caught sight of the pool that had just been closed for the fall. I had to wait for the wife to be out of town on a girls trip. 3 Friends and I walked the cab into the pool down the steps, it slid to the deep end on its own. In went 5 gallons of acid. Started bubbling right away! We drank a few brews a watched the action. Finally went in for the night.
Next day I had a few surprises. The first thing I noticed outside of the massive rust based bathtub ring, was that the water as down considerably. I had a half submerged partially cleaned cab sitting in a toxic bath with the wife due home in another day. When I went to open the drain, it was already flowing - so I knew where the water went. Well muriactic acid does not like aluminum or visa-versa. It had attacked any aluminum fitting with a vengeance.
I waited for the pool to empty, and called the boys back. Second surprise - very hard to get it back out of the deep end with the slimy mess that was left and the steepness of the drop off. Garden hose was too slow, ended up renting a high pressure pump to wash the pool and cab down so we could get some traction. It was getting dark by the time the cab was recovered and the pool somewhat clean.
Instead of fessing up, the cover just went back on and I faced the music about the pool in the spring, boy was I surprised to find out that termites must have eaten the PVC over the winter. They also left a strange rust colored mess on the pool surface. So to save a little cash on de-rusting a cab, I lost the pool as it was too expensive to dig everything up repair and re-plaster.
How'd the cab come out? OK, still had to remove the remaining paint and blasted it anyways.
The moral of this story? Always check the date on the post!
.....
