Advice on electrolysis.

[KY Treasure Hunter]

I have a bunch of iron relics saved up and am going to build a electrolysis setup, hoping yall have some advice on design and operation. Thanks

 

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[ARC]

I have seen many setups... but personally I have never set one up.

BUT ! ! !

There is this wonderful little tiny website with lots of videos on how to set various ones up etc etc etc.

You might have even heard of it.

YouTube.



BTW... Welcome to TreasureNet.

And I am sure you will get some advice here as well from out diverse crowd.

 

[smallfoot]

They are simple to do. If you have a small cell phone charger or similar, some baking soda, water, sometimes a little salt..you're all set. You don't needs lots of voltage. Any small charger could be used. Even an automotive battery charger is ok. If you are using a cell phone charger, cut the plug off. Separate the two leads by pulling them apart for a foot or so back up the cable from the plug end. Strip the ends back on the wires about 1". Fill a cup of water and dip both ends of the cable in the water and plug the transformer in. Note which wire in the water is bubbling. That will be your negative (-) wire. That leaves the other wire to be the positive wire. Now, the negative wire will be the one you hook op to the item you want cleaned. The positive side needs to be hooked up to a piece of steel for your donor metal. I use small alligator clips on the wires to connect my stuff but I've seen people just wrap wires. Up to you. The container you use is usually depending on what you want to clean as far as size. Lot of my relics get cleaned in a container that was a 2.2 lb. Coffee Mate jug. I use enough water to cover my item I want cleaned. In a container that size, a good teaspoon full of baking soda works. I also add a pinch salt to add conductivity in the water. I clip my wires to the side of the container, totally immerse the relic connected to the negative lead. Then place your donor metal in the positive lead into the water but do not let the two touch. I find a spot that wouldn't be easily seen if displayed on the relic to clean down to bare metal so that your connection will produce current thru the piece. Donor metal can be anything steel for this. Stainless tho produces some bad fumes so I don't use it. If you do, do it outside where fumes can't gather. Regular steel will do. Something as simple as nails. In about 2 hours, you can probably see pretty good results on small objects. I take them out at that point, run water on them as I'm tapping with a small hammer to shock the metal enough where the rust just falls off. Afte that, I bring beeswax with mineral oil to a boil and place the pieces in there to boil out leaving a good coating of beeswax on the relic.