Electrolysis setup and modifications

[OutdoorAdv]

I have been meaning to do a write up on this for some time now to share the modifications I have made as my electrolysis setup has evolved throughout the years. As my electrolysis setup evolved, the iron got more fun to process and some of my most favorite artifacts (bayonet, stirrups, horse bits, cauldrons fragments, hand forged hooks, ax heads, hoe blades, etc, etc.) have turned out to be iron. Actually, some of my hunts have been dominated by some keeper iron relics.

I process a lot of iron and the two things that have been the most frustrating are 1) attaching the iron with a solid contact, quickly and 2) anodes getting dirty and requiring cleaning. I have addressed both of these issues and can move a lot of iron through my setup very efficiently and quickly.

1) First my modifications for attaching the iron.

Modified c-clamps! I picked a few up (harbor freight, lowes, home depot) and I pried the foot off with some channel locks. I then took an angle grinder and sharpened the tip of the threaded rod into a point. On the other end I soldered some electrical copper lugs (hardware store electric dept) onto the clamps. I then use regular 12awg or 14awg solid copper wire to attach them.

When you put a piece of iron in there, the point on the c-clamp will poke through the oxidation on the iron and make contact. The point will dull over time and I have to resharpen it, but its super easy to attach a piece of iron to my electrolysis bucket now... most pieces take seconds to attach.





2) Graphite Anodes

This is by far the best modification I have made. Using graphite for electrolysis anodes is nothing new. I've used regular iron (constantly have to clean) and Stainless steel (creates toxic electrolyte) as anodes. I decided to give graphite a shot... Its carbon, so there is nothing bad released into the electrolyte and NOTHING sticks to them... the rust just drops to the bottom of the tank. Even on the lowest 2 amp setting of my car battery charger, the electrolyte heats up like bath water. The connection through the electrolyte to the anodes is so efficient now, that some of the iron that used to take me days, now just takes hours.

The anodes SLOWLY dissolve... its very slow. I am still on my first set of anodes and I've processed 100 or more pieces of iron with them. They were 1/2" at the beginning and now they are probably 1/4". Since they thread on like bolts, they are very easily replaced.

These are the anodes I got Amazon.com: Fine Extruded Graphite Rod, 0.5"OD x 12"L, Pack of 2: Industrial & Scientific The price fluctuates, and recently they dropped down to $8 for two and I stocked up. McMaster-Carr and Grainger also have similar products.

The idea is simple, figure out a way to attach the graphite rods to a bucket and then to each other with wire. This is how I did it, but you can come up with any other attachment way.

I picked up some 1/4" nuts, bolts and washers at a hardware store. I also got some more of the copper electrical lugs from a hardware store electrical dept. I had some threaded "sammy pipe hangers" from my old anode setup, so I just reused them.



First step was to drill and tap the graphite rods to 1/4". This is very easy even if you havent drilled\tapped anything before. The Graphite rods are basically large pencil leads, so they are very soft. I even drilled one off center by mistake and flipped the rod around and drilled it again from the other end... so really you have two tries per rod!

Drill and tap them under water in a bucket. The dust gets everywhere and will leave marks just like pencil lead.



After drilling them it was time to attach the lugs and "sammy hangers" to the anodes. Basically 1/4" bolt with some washers and nuts. Gently tightened the anode with the bottom nut so the graphite didn't break, and then use the other nut to more snugly tighten the lug. The bolt acts as the contact point between lug and the graphite. The threads in the graphite ensure a great contact on the bolt.

If you cant find the "sammy hangers" just make some other way to attach them to a bucket... it could even be with wood blocks screwed into the lip of the bucket.



All 5 of my anodes put together.



Next I just drilled some holes in the rim of my bucket and stuck the hanger bolts through, then with some more washers and nuts, I bolted the anodes to the bucket. Finally I took some 14awg solid copper electric wire and attached all the anodes together with the copper lugs. Just strip a piece of the wire and tighten the copper lug screw down onto the wire.



That's basically it! Time to cook some iron.




I hope the anode project doesn't seem too complicated. It took me about an hour to make all those graphite anodes. When the graphite wears down, all I have to do is drill\tap some new rods and thread them onto the bolts. So they are easy to replace. I was very hesitant to try to make these anodes because 1) it was going to cost me $$ and 2) was going to take some time and I didnt know if it would work. Now that I've used them for 6 months and cooked 100's of pieces of iron with them, I can honestly say this is the best thing I've ever invested in for any relic preservation. These anodes preserve the iron better than any other anode type I have tried. I ordered my first set of anodes and after I realized how amazing they were, I bought 14 more rods when I saw the price was down at $8 for two rods on amazon... that's how much I like these anodes!

I didn't put the electrolysis basics in here since it was just about my modifications, but I use Washing Soda as my electrolyte and a manual 2/10/50 amp car battery charger. Always set on 2 amps!

Feel free to post or PM me if anyone has any questions or wants clarification.

 

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[Davers]

Ill bet it works fast with 5 anodes.

My 4 gal mud bucket has 3 half inch SS Anodes ( Everybody Please I don't to hear the SS Rap), the rods were est 14 inches long at first now after 3 years of 'off & on ' use the Rod;s have lost about est, 3 -4 inches & are now Points instead of flat on the bottom .
Has your graphite rods lost any length yet?

Got all the pieces to make a smaller unit (est, 1 gallon mud bucket) I want to use an AC adapter on this rather than the Battery Charger, Do you happen to know the best Adapter to use? is Amp's ,Voltage etc, I have over a Dozen saved up for this From Chord less phone adapters , electric razor ones , (about any use one can think of) all sizes .
Was gonna check some You-tube Vid's about this but saw your post first so I fig I'd Ask.

Again Nice Set-up.
Davers

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Ill bet it works fast with 5 anodes.

My 4 gal mud bucket has 3 half inch SS Anodes ( Everybody Please I don't to hear the SS Rap), the rods were est 14 inches long at first now after 3 years of 'off & on ' use the Rod;s have lost about est, 3 -4 inches & are now Points instead of flat on the bottom .
Has your graphite rods lost any length yet?

Got all the pieces to make a smaller unit (est, 1 gallon mud bucket) I want to use an AC adapter on this rather than the Battery Charger, Do you happen to know the best Adapter to use? is Amp's ,Voltage etc, I have over a Dozen saved up for this From Chord less phone adapters , electric razor ones , (about any use one can think of) all sizes .
Was gonna check some You-tube Vid's about this but saw your post first so I fig I'd Ask.

Again Nice Set-up.
Davers

Davers, Thank you!

Since electrolysis works with line-of-sight from the iron to the anode, the more anodes, the better! Since those rods come in 2-packs, I had 6 of them with my initial order... and I would have actually done 6 anodes... but my bucket was already drilled from my old setup and I only had 5 sammy hangers from my old setup. I've seen people use SS sheet metal and line the bucket.

My anodes haven't lost any length or tapered to a point, but rather worn symmetrical around the whole rod.

Here they are after a few months and a LOT of iron.



You'll notice the middle is worn a little more than the bottoms of the rods and this is because that was the level that most of the iron was hanging at. SO, to "fix" this, I ran about 10 batches of iron with the bucket half full. This equally wore the bottoms of my anodes.

I do have a small dish that I do very small things in with a SS spoon anode and an old blackberry charger rated at 5v and 0.7a. Pretty much any of those smaller chargers you have should be good for a smaller 1 gallon setup. If you have one with a 1a or 1.5a Output, that would be even better on a 1 gallon setup.

The car charger I used in my big setup I also got on amazon a few years ago. Its still cranking and I've abused it. When I put in the graphite anodes, it ran so efficient that it actually broke the needle on the charger. Still works fine, it just pegged it one day and it never came back down. In the summer I have to put a fan on the top of it to keep it cool even when it runs on 2 amps. The graphite rods just make such a great connection that the current really passes through them and it puts a nice draw on the charger.

 

[Vino]

Fantastic, well written, and easy to follow.
Thanks for taking the time to write this.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Fantastic, well written, and easy to follow.
Thanks for taking the time to write this.

Thanks a ton George!

I took the photos in my original post way back in April. When I posted this my anodes were pretty worn, but still ran a LOT more iron through it the last couple months. Finally, after my Brown Bess bayonet my anodes were done!



I got way more use from them than I ever thought I would. They were worn from 1/2" to about 3/16" to 1/4" and a couple were broken. I kept the broken pieces to use as anodes in a smaller setup. Last weekend I put a new set of graphite anodes on.



This time I cut the 12" rods in half and just made 6" anodes. Plenty long and only used half the amount of rods. I think the shorter anodes will wear better than the longer ones in my original setup. The best part was everything was reusable and it only took 30min to drill/tap/install a new set of anodes. Cooked a few batches with them this week already.

 

[Davers]

Davers, Thank you!

Since electrolysis works with line-of-sight from the iron to the anode, the more anodes, the better! Since those rods come in 2-packs, I had 6 of them with my initial order... and I would have actually done 6 anodes... but my bucket was already drilled from my old setup and I only had 5 sammy hangers from my old setup. I've seen people use SS sheet metal and line the bucket.

My anodes haven't lost any length or tapered to a point, but rather worn symmetrical around the whole rod.

Here they are after a few months and a LOT of iron.

View attachment 1231173

You'll notice the middle is worn a little more than the bottoms of the rods and this is because that was the level that most of the iron was hanging at. SO, to "fix" this, I ran about 10 batches of iron with the bucket half full. This equally wore the bottoms of my anodes.

I do have a small dish that I do very small things in with a SS spoon anode and an old blackberry charger rated at 5v and 0.7a. Pretty much any of those smaller chargers you have should be good for a smaller 1 gallon setup. If you have one with a 1a or 1.5a Output, that would be even better on a 1 gallon setup.

The car charger I used in my big setup I also got on amazon a few years ago. Its still cranking and I've abused it. When I put in the graphite anodes, it ran so efficient that it actually broke the needle on the charger. Still works fine, it just pegged it one day and it never came back down. In the summer I have to put a fan on the top of it to keep it cool even when it runs on 2 amps. The graphite rods just make such a great connection that the current really passes through them and it puts a nice draw on the charger.
View attachment 1231177

A late thanks for your "1 Gallon Set-up" info.
I need to get something done "Hopefully" now I can make the smaller set up .

P.S.
You ever hooked up a Old Pocket Knife to your Set-up? Brass , Wood & all.
Or
Do you know the best way to Stabilize or Preserve these Possibly Civil War Era & older Knives?
Thanks
Davers

 

[Davers]

Thanks a ton George!

I took the photos in my original post way back in April. When I posted this my anodes were pretty worn, but still ran a LOT more iron through it the last couple months. Finally, after my Brown Bess bayonet my anodes were done!

View attachment 1247852

I got way more use from them than I ever thought I would. They were worn from 1/2" to about 3/16" to 1/4" and a couple were broken. I kept the broken pieces to use as anodes in a smaller setup. Last weekend I put a new set of graphite anodes on.

View attachment 1247853

This time I cut the 12" rods in half and just made 6" anodes. Plenty long and only used half the amount of rods. I think the shorter anodes will wear better than the longer ones in my original setup. The best part was everything was reusable and it only took 30min to drill/tap/install a new set of anodes. Cooked a few batches with them this week already.

Man! they are worn down now.
What Sealer do you use on your iron?

I have a few 'Brands/ Types of poly ' & Tung oil Works good as well

It's amazing how much those small Iron Buckles (Like in your picture) look Sooo. much Cooler / Better after a Good Cleaning.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

A late thanks for your "1 Gallon Set-up" info.
I need to get something done "Hopefully" now I can make the smaller set up .

P.S.
You ever hooked up a Old Pocket Knife to your Set-up? Brass , Wood & all.
Or
Do you know the best way to Stabilize or Preserve these Possibly Civil War Era & older Knives?
Thanks
Davers

Davers,
I actually have done mixed material pieces containing iron. Some have been brass and iron, wood and iron, bone and iron... I have found there is no real good way to do this. I have tried a few techniques and in the end zapped old iron body locks with nice green brass echelons... The result is beautiful iron, with shiny clean brass. Electrolysis will remove that patina.

What you can try, that some swear by but I haven't had good results with, is Evaporust. You can get it in a auto store or some walmarts. It doesn't seem to mess with the brass patina, but will work on the rust. I've soaked things for weeks in it and never cared much for what the iron looks like when compared to electrolysis results.

I found a nice early 1800's bone handle and iron knife. I use a wire brush on my dremel to remove surface rust and then did hot wax. Wood handle iron forks with wood remaining I have done electrolysis on just the fork prongs in a small bowl and then sealed it all with hot wax. It's bitter sweet when I dig an iron relic with wood/bone/brass since there is not any sure way to preserve them and leave the patina intact while making the iron look nice.

Here are some samples that show what I did based on the mixed material item to make them displayable.

(From top to bottom)
1) Bone Handled Knife - dremel to clean the surface rust on iron. JB Welded broken blade. Hot wax dip to dry and seal.
2) Iron pocket knife with bone sides - Wrapped rubber bands around the whole thing to keep the bone sides on. Put the whole thing in my electrolysis tank. Hot wax dip to dry and seal.
3) Iron fork with pewter and some wood left - Small bowl with SS spoon anode and phone charger. Just submersed the fork prongs. Hot wax dip to dry and seal.
4) Knife handle with wood - Rubber bands and whole item in electrolysis tank. Hot wax dip to dry and seal.
5) Pocket knife with iron frame, brass sides and inlaid wood - Not much you can do with this one unless you want it to be shiny. I washed it in the sink with a toothbrush and water. Hot wax dip to dry and seal.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

One more!

I have a few of these types of iron locks with brass hardware. This one I dug in 1995 before I knew what electrolysis was. When I pulled it from a storage container a few years ago, huge flakes of rust were falling off it. Without stabilizing it, it would continue to fall apart. I didn't overcook it as you can see there is still some areas with a red rust color. I just wanted to do the minimum to keep it from flaking away anymore. What hurt the most was the brass was a beautiful emerald green, but I made the choice that I'd rather have it stabilized than just keep some brass pretty. As you can see, the brass is shiny new. Also hot wax to dry and seal.



As you can see, its really dependent on the relic to determine how I preserve it. But I've been figuring out some ways to at least make most of them presentable.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Man! they are worn down now.
What Sealer do you use on your iron?

I have a few 'Brands/ Types of poly ' & Tung oil Works good as well

It's amazing how much those small Iron Buckles (Like in your picture) look Sooo. much Cooler / Better after a Good Cleaning.

Davers, I didn't see this since I was writing the other response. Thanks! I just use cheap non-scented white candles from the dollar store or walmart. I have an old pot that they are all melted down in. Sometimes I'll have to add another candle to it when the level drops, but that's not often.

So I used to zap those buckles and it got super annoying since the frame would clean up but the tang would be rusty and it really sucked to try and connect to the tang.

My solution: Harbor freight rock tumbler, pea gravel from the garden, water and soap for about 12-24 hours! Hot wax dip to dry and seal.

Here are some tumbled items. I can now clean chains and nails. I throw the nails in by a handful ONLY because I can spot the colonial Rose Heads once they are tumbled. Its harder to spot them when they're just a rust ball.

 

[Davers]

IMO
You did good on all your 'Clean Up's' Knives turned out great, lock looks Nice ( I have only found 2 of that type, both in the last year but w/o the Brass Face.) Cooked one & coated it Looks Good ( & need to get to the other one). Was worried about getting most of the rust from the inside , I did my best & Double coated the inside, Hopefully it will stay together.
Never thought about Tumbling the Buckles (I'd be scared the tang would break off) Yep buckles & chains usually take more than one cycle in the tank 'Buckles' One for the Frame & 1 for the Tang & a process for each link of a Chain.

Was gonna ask about what wax to use, I just would not want to put it on to thick . 'trial & error I guess'.

Thanks again for the info, heck I may even try the wax on some of my Complete but Cracked Spencer Rounds.
Merry Christmas
Davers

 

[OutdoorAdv]

IMO
You did good on all your 'Clean Up's' Knives turned out great, lock looks Nice ( I have only found 2 of that type, both in the last year but w/o the Brass Face.) Cooked one & coated it Looks Good ( & need to get to the other one). Was worried about getting most of the rust from the inside , I did my best & Double coated the inside, Hopefully it will stay together.
Never thought about Tumbling the Buckles (I'd be scared the tang would break off) Yep buckles & chains usually take more than one cycle in the tank 'Buckles' One for the Frame & 1 for the Tang & a process for each link of a Chain.

Was gonna ask about what wax to use, I just would not want to put it on to thick . 'trial & error I guess'.

Thanks again for the info, heck I may even try the wax on some of my Complete but Cracked Spencer Rounds.
Merry Christmas
Davers

Davers,
Thanks man. I had one tang fall off in the tumbler. Most of my iron buckles are in storage bins so the ones that fall apart I just throw in there.

I just use cheap white unscented candles, but this picture will show it better. I take my iron right from the tank, hose it off and scrub it a bit, and put it right into the wax while wet. This completely removes all moisture from the iron. I leave it in the wax until no more bubbles come up. Sometimes this can take up to 10 minutes to dry it under the boiling wax, but ensures that there is no flash rusting. It also leaves a super thin coat of wax on the item. You cant even tell it has wax on it because its so hot when I take it out, that the wax just runs right off the iron. I lay it on cardboard to dry. I have an old flea market coleman stove I do this on in the driveway. I haven't had any issues\accidents yet, but I can say this isn't the safest thing, however I am very careful. I have thick leather gloves I use too.



I suppose if you wanted to try wax without going through this mess, you could dry the iron in an oven, then rub some wax on it then heat the iron with a torch to make the wax flow better. I know lots of people coat with various stuff like oils and poly. I personally prefer the wax because I dries the piece out and seals it at the same time. It also gives he iton an eggshell sheen so its not glossy.

That's only my preference and there are so many ways to do this!

 

[Davers]

Just saw this.
Thanks for the extra info , that's a-lot of Wax LOL.
Great results tho.

 

[acm3]

Great system. I just set up my first one and did it just like this video by WOOD magazine. Love it. works great. https://youtu.be/54ADeB6V1rQ