You talk non-stop for 14 minutes in a language that's not your mother tongue, and yet the info you are giving is precise, concise and incredibly informative. Grazie mille, sei un genio!👏
As PhD chemist myself and an amateur mechanic I could not be more thrilled with your approach, description and result, this is RUclips at its very best! I salute you sir!
@@beyond.ballistics They will likely take your formula to the USPTO. If you have an even better(secret) formula, and I bet you do, launch a brand yourself!
There are many effective ways to remove rust. Evaporust isn't selling a rust remover as much as it is selling convenience and relative safety. Their market is not threatened by DIYers like us.
I know this comment is likely too late to ever be seen, but ive taken your recipe and did some experimenting in an ultrasonic cleaner, at 50c the solution appears to be the most effective (tested from room temperature to boiling), ive been running the ultrasonic cleaner for 30min with out prepping the metal at all and it does a wonderful job, it allows the solution to penetrate threads and removes scale in places you cant access with other equipment. i submerged a cast aluminium water pump with metal bolts entirely seized and full of corrosion, after the treatment it spun freely, removed all corrosion and all bolts were removed with ease. thankyou.
@@madflower8723 No it actually wasn't harmful at all, you could clearly make out the flashing still from where it was injection moulded, just to give an idea of the detail that remained. That being said I removed it as soon as it was clean, if you left it for a week or so the results may vary.
I tried this formula today. 1 litre hot water, 100 grams citirc acid and 40 grams washing soda. Soaked an old rusty brake caliper over night. Came out looking like new! This works!
might work for soaking but i made a batch and tried applying to rusty surfaces via spray bottle. doesn't do anything. naval jelly In the same area made the metal shiny.
@@JamesW-li5oi try soaking a towel with it and leaving it on the area you wish to clean. Place cling film or plastic over it to prevent the towel from drying out. I've seen that used with Evaporust.
Not theoretical :D I got the ingredients today and immediately tried it. Works like an absolute charm at only a fraction of the price of commercial stuff.
I already buy citric acid in bulk (to make lemon super juice), and I had the washing soda on hand for electrolysis. This is a pretty big game changer for me, and I confirm it works very, very well.
To those of you who have made some, could you derust something and also add a bit of some other common metals like aluminum, copper, and brass to see if there is any corrosion to them?
This is Peak RUclips! It is what the internet promised to be all those years ago! Beautifully explained, valuable information by a knowledgeable host all without baiting the audience.
Great video, thanks! I have 2 questions! Is there any recommendations for after removing the parts from the bath, maybe to neutralize the process? And what will this do to paint? Thanks again, keep it up!
And considering how painstaking and laborious some of his restorations are I think it's fair to assume he is fuelled by a 50/50 mixture of strong coffee an stubbornness. So yes, our dude deserves the best beans!
Reporting back 2 weeks after making this up and it is every bit as good as your video shows. My first batch of 5 litres easily recovered 80 large tooling items, I only mixed another batch because the first had become quite dirty and it's so cheap to do so. I also had some large cast iron machine tables which were too large to immerse, but after degreasing these I kept brushing this mixture on the tables, every few minutes, and all the rust has gone! Every now and again the internet turns up a real Gem of information and this is one of those occasions. Thank you very much for sharing this!
He already knows the best.We blacksmiths for years have used one part acetone and one part ATF to loosen rusted nuts. I repair old cast iron skillets in my shop and use simple electrolitical method which is found on RUclips also..
There needs to be some sort of "blue collar" category for the Nobel Prize. I hereby nominate this man. I'm also certain that, if the gods are just, this video will end up with 100m views years from now. This is truly a Juggernaut of a discovery.
It appears that the citrate solution acts faster than the evapo-rust - which leads me to think that a better comparison test of the effective-ness of each solution, is to measure the base metal dissolution at the point where the rust has been removed. As opposed to waiting a certain amount of time for each solution to damage the base metals. If the citrate solution is substantially faster than the evapo-rust, the part would require much less time in the solution, which would mitigate some of the increased base metal dissolution. I would be interested to see a test of a uniformly (intentionally) rusted steel sheet, in both products, removed once the desired rust removal has occurred. Then measure the change to the host material (as well as the evolution of hydrogen from the adverse reaction if possible). Another great video, I love these technical firearm videos!
Agreed, it seems like this particular experimental process did his solution a potentially considerable disservice here. That said I suspect people would often leave parts in long after the rust has gone, perhaps leaving parts overnight to process so it's still relevant.
@@ispanner1062 That would require him to reformulate. He explained how he studied many different solutions, and this worked closest to the expensive chemical remover.
This formulation works AMAZINGLY well! I just tried it on a whole bin of rusty drill bits and it cleaned them perfectly in only 30 minutes. It didn't harm them at all and they're still sharp. And as is said in the video, the solution is STILL active and continues to clean. I've tried straight citric acid, oxalic acid, vinegar and so on and have never been happy with the results. But this simple chelating agent does the job perfectly. This is truly the best and most useful restoration video I've seen anywhere EVER. Thanks so much!
Fantastic! Stays on topic, extremely informative, and concise. No waffle, no unrelated stock images/video, well paced, no obnoxiously long channel intro, no BS. This is the standard all instructional videos should follow.
Please do the inhibitor tests, that video will be the holy grail of all rust removal videos for the rest of time if it's of the same quality as this one, and I have no doubt.
Same here! Rust is a horrible omnipresent thing for us. I think I heard there's an Evapo-Rust gel that can be applied to fixed structures which can't be bathed in it. How could we do the same to this solution?
Your not gonna restore your tools you will simply eat them away you know that adjustable wrench with a dial that fits together nicely yeah if that dial corroded to a point where it falls out you don't have an adjustable wrench anymore you effectively made a paper weight
I appreciate you giving the formula time location at the start however, after listening for a few minutes I realized that the information you provide is valuable and worth the time of listening. I subscribed.
Hi I would just like to tell you how happy I am that I found your RUclips clip. I live in Australia where evaporust cost around $100 for a 5lt bottle ( about 1.3 us gallons) I tried your mixture and am absolutely amazed on how well it works. At the first trail I could only get small containers( 75g) of citric acid from my local supermarket so decided to only make a litre for a trial run. I highly underestimated the fizzing effect when combining the two products together and most of it ended up erupting out of my way to small mixing container and down the sink.. so take two and now mixing my 1 litre amount in a 9 litre bucket so no product loss. After every thing settled down I put in a rusty pair of tinsnips. And wow I was so amazed of the results and I just kept put more items in and the solution just kept giving great results. So thankyou for sharing this formula and you have definitely nail it. Trevor Mooney
I 100% recommend this video. I read the comments at the beginning of this video, they sound like you got 100 or more acquaintances to comment on your video, but then I watched your video, they are right. This was my s RUclips at its finest this is exactly what you are looking for when you click on a video but rarely get if ever find. You Sir, not only came up with an AWESOME diy rust removing chemical solution but also managed to make a no fluff no BS succinct yet entertaining video. Amazing
Woooooh. Yeah! As a gunsmith, I look forward to your videos as much as i do Mark Novak's. You do a great job going into the chemistry details that other folk wont dare to do. Keep up the great work!
As a beginning gunsmith (waiting on FFL to process) I absolutely love learning from this guy's channel, Mark's channel, and many others. Best retirement career ever!
Tried your recipe a week or so ago - for the first time... Then made 3 25 litre buckets of solution up, it's been a brilliant means of restoring tools that have built up rust over the years... Thank you for putting this out there.
@@scott697070 I've used the first bucket full pretty much constantly for the last week, it seems to have slowed down a bit and turned a very dark green- almost back... Still works though. Id's suggest it will last, unused, for some time. Still, it's very cheap to make, so even if it does 'run out', dump it and make more...
Wow! I know nothing of guns, really, but I like history and as part of that, view a lot of photos. I am the same with model airplane and aircraft recognition. When he dropped this magazine in the solution I found myself thinking “Bran”. The mind is an amazing thing!
Took a 303 bullet which was the same as the allied forces used in their rifles so the ammunition fitted both guns. The Bren gun could fire single shots so the enemy would think they were up against a rifle. Imagine their surprise to suddenly find it was machine gun. When I was a kid at high school in New Zealand we had an armoury with rifles (303) and a number of Bren guns. One afternoon we were up in the hills , not far from the school when a wild pig ran across the field. The guy on the Bren gun chased the pig with the bullets kicking up the dirt behind it. Was a bad day for the pig.
This guy is what RUclips is meant to be - honest simple straight to the point and consise with confirmed results at the end - you earned a sub here 👍simply brilliant 😄🇦🇺
One test I'd appreciate you performing is how it does on Nickel or Zinc. Not destroying those two is one of the other major selling points of EvapoRust. It's one of the major reasons I am using EvapoRust. Especially when restoring parts where only a section is rusted.
Although I haven't tried that specifically, Nickel is a very chemically intert metal, and I wouldn't expect the citrate solution to do any harm against it. Not sure about zinc, that I'll have to try.
I used citric acid to remove zinc plating on bolts. I do not know if reaction with washing soda will change that. You might want to try some bolts to see
@@desobrien3827 nickel is pretty damn resistant. Only way I see it taking that off is like how hard chrome comes off - the base steel has oxidized enough that when the rust is attacked, the plating no longer has anything to hold on to.
How sceptical was I ?Yep… just as anyone else would be… but I medeit exactly as you’ve described and it works exactly as you’ve shown… how kind of you to share this. 🙏🙏🙏🙏
This is an extremely magnanimous action on your behalf!!!! Corporations/governments want to ring everlast cent from us, and you're doing this out of decency, and kindness! May our Creator bless you!
Wonderful video, thank you. I have used citric acid for years as a rust/corrosion remover. I discovered that it worked better with a little Dawn dish soap added. I used baking soda to neutralize the acid on the finished product. I NEVER would have intentionally mixed the three together and expected a BETTER product.
Man this is FASCINATING. I've been avoiding buying a new bottle of evaporust because it's expensive. I already have citric acid and washing soda at home, so now I'm good to go! Thank you so much! I'm pretty excited because I have a pile of old tools in need of restoration.
I will be giving this a try! I've had five gallons of Evaporust soaking in the fuel tank of a 1952 Dodge M37 I've been restoring, which had old fuel sitting in it for over 25 years in the garage after my father parked it in 1997 and only tinkered on it a few times before burying it under junk and forgetting about it. The tank had a disgusting amount of scale within that vinegar and marbles didn't want to touch. The Evaporust indeed worked at first however I noticed it rapidly stopped working and there's still far too much rust in the tank for me to feel its satisfactorily clean. I was planning on finishing with a lot of vinegar rinses- but your formula here seems to be a much better solution. I was planning on using more Evaporust in the water jacket of the engine as well- but if this stuff works in the tank, I'll give it a whirl there too.
I am also wanting to try this out on the water jacket of an engine, and see how it goes. I was going to use Oxalic Acid, or Evaporust, but now I am keen to try this formula
You might think about using electrolysis...I did this with great success on a large motorcycle tank. Used an iron pipe as the electrode with tape on it to prevent it shorting out (put it in the sender hole). Had to grind the rust off the pipe every night, and it took like a week...but it was basically free and did an excellent job.
@@scottclark7559 this is a monstrous 24 gallon tank. I did a Volvo engine block in a poly 55 gallon drum before and I agree- it works. This tank is impractically large for something like that
@Booze_Rooster The MC tank was from a Goldwing...10 gallons maybe? I just filled the tank with water and hooked one end of the battery charger to the tank, and put an iron pipe down the sender hole for the other electrode. I would think if would work fine with a bigger tank, but would probably take longer. The sender hole is probably a lot bigger though, so you could probably also drop a much bigger pipe inside.
I have used your formula to de-rust a motorcycle gas tank. The rust was quite extreme. I left 15l of the solution (as per your formula for citric acid/washing soda/dish soap) in the tank for 48 hours. I realize this is probably MUCH longer than was needed but other events prevented me from returning to the workshop sooner. Nevertheless, upon return, the tank was COMPLETELY free of rust. I can absolutely attest to the fact that your formula works and works well. I will continue to use it and recommend it to others, crediting you as I go. My only question that remains unanswered is pertaining to shelf life. The 15l of solution I removed from the tank still appears to be good for many other projects. How long do you estimate the shelf life to be of the stored solution in order for it to still remain effective? Months? years? Thank you for sharing this information. One of the most useful things I've learned from youtube and something that actually WORKS.
For painting, do you need to wash the solution off or could you just use some epoxy primer on top of this? Speaking for automotive application, I have very hard to reach areas where I can't reach well with any wire wheel or sander
I've made a batch this afternoon and tested it on an imposibly rusted peice of 3mm x 25mm angle iron. It took 2 hours, but it dissolved all the rust. EXCELLENT STUFF!😁
Green tea extract might be a decent choice for a safe corrosion inhibitor. It contains catecholins, which can create a single molecule protective layer on bare metal, but actually helps to solubilise oxides. It’s used in chemical-mechanical polishing solutions. Works at very low concentrations, so two or three tea bags worth per litre should be sufficient. Also, you could try adding a little more sodium salt to the mixture, so you end up with a higher pH. It’s still a very effective chelator and I bet just nudging the pH up to 5.5 or so (10-15% extra sodium carbonate) would put it at the same corrosion level as Evaporust.
@@PaulHanak Honestly, not entirely sure. Industrial solutions use an extract which is purified to contain just the helpful compounds, but the other things in green tea, like tannins and other phytochemicals probably won’t cause issues in this application so yeah, definitely worth a go just trying it the way you said.
@@simontillson482 I have a litre batch of the recommended solution on the bench. I will split it and add 2x teabags to one half and use the other as a control. We will see if they can be differentiated.
Excellent video!! Super!! I am so impressed. I am a chemist by the way. Did you test your solution with dish soap against a formulation without dish soap? You use the dish soap as a surfactant. A more effective and common surfactant is the liquid fabric softener that you use in the laundry. The next time you do your laundry, and there are bubbles all around, throw in a capful of liquid fabric softener. The bubbles will disappear because they need surface tension to form. I do agree that a surfactant is helpful in your formulation. From Wiki: "Rinse-cycle softeners usually contain cationic surfactants of the quaternary ammonium type as the main active ingredient." Keep making these great videos.
Great video, I made up the solution as detailed using washing soda but I used an old bottle of Kodak Photo-Flo 200 which I had lying around from B&W film processing days as a surfactant. Photo-Flo is "...a wetting agent used to minimize water marks or streaks during film development. It is used after the final wash when processing films to decrease the water-surface tension and promote faster, more uniform drying." Does not contain perfumes or colorants like fabric softener or dish soap. Worked really well!
Finally, an excellent video on making your own rust remover that works. Thanks a million!!! Excellent video on all counts! I should also add: For years I have been making my own Washing Soda as I need it for electrolysis when I cook metal to remove rust - but I'm liking this video's solution better! To make your own washing soda, take baking soda and pour on any cookie tin/sheet and place in a 400 deg F preheated oven for 1 hour 10 min, occasionally mixing it every 20 mins or so. That's it! Once I went to the store to buy washing soda and they were out. Ever since, I just make my own. I buy 50lb bags of food grade baking soda for around $70 Canadian. Hope that helps. This also means that the washing soda will always be fresh and at full strength.
Simply stunning. I was skeptical and expected nothing when I tested this. I was happily surprised. I like working on old cars and old shop equipment - both breeding farms for rust. I tested one piece for which I had a virtual twin in the same rusty state as a control. Amazing! I cannot say thank you enough. This will save a ton of work and a ton of unnecessary grinding - wire brushing. Thank you sir!
This is a fantastic solution you've found. There's a lot of "real life needs" here too. In most cases whether firearms, tools, or just rusty machine parts what we need is ALL the rust GONE in one application and it's perfectly acceptable for the base metal to be attacked as long as it's only a tiny amount. Also the job needs to be done in a couple hours or less. This ticks the boxes. I've got a rusty bandsaw that needs to be restored and this may just do it. I can actually afford to mix up several gallons of this unlike buying a 5 gallon bucket of Evaporust that would cost me half what replacing the band saw would cost defeating the entire purpose of cleaning it up.
I don't even restore guns (I'd like to, but literally I wouldn't know where to start), but I watch every video you make and your advice is precious for other hobbies as well! This formula makes no exception! E il fatto che tu sia italiano rende tutto ancora più bello 😁
I started about 4 years ago working on shotguns and cheap iver johnson revolvers. I'm in the US so it may be different for you. But just jump into it with a cheapish, non collectable firearm as practice.
Impressive. 2 years ago I've bought two 20L pails of evaporust to remove rust into the gas tank of my antique tractor restoration project. It did the job but at a huge cost. Besides, the product was basically dead after the gas tank event. Your solution (no pun intended here) is definitely very sensible and obviously efficient considering the cost and simplicity of its composition. Thanks for sharing this.
Hello from deep North of Canada! gREAT GREAT VIDEO! Thanks for these tests and informations realy helpful and to see it live was perfect! I was wondering would you ad like 1 once of vinaigar to your solution? Thanks again for your work and time to do all those tests! I am a sharpener knives, garden tools do you think like knives and pocket knives would cause damage exemple the G10 OR MACARTA ON THE HANDLS ? God Bless you! Frank from the Deep North!
so happy to see this today. I'm retired, and have a small hobby shop. I like to repurpose found steel, but cannot afford to buy 5 gallon buckets of EvapoRust. This is a perfect solution, and with materials that I already have on hand. I always have citric acid and washing soda on hand, I can't wait to try this.
Adding the base to water first then acid is much safer and doesn't bubble, just tested it as it is the common way to mix acid. For me mixing the base last, it started smoking while bubbling and it really stings to breathe in 😅 The other way around there wasn't any bubbling or smoke. And to prolong the mix, clean the parts in straight lye and soap first. If there is any oil on it this removes the most of it
Right, I make soap like you said, first adding lye to water, than add lye water to liquid oils and in the end adding other ingredients like citric acid.
Citric acid is a much weaker acid than hydrochloric or sulfuric where you need to worry about that. It is safe as he described. If you used washing soda or baking soda and didn't get bubbles regardless of mixing order, there is something wrong. Bubbles here are carbon dioxide from the base, rather than boiling water from heat from diluting strong acid.
There's a good article with tests from a German chemical manufacturer titled "Effective chelation with citrates and gluconates" - it has some useful figures on sequestering value vs. pH and solution temperature.
Absolutely brilliant. I used a product similar to evaporust on half a vintage rusty chain for 5 days. Yes it cleaned 40% back to clean metal but still has heaps of rust. I used your formula on the other half and it's 95% back to clean metal in 2.5hrs. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to seeing if you come across any updates to the formula
I've been following your channel for a long time, in terms of theory and practice in restoring weapons to their original condition, i.e. without fakes, in my opinion the best here!!!! I had already assumed that you worked professionally in the chemical industry. Big praise for your work and sharing your knowledge, keep it up 👍🏼 Best regards, The Electroplater 😉
Big THANKS!! I'm doing a full restoration on a 2007 Volvo XC70 I bought as a project. Your video has been a life saver! I paid in Canada about $14 for 2lb of citric acid anhydride. I saw the tip of the green tea as inhibitor. I plan to spray with brake cleaner and prime/paint right after. As an engineer I loved your DOE and how you actually made a scientific approach with similar samples, baseline etc. I give you A++
@@disrespectful7862 Design of Experiments. It is a statistical technique to optimize a process. You start changing factors in a controlled way and/or with different levels and measure the effect in your target variable. Hope it clarified your question
This is an amazing video! Thank you for continuing to help gunsmiths around the world with your unbiased testing and dedication to the community! I've learned so much from watching your channel... Thank you so much!
I'm not a chemist, but I'm fascinated by what makes things do what they do; and more importantly, how efficiently they do it. Great video!! And thanks for sharing your work.
you just condensed 3 days of research into a 15 minute perfect tutorial and reminder for me! i will probably think of you every time i mix a new one! thank you, what a gift! ❤
This is historical. The amount of people who have been needing and searching for a solution is unmeasurable. You have made a massive leap in all things metal restoration. Also is that a Bren magazine?
Once again another great video & very informative. I must add if you’re planning on using on guns that have distinctive markings, be aware that the rust remover will slowly degrade these markings if left in solution too long unless you add a corrosion inhibitor as mentioned
Great video, thanks for sharing. I have one question - I use a lot of rust killers/ converters in car restoration, very expensive and not very good. I need to treat sections of a car which can't obviously go into a bath of your solution. What do you think you might add to it to make it to be applied to car sections so it won't run off - In the same way Naval Jelly is a more solid substance.
Heres a question. How affective would your citric acid and sodium carbonate solution be when sprayed on a surface (vs submerged). Worth using or more effective to just grind rust off?
This was a fantastic find! I work with model trains, and for the pre-WWII trains, there is frequent discussion on how to safely and efficiently remove rust. I am sharing this with my friends.
This works beautifully for doing what’s promised ie removing rust. I found however on various items that when taken out of the solution they had a quite thick black oily coverage and once wiped of the items then had changed colour to a dark grey/black . I am not concerned with the colour change but the oily deposit on the surfaces puzzles me. I didn’t think any of the items had oil on them pre dip ,otherwise why did the rust so badly , but I am guessing they must have had . Can you answer this conundrum for me please and Pam I right in thinking that I should degrease any item with say brake cleaner before putting in the solution. Thank you for such a wonderful explanation and the substantial work you have done in achieving the splendid end result and it very inexpensive and it works
Amazing work! I'd love to see how this compares to electrolysis. That's been by goto for big parts, but this looks cheap enough to even put that to shame.
Thanks for the great vid and all your hard work! Note: pH 1 to 4 is 1000x less acidic; Logarithmic means 10x per unit, so 3 units is 10^3 = 1000 Bonus tip: 0.3 units is double (roughly) Geeky note: this is for the 'natural logarithm', ie, 10; youbcan have any number Cheers Edit: log bases are evil, Base answer exponent ie, Log (10) 1000 = 3 Equivalent to 10^3=1000
Well, mostly right. Except there are two log scales that are used frequently, Base 10 logs and natural logs (Base e). e is an irrational number like pi and is approximately 2.71828. The pH scale uses the base 10 log scale where the pH value (ph 4, for example) means the concentration of acid is 1.0 x 10^(-4) = 0.0001 moles/L. "pH" comes from the German language form of negative log.
@steveh8724 yup you're right about natural logs, and natural logarithm is "ln" (pronounced 'lawn') Didn't know about the German origins of pH tho! Thanks 😺
Absolutely EXCELLENT information conducted extremely professionally! My only suggestion for improvement is when pouring the 20 liter container, turn around so the opening is at the top. That way, as you pour, it will flow out without sloshing which is a much better technique to pour liquid from a container. I mean no disrespect, only pointing it out so as to show a better technique.
This is magic!. I was given some tools that have been rusting in a barn for decades. Every cleaned up. Some were losing their chrome coating from the rust. Some had pitted metal but the rust is gone. Now I need to preserve them from rusting again. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for your scientifically well -based presentation. I am a chemical engineer with 40 years spent in the oil industry where I could gather all kind of experience from very widely separated areas. You are great.
THANK YOU. I cannot stress enough my gratitude for this useful information you have presented. I have always been skeptical and hesitant to use most of the commercial rust removers. It struck me that for them to as affective as described, they also had to be damaging the base metal. Commenting on your channel, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. You come across as sincere with all your presentations, they are clear, derailed, and easy to follow. I have learnt a lot from your videos. Keep up the good work.
I soaked my old brake calipers in your solution for 48 + 48 hours, then painted them with heat resistant paint. They look probably better than when they rolled out of the factory 18 years ago. The best part is, the solution is still working, although it looks nasty asf. Whatever I drop in there comes out rust free. Thank you very much!
Did you just pull out the parts and washed it down with water before painting? What kind of prep did you do before painting after soaking in the solution?
@@PAWNED562 Soak 48h, wire brush the gunk off, soak another 48h, wire brush, wash. Then brake cleaner, more wirebrush, more water, then dry. Then wipe with rubbing alcochol. Then heat resistant spray paint, no primer. (Taped off areas that paint shouldn't get to).My soaking times were probably overkill, but I was in no hurry.
I almost never comment. Now I do. I can confirm the method works! My case the most surprising fact was that it requires no effort. Bury the stuff in it, sprinkle the acid solution. Literally works in any combination.
The internet delivers! A smart guy on youtube tells me how to make my life better, and it doesn't involve me stopping eating icecream! Many thanks for your efforts, and everything that went into sharing this!
I was too lazy to do the exact formula since i was doing it in a 60L plastic bucket. Alot bubbled over at one point and I didn't feel like leaving the garage go to go get dish soap so I used karcher outdoor pressure washing soap. After about a month the fluid is pitch black from having numerous car parts sitting in it, it doesnt seem to cause any problems of having things sit in it for a week or so at a time probably because it has gotten cold around 10C probably. The most surprising thing I can take away is after wiping down the part no rust has returned at all. The parts are sitting out in the garage and not a thing has changed. I grabbed some fluid into jars for screws and it seems to have worked well and not gotten black. I have noticed some screws are spotless losing whatever coating they may have had and the metal has become more of a gunmetal color which I usually use a wirebrush disk to clean off.
You, sir, are an official MVP for all Men of the world who work with tools/DIY/Automotive/workshop/metalwork. Thank you for your service My good man...
I put this to work today cleaning up a large pile of tools that had gotten rusty and corroded from a fire many years ago. Most of the tools came out looking absolutely excellent, minus whatever minor pitting and lost chrome they already had. It didn't even really damage the grips on the tools and a toothbrush both on the tools and the grips cleaned off any remaining soot/crud/corrosion. This stuff is awesome. 6lbs of citric acid and a big box washing soda $25 total from Amazon. Enough to make 7 gallons of the stuff and I only used about 1.5 gallons. Didn't bother to try to save it. Why? It was super dark after the abuse I put it through and it didn't cost jack considering it probably completely restored at least $250 in tools.
This is a very well done and useful study. One thing that may cause some variation in results is that sodium carbonate (washing soda) is not always the same. The anhydrous form is what you'd normally encounter in a chemistry lab, and seems to be assumed here based on 40 g of sodium carbonate being equivalent to 63 g of bicarbonate or 30g of hydroxide. The confusion is that at least in the US, the usual thing sold as washing soda is the decahydrate, so you would need a lot more: 107g of that to provide as much base. The consequence of too little base would likely be more rapid attack of bare metal, but it should still dissolve rust.
@@alans1816 This is really helpful information. I hadn’t thought about lab vs basic US retail. I need to think and research ingredients a little more. You really helped me in planning some of these little projects. Need to read ingredients & research. 👍😊
Not sure if anyone will read this, nor did I see anyone ask quickly- have you or anyone checked the rust resistance post this treatment? Based on what you mentioned, there is some protection on the steel, but just hoping that someone has tested it. BTW, I tried this and it worked really well- saved me from getting new bolts for my car refresh. May try a larger version for bigger parts, but I could get full suspension assemblies that were fully assembled for parts. Thanks for doing the research and publishing it so that we can all use it.
Words fail me on how to describe how much easier and better you've made many people's lives by researching, experimenting & posting this video (not to mention the formula, which you could well have made millions on had you been greedy). I'm flat broke at the moment but you can bet one of the first ports of call after buying the ingredients & soaking some tractor parts will be your patreon to make a donation to the cause. Thank you, really appreciate you sharing this.
Nice! I have no idea about the chemistry behind all of this (mechanikal engineer), but thank you. One question: Would adding starch to the mix (and maybe coocking it for a brief time) to thicken it and make it into some kind of gel to better stick to large things change the composition so much, that it stops to work? I have a lot of things that would benefit from a derust, but are either to large to fit into a container or are simply stuck in concrete. So a gel-like solution that sticks to the metal would be awesome.
If you tried it let me know! I might try it. Have an old trailer that needs painting. Gelatin, that is used in cooking is my thought, pretty neutral? I was thinking an old crockpot might work?🤷♀️👍
I have a large 4ft x 4ft metal pumpkin that I'm trying to get the rust off so I can spray paint it. I'm from the US and not sure about the conversion for mixture and what you mean by citric acid. Thanks
Tested and approved ! I had some troubles with the flash rust after rinsing the parts. The solution was simple though, just dip the parts in some cutting fluid ( water with soluble oil) and it's instantly protected. Once dry, use the oil of our choice. A big thanks.
@@MGMan37 It's oily so you need to degrease before painting. Acetone or brake cleaner will do the job. I use this process because I've been given tons of rusty tools, drill bits, reamers, etc, painting wasn't an option.
You say the only advantage of Evaporust is the lack of hydrogen evolution. In fact this is a highly significant difference. Hydrogen embrittles alloy steels which is an issue where springs or high strength steels are used, for instance in automotive applications. Mild steel is not embrittled so bracketry, sheet casings etc are unaffected. But you would definitely be ill advised to use an acidic solution for cleaning stressed parts made from high carbon steels. In industry acid pickling is followed by baking at high temperature to diffuse out the hydrogen but it is much better not to introduce hydrogen because not all can be removed this way. It disrupts the crystal lattice forming weak points and being a small molecule it can relatively easily diffuse into the crystal lattice.
That's definitely still an advantage, but the thing is if you're refinishing after de-rusting, you most likely will need to evolve at least a bit of hydrogen on the surface. That is true for phosphating primers, parkerizing, electroplating, and the pre-bluing etching. In all these cases the hydrogen coming from the citrate composition will be small compared to the finishing one. I'd still be careful with long soak times on high strength steel kept under load, like a loaded leaf spring.
You talk non-stop for 14 minutes in a language that's not your mother tongue, and yet the info you are giving is precise, concise and incredibly informative. Grazie mille, sei un genio!👏
Staying on a specific topic for longer than 30 seconds is a vanishing skill. But if someone has it, they can do it regardless.
he really is a fantastic presenter, which is even better given it isn't even his native language.
Hurrah! Thank you for giving him this compliment. It’s so well-deserved!
If only the current US president could do that.
@@ieetpeople4003 I hear they're looking for a new one!
As PhD chemist myself and an amateur mechanic I could not be more thrilled with your approach, description and result, this is RUclips at its very best! I salute you sir!
How would you dispose of the used stuff?
what is the dish soap for?
@@Pocketfarmer1 Just put it down the drain. This is about as mild as you can get. You'd do more harm pouring some soda or orange juice.
I don't have anywhere near the same credentials, but with my BSc, I still feel that this is one of the best presentations I've seen on YT!!
@@p__jay It's mentioned on the video; it's used as a surfactant, to make sure that the solution better adheres to the metal.
Evaporust corporate leadership calling an emergency morning meeting today
I tried getting in touch with their customer support about two months ago. They didn't even bother to reply. I'm sure they'll regret that now.
@@beyond.ballistics They will likely take your formula to the USPTO. If you have an even better(secret) formula, and I bet you do, launch a brand yourself!
I’m sure their lawyers are working on a way to get the video taken down
are they serving citric acid at that morning meeting ?
There are many effective ways to remove rust. Evaporust isn't selling a rust remover as much as it is selling convenience and relative safety. Their market is not threatened by DIYers like us.
I know this comment is likely too late to ever be seen, but ive taken your recipe and did some experimenting in an ultrasonic cleaner, at 50c the solution appears to be the most effective (tested from room temperature to boiling), ive been running the ultrasonic cleaner for 30min with out prepping the metal at all and it does a wonderful job, it allows the solution to penetrate threads and removes scale in places you cant access with other equipment. i submerged a cast aluminium water pump with metal bolts entirely seized and full of corrosion, after the treatment it spun freely, removed all corrosion and all bolts were removed with ease. thankyou.
That's epic brother. I might try that. Got a large Headboard mesh for my hilux ute tray and it is absolutely Rusted to death.
Did the solution work on aluminium corrosion as well, or was it just for the bolts, which I assume were iron based metal and rusted in place?
@@judyofthewoods Exceptionally well, it left the metal looking quite literally like a new part
Thanks! That is something I wanted to know. :) Did it attack the aluminum?
@@madflower8723 No it actually wasn't harmful at all, you could clearly make out the flashing still from where it was injection moulded, just to give an idea of the detail that remained. That being said I removed it as soon as it was clean, if you left it for a week or so the results may vary.
I tried this formula today. 1 litre hot water, 100 grams citirc acid and 40 grams washing soda. Soaked an old rusty brake caliper over night. Came out looking like new! This works!
It would even be possible to do it with the caliper still attached to the car, but not in its working position, of course
@@erik_dk842 I wouldn't risk weakening pins and piston rubber gaskets and brake fluid lines tho
might work for soaking but i made a batch and tried applying to rusty surfaces via spray bottle. doesn't do anything. naval jelly In the same area made the metal shiny.
@@JamesW-li5oi try soaking a towel with it and leaving it on the area you wish to clean. Place cling film or plastic over it to prevent the towel from drying out. I've seen that used with Evaporust.
@@EttoreB93 Nothing worse than driving through a few weeks of Northern salted winter roads
You did it. You actually did it. A theoretical DIY rust remover better than Evapo-Rust has been the holy grail of garage mechanics forever. Wow!
Not theoretical :D I got the ingredients today and immediately tried it. Works like an absolute charm at only a fraction of the price of commercial stuff.
I already buy citric acid in bulk (to make lemon super juice), and I had the washing soda on hand for electrolysis. This is a pretty big game changer for me, and I confirm it works very, very well.
To those of you who have made some, could you derust something and also add a bit of some other common metals like aluminum, copper, and brass to see if there is any corrosion to them?
Any acid will dissolve aluminium.
@@KC9UDX This is not acid.
This is Peak RUclips! It is what the internet promised to be all those years ago! Beautifully explained, valuable information by a knowledgeable host all without baiting the audience.
Great video, thanks! I have 2 questions! Is there any recommendations for after removing the parts from the bath, maybe to neutralize the process? And what will this do to paint? Thanks again, keep it up!
@@Busaganashi Also wondering, because I'm looking for something safe on tin lithographed ink, removing the rust yet not the printing on the metal.
Yes!! You both nailed it.
I wish you that every coffee you order ist just perfect. Men like you do not deserve any bad coffee!
And considering how painstaking and laborious some of his restorations are I think it's fair to assume he is fuelled by a 50/50 mixture of strong coffee an stubbornness. So yes, our dude deserves the best beans!
Everyone deserves a bad coffee here and there. Makes the other ones taste better.
I wish him both sides of his pillow is cool and comfy
actually, I use similar approach to washi my coffee machine extract group, I was doing it intuitively but I guess was not very wrong 🤣🤣
@@WoodworkingforAnyone Lol. Blessed adversity.
The recipe:
* Per 1L of H2O
1: 100grams Citric Acid.
2: 40grams Sodium Carbonate / 63Grams Sodium Bicarbonate / 30grams Sodium Hydroxide.
After reaction has completed, add final ingredient.
3: Arbitrary amount of liquid dish soap.
whats in that dish soap?
@@DeFlanko Dawn
Will the rust come back after a few days?
@@vananinurrizki3374 rust always comes back if you don't protect the metal.
@@PandaMan02 protected with what chemical compatibel?
Reporting back 2 weeks after making this up and it is every bit as good as your video shows. My first batch of 5 litres easily recovered 80 large tooling items, I only mixed another batch because the first had become quite dirty and it's so cheap to do so. I also had some large cast iron machine tables which were too large to immerse, but after degreasing these I kept brushing this mixture on the tables, every few minutes, and all the rust has gone!
Every now and again the internet turns up a real Gem of information and this is one of those occasions. Thank you very much for sharing this!
This is gold. It was what RUclips started off as, for people like you, sharing precious information.
Yeah, and it used to have no advertisements. They promised us there would never be advertisements, even once it would be sold and forever after. Lies!
@@michaellauinger7406 get premium or use an ad blocker
We gotta tell Project Farm about this ASAP
@projectfarm Check out this dirt cheap, effective, EvapoRust alternative! :D
He already knows the best.We blacksmiths for years have used one part acetone and one part ATF to loosen rusted nuts. I repair old cast iron skillets in my shop and use simple electrolitical method which is found on RUclips also..
What's atf?@@ericsprado4631
IKR!?
@@ericsprado4631 What is ATF? And how does acetone help in the process?
Best restoration channel on RUclips
It is, absolutely!
Agreed! I just found him and binged 3 videos filled with awesome info! Subscribed for sure!
The best after his main channel: www.youtube.com/@Backyard.Ballistics 😉
@@retro-mondo Self-explanatory 🙂👍🏼
Rust-oration😂😂
There needs to be some sort of "blue collar" category for the Nobel Prize. I hereby nominate this man. I'm also certain that, if the gods are just, this video will end up with 100m views years from now. This is truly a Juggernaut of a discovery.
I came for the formulae, stayed for the video because you straight up said to skip to what i wanted within 5 seconds, perfect
It appears that the citrate solution acts faster than the evapo-rust - which leads me to think that a better comparison test of the effective-ness of each solution, is to measure the base metal dissolution at the point where the rust has been removed. As opposed to waiting a certain amount of time for each solution to damage the base metals.
If the citrate solution is substantially faster than the evapo-rust, the part would require much less time in the solution, which would mitigate some of the increased base metal dissolution.
I would be interested to see a test of a uniformly (intentionally) rusted steel sheet, in both products, removed once the desired rust removal has occurred. Then measure the change to the host material (as well as the evolution of hydrogen from the adverse reaction if possible).
Another great video, I love these technical firearm videos!
Absolutely well explained.
Agreed, it seems like this particular experimental process did his solution a potentially considerable disservice here. That said I suspect people would often leave parts in long after the rust has gone, perhaps leaving parts overnight to process so it's still relevant.
How often do you get things that have a uniform layer of rust tho? That's the real world issue you need to work around
Could he make his solution weaker and so slow his process down? Or is that a daft idea coming from someone with a zero understanding of chemistry!
@@ispanner1062 That would require him to reformulate. He explained how he studied many different solutions, and this worked closest to the expensive chemical remover.
This formulation works AMAZINGLY well! I just tried it on a whole bin of rusty drill bits and it cleaned them perfectly in only 30 minutes. It didn't harm them at all and they're still sharp. And as is said in the video, the solution is STILL active and continues to clean. I've tried straight citric acid, oxalic acid, vinegar and so on and have never been happy with the results. But this simple chelating agent does the job perfectly. This is truly the best and most useful restoration video I've seen anywhere EVER. Thanks so much!
thanks for letting us know you tried it out!
Best legit channel on youtube. This guy is legit OG.
I now know why I was putting off de-rusting all my old rusty tools - I was waiting for the perfect DIY method. Now I have no excuse ! Great work !
Fantastic! Stays on topic, extremely informative, and concise. No waffle, no unrelated stock images/video, well paced, no obnoxiously long channel intro, no BS. This is the standard all instructional videos should follow.
Waffle comment wasting my time
Please do the inhibitor tests, that video will be the holy grail of all rust removal videos for the rest of time if it's of the same quality as this one, and I have no doubt.
HOLY MOTHER!!!!!!! I live close to the sea. Rust on tools is a constant battle for me. You are a GENIUS BUD!!! THANK YOU for this!!!!!!!!!!!
You're welcome
Same here! Rust is a horrible omnipresent thing for us.
I think I heard there's an Evapo-Rust gel that can be applied to fixed structures which can't be bathed in it. How could we do the same to this solution?
@@MoritzvonSchweinitz maybe Methylcellulose /wallpaper paste?
@@MoritzvonSchweinitz fumed sillica
Search youtube for How to thicken / gel phosphoric acid for rust removal
Your not gonna restore your tools you will simply eat them away you know that adjustable wrench with a dial that fits together nicely yeah if that dial corroded to a point where it falls out you don't have an adjustable wrench anymore you effectively made a paper weight
I appreciate you giving the formula time location at the start however, after listening for a few minutes I realized that the information you provide is valuable and worth the time of listening. I subscribed.
Agreed!
Hi I would just like to tell you how happy I am that I found your RUclips clip. I live in Australia where evaporust cost around $100 for a 5lt bottle ( about 1.3 us gallons) I tried your mixture and am absolutely amazed on how well it works. At the first trail I could only get small containers( 75g) of citric acid from my local supermarket so decided to only make a litre for a trial run. I highly underestimated the fizzing effect when combining the two products together and most of it ended up erupting out of my way to small mixing container and down the sink.. so take two and now mixing my 1 litre amount in a 9 litre bucket so no product loss. After every thing settled down I put in a rusty pair of tinsnips. And wow I was so amazed of the results and I just kept put more items in and the solution just kept giving great results. So thankyou for sharing this formula and you have definitely nail it.
Trevor Mooney
You can put the water in the fridge first to slow the reaction down
I 100% recommend this video. I read the comments at the beginning of this video, they sound like you got 100 or more acquaintances to comment on your video, but then I watched your video, they are right. This was my s RUclips at its finest this is exactly what you are looking for when you click on a video but rarely get if ever find. You Sir, not only came up with an AWESOME diy rust removing chemical solution but also managed to make a no fluff no BS succinct yet entertaining video. Amazing
I also needed a inexpensive deruster for automotive parts. I'm going to try this.
I was thinking of my brake calipers the whole time I was watching this. I was also wondering if it would help or be safe in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Thank you for not just showing off, but teaching in a clear way.
Woooooh. Yeah! As a gunsmith, I look forward to your videos as much as i do Mark Novak's. You do a great job going into the chemistry details that other folk wont dare to do. Keep up the great work!
As a beginning gunsmith (waiting on FFL to process) I absolutely love learning from this guy's channel, Mark's channel, and many others. Best retirement career ever!
@@paulis7319 he makes extremely underrated content. He really deserves more views and subscriptions.
Tried your recipe a week or so ago - for the first time... Then made 3 25 litre buckets of solution up, it's been a brilliant means of restoring tools that have built up rust over the years... Thank you for putting this out there.
do you think it will be ok to pre make the solution and use it as needed? wasn't sure if it still worked after the initial reaction.
@@scott697070 I've used the first bucket full pretty much constantly for the last week, it seems to have slowed down a bit and turned a very dark green- almost back... Still works though. Id's suggest it will last, unused, for some time. Still, it's very cheap to make, so even if it does 'run out', dump it and make more...
You're a legend for this.
Mk 1 Bren Gun magazine.
My thought exactly
Me too...
The first thing that popped into my head when I saw it was "Bren mag", before he even asked if we knew what gun it came from.
Wow! I know nothing of guns, really, but I like history and as part of that, view a lot of photos. I am the same with model airplane and aircraft recognition. When he dropped this magazine in the solution I found myself thinking “Bran”. The mind is an amazing thing!
Took a 303 bullet which was the same as the allied forces used in their rifles so the ammunition fitted both guns. The Bren gun could fire single shots so the enemy would think they were up against a rifle. Imagine their surprise to suddenly find it was machine gun. When I was a kid at high school in New Zealand we had an armoury with rifles (303) and a number of Bren guns. One afternoon we were up in the hills , not far from the school when a wild pig ran across the field. The guy on the Bren gun chased the pig with the bullets kicking up the dirt behind it. Was a bad day for the pig.
This guy is what RUclips is meant to be - honest simple straight to the point and consise with confirmed results at the end - you earned a sub here 👍simply brilliant 😄🇦🇺
One test I'd appreciate you performing is how it does on Nickel or Zinc. Not destroying those two is one of the other major selling points of EvapoRust. It's one of the major reasons I am using EvapoRust. Especially when restoring parts where only a section is rusted.
When I have used Evaporust, it took the zinc coating off...not sure about nickel.
In my experience it does that when underneath the coating lies rust.
Although I haven't tried that specifically, Nickel is a very chemically intert metal, and I wouldn't expect the citrate solution to do any harm against it.
Not sure about zinc, that I'll have to try.
I used citric acid to remove zinc plating on bolts. I do not know if reaction with washing soda will change that. You might want to try some bolts to see
@@desobrien3827 nickel is pretty damn resistant. Only way I see it taking that off is like how hard chrome comes off - the base steel has oxidized enough that when the rust is attacked, the plating no longer has anything to hold on to.
How sceptical was I ?Yep… just as anyone else would be… but I medeit exactly as you’ve described and it works exactly as you’ve shown… how kind of you to share this. 🙏🙏🙏🙏
This is an extremely magnanimous action on your behalf!!!! Corporations/governments want to ring everlast cent from us, and you're doing this out of decency, and kindness! May our Creator bless you!
Wonderful video, thank you. I have used citric acid for years as a rust/corrosion remover. I discovered that it worked better with a little Dawn dish soap added. I used baking soda to neutralize the acid on the finished product. I NEVER would have intentionally mixed the three together and expected a BETTER product.
Man this is FASCINATING. I've been avoiding buying a new bottle of evaporust because it's expensive. I already have citric acid and washing soda at home, so now I'm good to go! Thank you so much! I'm pretty excited because I have a pile of old tools in need of restoration.
I will be giving this a try! I've had five gallons of Evaporust soaking in the fuel tank of a 1952 Dodge M37 I've been restoring, which had old fuel sitting in it for over 25 years in the garage after my father parked it in 1997 and only tinkered on it a few times before burying it under junk and forgetting about it. The tank had a disgusting amount of scale within that vinegar and marbles didn't want to touch. The Evaporust indeed worked at first however I noticed it rapidly stopped working and there's still far too much rust in the tank for me to feel its satisfactorily clean. I was planning on finishing with a lot of vinegar rinses- but your formula here seems to be a much better solution. I was planning on using more Evaporust in the water jacket of the engine as well- but if this stuff works in the tank, I'll give it a whirl there too.
I am also wanting to try this out on the water jacket of an engine, and see how it goes. I was going to use Oxalic Acid, or Evaporust, but now I am keen to try this formula
You might think about using electrolysis...I did this with great success on a large motorcycle tank. Used an iron pipe as the electrode with tape on it to prevent it shorting out (put it in the sender hole). Had to grind the rust off the pipe every night, and it took like a week...but it was basically free and did an excellent job.
@@scottclark7559 this is a monstrous 24 gallon tank. I did a Volvo engine block in a poly 55 gallon drum before and I agree- it works. This tank is impractically large for something like that
Booze Rooster, if you do try it, please post on your original comment what your results are. 👍
@Booze_Rooster The MC tank was from a Goldwing...10 gallons maybe? I just filled the tank with water and hooked one end of the battery charger to the tank, and put an iron pipe down the sender hole for the other electrode. I would think if would work fine with a bigger tank, but would probably take longer. The sender hole is probably a lot bigger though, so you could probably also drop a much bigger pipe inside.
I have used your formula to de-rust a motorcycle gas tank. The rust was quite extreme. I left 15l of the solution (as per your formula for citric acid/washing soda/dish soap) in the tank for 48 hours. I realize this is probably MUCH longer than was needed but other events prevented me from returning to the workshop sooner. Nevertheless, upon return, the tank was COMPLETELY free of rust.
I can absolutely attest to the fact that your formula works and works well. I will continue to use it and recommend it to others, crediting you as I go. My only question that remains unanswered is pertaining to shelf life.
The 15l of solution I removed from the tank still appears to be good for many other projects. How long do you estimate the shelf life to be of the stored solution in order for it to still remain effective? Months? years?
Thank you for sharing this information. One of the most useful things I've learned from youtube and something that actually WORKS.
For painting, do you need to wash the solution off or could you just use some epoxy primer on top of this? Speaking for automotive application, I have very hard to reach areas where I can't reach well with any wire wheel or sander
I've made a batch this afternoon and tested it on an imposibly rusted peice of 3mm x 25mm angle iron.
It took 2 hours, but it dissolved all the rust.
EXCELLENT STUFF!😁
Can this work on rust that cannot be dipped, but only sprayed?
Green tea extract might be a decent choice for a safe corrosion inhibitor. It contains catecholins, which can create a single molecule protective layer on bare metal, but actually helps to solubilise oxides. It’s used in chemical-mechanical polishing solutions. Works at very low concentrations, so two or three tea bags worth per litre should be sufficient.
Also, you could try adding a little more sodium salt to the mixture, so you end up with a higher pH. It’s still a very effective chelator and I bet just nudging the pH up to 5.5 or so (10-15% extra sodium carbonate) would put it at the same corrosion level as Evaporust.
Multipurpose tea usage: Britishness confirmed.
If I'm reading this right, just throw some regular green tea bags into the mixture and let them steep and then...good to go? (sorry, I'm tea ignorant)
@@PaulHanak Honestly, not entirely sure. Industrial solutions use an extract which is purified to contain just the helpful compounds, but the other things in green tea, like tannins and other phytochemicals probably won’t cause issues in this application so yeah, definitely worth a go just trying it the way you said.
@@PaulHanak the more important question is whether to use Typhoo or PG Tips.
@@simontillson482 I have a litre batch of the recommended solution on the bench. I will split it and add 2x teabags to one half and use the other as a control. We will see if they can be differentiated.
Excellent video!! Super!! I am so impressed. I am a chemist by the way. Did you test your solution with dish soap against a formulation without dish soap? You use the dish soap as a surfactant. A more effective and common surfactant is the liquid fabric softener that you use in the laundry. The next time you do your laundry, and there are bubbles all around, throw in a capful of liquid fabric softener. The bubbles will disappear because they need surface tension to form. I do agree that a surfactant is helpful in your formulation. From Wiki: "Rinse-cycle softeners usually contain cationic surfactants of the quaternary ammonium type as the main active ingredient." Keep making these great videos.
that's absolutely fascinating. What are your thoughts on adding a small amount of TSP?
TSP?
@@shanonallen5395 trisodium phosphate, I think
How about the surfactant used in dishwashers?
Great video, I made up the solution as detailed using washing soda but I used an old bottle of Kodak Photo-Flo 200 which I had lying around from B&W film processing days as a surfactant. Photo-Flo is "...a wetting agent used to minimize water marks or streaks during film development. It is used after the final wash when processing films to decrease the water-surface tension and promote faster, more uniform drying." Does not contain perfumes or colorants like fabric softener or dish soap.
Worked really well!
Finally, an excellent video on making your own rust remover that works. Thanks a million!!! Excellent video on all counts! I should also add: For years I have been making my own Washing Soda as I need it for electrolysis when I cook metal to remove rust - but I'm liking this video's solution better! To make your own washing soda, take baking soda and pour on any cookie tin/sheet and place in a 400 deg F preheated oven for 1 hour 10 min, occasionally mixing it every 20 mins or so. That's it! Once I went to the store to buy washing soda and they were out. Ever since, I just make my own. I buy 50lb bags of food grade baking soda for around $70 Canadian. Hope that helps. This also means that the washing soda will always be fresh and at full strength.
Electrolysis then acid, any acid eats rust!
Simply stunning. I was skeptical and expected nothing when I tested this. I was happily surprised. I like working on old cars and old shop equipment - both breeding farms for rust. I tested one piece for which I had a virtual twin in the same rusty state as a control. Amazing! I cannot say thank you enough. This will save a ton of work and a ton of unnecessary grinding - wire brushing. Thank you sir!
Really impressiv, Gunsmithing feels like chemistery sometimes !
This is a fantastic solution you've found. There's a lot of "real life needs" here too. In most cases whether firearms, tools, or just rusty machine parts what we need is ALL the rust GONE in one application and it's perfectly acceptable for the base metal to be attacked as long as it's only a tiny amount. Also the job needs to be done in a couple hours or less. This ticks the boxes. I've got a rusty bandsaw that needs to be restored and this may just do it. I can actually afford to mix up several gallons of this unlike buying a 5 gallon bucket of Evaporust that would cost me half what replacing the band saw would cost defeating the entire purpose of cleaning it up.
I don't even restore guns (I'd like to, but literally I wouldn't know where to start), but I watch every video you make and your advice is precious for other hobbies as well! This formula makes no exception!
E il fatto che tu sia italiano rende tutto ancora più bello 😁
I started about 4 years ago working on shotguns and cheap iver johnson revolvers. I'm in the US so it may be different for you. But just jump into it with a cheapish, non collectable firearm as practice.
Impressive. 2 years ago I've bought two 20L pails of evaporust to remove rust into the gas tank of my antique tractor restoration project. It did the job but at a huge cost. Besides, the product was basically dead after the gas tank event. Your solution (no pun intended here) is definitely very sensible and obviously efficient considering the cost and simplicity of its composition. Thanks for sharing this.
Hello from deep North of Canada! gREAT GREAT VIDEO! Thanks for these tests and informations realy helpful and to see it live was perfect! I was wondering would you ad like 1 once of vinaigar to your solution? Thanks again for your work and time to do all those tests! I am a sharpener knives, garden tools do you think like knives and pocket knives would cause damage exemple the G10 OR MACARTA ON THE HANDLS ? God Bless you! Frank from the Deep North!
so happy to see this today. I'm retired, and have a small hobby shop. I like to repurpose found steel, but cannot afford to buy 5 gallon buckets of EvapoRust. This is a perfect solution, and with materials that I already have on hand. I always have citric acid and washing soda on hand, I can't wait to try this.
Adding the base to water first then acid is much safer and doesn't bubble, just tested it as it is the common way to mix acid.
For me mixing the base last, it started smoking while bubbling and it really stings to breathe in 😅
The other way around there wasn't any bubbling or smoke.
And to prolong the mix, clean the parts in straight lye and soap first. If there is any oil on it this removes the most of it
My chemistry teacher always said, "do it like you oughter; add the acid to the water" so we'd remember. 50 years later, I still do.
Right, I make soap like you said, first adding lye to water, than add lye water to liquid oils and in the end adding other ingredients like citric acid.
Citric acid is a much weaker acid than hydrochloric or sulfuric where you need to worry about that. It is safe as he described.
If you used washing soda or baking soda and didn't get bubbles regardless of mixing order, there is something wrong. Bubbles here are carbon dioxide from the base, rather than boiling water from heat from diluting strong acid.
There's a good article with tests from a German chemical manufacturer titled "Effective chelation with citrates and gluconates" - it has some useful figures on sequestering value vs. pH and solution temperature.
That's very interesting, I'll read that. Thank you for suggesting.
A few details or link please.
@@murray4826 That's the exact title, it's searchable. RUclips removes nearly all comments with links.
@@scilojI've found that even posts with a URL spelled out as domain_name dot something will often be removed.
Jungbunzlauer ?
Absolutely brilliant. I used a product similar to evaporust on half a vintage rusty chain for 5 days. Yes it cleaned 40% back to clean metal but still has heaps of rust. I used your formula on the other half and it's 95% back to clean metal in 2.5hrs. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to seeing if you come across any updates to the formula
Sensational video & methodology, thank you for sharing - real credit to you for being selfless enough to do this.
I've been following your channel for a long time, in terms of theory and practice in restoring weapons to their original condition, i.e. without fakes, in my opinion the best here!!!!
I had already assumed that you worked professionally in the chemical industry.
Big praise for your work and sharing your knowledge, keep it up 👍🏼
Best regards, The Electroplater 😉
Big THANKS!! I'm doing a full restoration on a 2007 Volvo XC70 I bought as a project. Your video has been a life saver! I paid in Canada about $14 for 2lb of citric acid anhydride. I saw the tip of the green tea as inhibitor. I plan to spray with brake cleaner and prime/paint right after.
As an engineer I loved your DOE and how you actually made a scientific approach with similar samples, baseline etc. I give you A++
What's DOE?
@@disrespectful7862 Design of Experiments. It is a statistical technique to optimize a process. You start changing factors in a controlled way and/or with different levels and measure the effect in your target variable. Hope it clarified your question
Can this work on rust that cannot be dipped, but only sprayed?
@@IAmCraaiigg I don't think so. Probably adding some gelatin and applying it with a brush? That's the only thing I can think of.
This is an amazing video! Thank you for continuing to help gunsmiths around the world with your unbiased testing and dedication to the community! I've learned so much from watching your channel... Thank you so much!
I'm not a chemist, but I'm fascinated by what makes things do what they do; and more importantly, how efficiently they do it. Great video!! And thanks for sharing your work.
you just condensed 3 days of research into a 15 minute perfect tutorial and reminder for me!
i will probably think of you every time i mix a new one!
thank you, what a gift! ❤
This is historical. The amount of people who have been needing and searching for a solution is unmeasurable. You have made a massive leap in all things metal restoration. Also is that a Bren magazine?
Once again another great video & very informative. I must add if you’re planning on using on guns that have distinctive markings, be aware that the rust remover will slowly degrade these markings if left in solution too long unless you add a corrosion inhibitor as mentioned
We need a paper written right now! This is such an amazing discovery for all diy rust removal
Great video, thanks for sharing. I have one question - I use a lot of rust killers/ converters in car restoration, very expensive and not very good. I need to treat sections of a car which can't obviously go into a bath of your solution. What do you think you might add to it to make it to be applied to car sections so it won't run off - In the same way Naval Jelly is a more solid substance.
Heres a question. How affective would your citric acid and sodium carbonate solution be when sprayed on a surface (vs submerged). Worth using or more effective to just grind rust off?
Sharing this with my FB smithing group...like several other vids lol!
Thanks for your time!
Thank you for watching!
This was a fantastic find! I work with model trains, and for the pre-WWII trains, there is frequent discussion on how to safely and efficiently remove rust. I am sharing this with my friends.
Always do a test sample - there may be alloys this recipe might be too agrressive with.
What an excellent and worthwhile presentation unlike a lot of stuff that finds its way onto U Tube, thank you very much.
This works beautifully for doing what’s promised ie removing rust.
I found however on various items that when taken out of the solution they had a quite thick black oily coverage and once wiped of the items then had changed colour to a dark grey/black .
I am not concerned with the colour change but the oily deposit on the surfaces puzzles me.
I didn’t think any of the items had oil on them pre dip ,otherwise why did the rust so badly , but I am guessing they must have had .
Can you answer this conundrum for me please and Pam I right in thinking that I should degrease any item with say brake cleaner before putting in the solution.
Thank you for such a wonderful explanation and the substantial work you have done in achieving the splendid end result and it very inexpensive and it works
Amazing work! I'd love to see how this compares to electrolysis. That's been by goto for big parts, but this looks cheap enough to even put that to shame.
Thanks for the great vid and all your hard work!
Note: pH 1 to 4 is 1000x less acidic;
Logarithmic means 10x per unit, so 3 units is 10^3 = 1000
Bonus tip: 0.3 units is double (roughly)
Geeky note: this is for the 'natural logarithm', ie, 10; youbcan have any number
Cheers
Edit: log bases are evil,
Base answer exponent
ie,
Log (10) 1000 = 3
Equivalent to
10^3=1000
Well, mostly right. Except there are two log scales that are used frequently, Base 10 logs and natural logs (Base e). e is an irrational number like pi and is approximately 2.71828. The pH scale uses the base 10 log scale where the pH value (ph 4, for example) means the concentration of acid is 1.0 x 10^(-4) = 0.0001 moles/L. "pH" comes from the German language form of negative log.
@steveh8724 yup you're right about natural logs, and natural logarithm is "ln" (pronounced 'lawn')
Didn't know about the German origins of pH tho! Thanks 😺
Hat off tou you. Also for not 'milking' the subect, but rather trying to squeeze as much info as possible on this one video!
Absolutely EXCELLENT information conducted extremely professionally! My only suggestion for improvement is when pouring the 20 liter container, turn around so the opening is at the top. That way, as you pour, it will flow out without sloshing which is a much better technique to pour liquid from a container. I mean no disrespect, only pointing it out so as to show a better technique.
This is magic!. I was given some tools that have been rusting in a barn for decades. Every cleaned up. Some were losing their chrome coating from the rust. Some had pitted metal but the rust is gone. Now I need to preserve them from rusting again. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for your scientifically well -based presentation. I am a chemical engineer with 40 years spent in the oil industry where I could gather all kind of experience from very widely separated areas. You are great.
THANK YOU. I cannot stress enough my gratitude for this useful information you have presented. I have always been skeptical and hesitant to use most of the commercial rust removers. It struck me that for them to as affective as described, they also had to be damaging the base metal. Commenting on your channel, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. You come across as sincere with all your presentations, they are clear, derailed, and easy to follow. I have learnt a lot from your videos. Keep up the good work.
*detailed, not derailed. Sorry.
I soaked my old brake calipers in your solution for 48 + 48 hours, then painted them with heat resistant paint. They look probably better than when they rolled out of the factory 18 years ago. The best part is, the solution is still working, although it looks nasty asf. Whatever I drop in there comes out rust free. Thank you very much!
I’m buying a new bin just for this project! I need it for more than one project. Thanks for sharing your results.👍
Did you just pull out the parts and washed it down with water before painting? What kind of prep did you do before painting after soaking in the solution?
@@PAWNED562 Soak 48h, wire brush the gunk off, soak another 48h, wire brush, wash. Then brake cleaner, more wirebrush, more water, then dry. Then wipe with rubbing alcochol. Then heat resistant spray paint, no primer. (Taped off areas that paint shouldn't get to).My soaking times were probably overkill, but I was in no hurry.
@@PAWNED562 Good question.👍
Fantastic! Bravo on figuring out your recipe and well done for the unbiased thorough testing. This is a great resource for many, thank you!
I almost never comment. Now I do. I can confirm the method works! My case the most surprising fact was that it requires no effort. Bury the stuff in it, sprinkle the acid solution. Literally works in any combination.
My friend. That was an excellent video and so very helpful too. Fantastic solution. Citric acid and washing soda... BRILLIANT !!!
The internet delivers! A smart guy on youtube tells me how to make my life better, and it doesn't involve me stopping eating icecream!
Many thanks for your efforts, and everything that went into sharing this!
I just gave you a shoutout in my video today. Thanks for your work!
Could your solution be turned into a gel? That would be super useful for large parts. Great video thank you.
I'm curious too, maybe xanthan gum, cornstarch, or guar gum would work.
A little googling indicates xanthan can handle acid solutions, for what that's worth
I was too lazy to do the exact formula since i was doing it in a 60L plastic bucket. Alot bubbled over at one point and I didn't feel like leaving the garage go to go get dish soap so I used karcher outdoor pressure washing soap. After about a month the fluid is pitch black from having numerous car parts sitting in it, it doesnt seem to cause any problems of having things sit in it for a week or so at a time probably because it has gotten cold around 10C probably. The most surprising thing I can take away is after wiping down the part no rust has returned at all. The parts are sitting out in the garage and not a thing has changed. I grabbed some fluid into jars for screws and it seems to have worked well and not gotten black. I have noticed some screws are spotless losing whatever coating they may have had and the metal has become more of a gunmetal color which I usually use a wirebrush disk to clean off.
You, sir, are an official MVP for all Men of the world who work with tools/DIY/Automotive/workshop/metalwork. Thank you for your service My good man...
This is incredible. Absolute game changer for me. Thank you for this wonderful contribution.
I put this to work today cleaning up a large pile of tools that had gotten rusty and corroded from a fire many years ago. Most of the tools came out looking absolutely excellent, minus whatever minor pitting and lost chrome they already had. It didn't even really damage the grips on the tools and a toothbrush both on the tools and the grips cleaned off any remaining soot/crud/corrosion. This stuff is awesome. 6lbs of citric acid and a big box washing soda $25 total from Amazon. Enough to make 7 gallons of the stuff and I only used about 1.5 gallons. Didn't bother to try to save it. Why? It was super dark after the abuse I put it through and it didn't cost jack considering it probably completely restored at least $250 in tools.
Can we have a shootout for the subtitles Carlo has made? They make a difference over here, so thanks for the extra effort.
Is that a BREN magazine? And I'm definitely trying this solution to clean my medieval armour kit!
Damn. Probably one of the MOST informative videos I have seen on YT.
Thank you Sir! Subscribed!!!
You're killing it, as usual.
This is a very well done and useful study. One thing that may cause some variation in results is that sodium carbonate (washing soda) is not always the same. The anhydrous form is what you'd normally encounter in a chemistry lab, and seems to be assumed here based on 40 g of sodium carbonate being equivalent to 63 g of bicarbonate or 30g of hydroxide.
The confusion is that at least in the US, the usual thing sold as washing soda is the decahydrate, so you would need a lot more: 107g of that to provide as much base.
The consequence of too little base would likely be more rapid attack of bare metal, but it should still dissolve rust.
@@alans1816 This is really helpful information. I hadn’t thought about lab vs basic US retail. I need to think and research ingredients a little more. You really helped me in planning some of these little projects. Need to read ingredients & research. 👍😊
@lzh3131 One other thing you might want to consider is the utility of an anticorrosion additive like triethanolamine.
@ Thank you for all your help! I guess I’ll be clicking on Amazon!👍
Not sure if anyone will read this, nor did I see anyone ask quickly- have you or anyone checked the rust resistance post this treatment? Based on what you mentioned, there is some protection on the steel, but just hoping that someone has tested it.
BTW, I tried this and it worked really well- saved me from getting new bolts for my car refresh. May try a larger version for bigger parts, but I could get full suspension assemblies that were fully assembled for parts.
Thanks for doing the research and publishing it so that we can all use it.
Words fail me on how to describe how much easier and better you've made many people's lives by researching, experimenting & posting this video (not to mention the formula, which you could well have made millions on had you been greedy).
I'm flat broke at the moment but you can bet one of the first ports of call after buying the ingredients & soaking some tractor parts will be your patreon to make a donation to the cause. Thank you, really appreciate you sharing this.
Thanks! This is a lifesaver. I'd love to see it as a gel application for very large parts. and if it's safe on chrome parts
Wallpaper paste is the solution. It will gel it up quickly.
@Travellerwiz Anwered the question which just popped into my head...how to make it into a gel! Thank you.
I'd love to see a test with the solution gelled up.
Nice! I have no idea about the chemistry behind all of this (mechanikal engineer), but thank you. One question: Would adding starch to the mix (and maybe coocking it for a brief time) to thicken it and make it into some kind of gel to better stick to large things change the composition so much, that it stops to work?
I have a lot of things that would benefit from a derust, but are either to large to fit into a container or are simply stuck in concrete. So a gel-like solution that sticks to the metal would be awesome.
If you tried it let me know! I might try it. Have an old trailer that needs painting. Gelatin, that is used in cooking is my thought, pretty neutral? I was thinking an old crockpot might work?🤷♀️👍
Very nicely done!
Wow, I would have never thought to see you here! Thank you for taking the time!
I have a large 4ft x 4ft metal pumpkin that I'm trying to get the rust off so I can spray paint it. I'm from the US and not sure about the conversion for mixture and what you mean by citric acid. Thanks
Tested and approved ! I had some troubles with the flash rust after rinsing the parts. The solution was simple though, just dip the parts in some cutting fluid ( water with soluble oil) and it's instantly protected. Once dry, use the oil of our choice. A big thanks.
Is it safe to paint on parts after they were dipped in cutting fluid? Or would that need to be cleaned off again?
@@MGMan37 It's oily so you need to degrease before painting. Acetone or brake cleaner will do the job. I use this process because I've been given tons of rusty tools, drill bits, reamers, etc, painting wasn't an option.
You say the only advantage of Evaporust is the lack of hydrogen evolution. In fact this is a highly significant difference. Hydrogen embrittles alloy steels which is an issue where springs or high strength steels are used, for instance in automotive applications. Mild steel is not embrittled so bracketry, sheet casings etc are unaffected. But you would definitely be ill advised to use an acidic solution for cleaning stressed parts made from high carbon steels. In industry acid pickling is followed by baking at high temperature to diffuse out the hydrogen but it is much better not to introduce hydrogen because not all can be removed this way. It disrupts the crystal lattice forming weak points and being a small molecule it can relatively easily diffuse into the crystal lattice.
That's definitely still an advantage, but the thing is if you're refinishing after de-rusting, you most likely will need to evolve at least a bit of hydrogen on the surface. That is true for phosphating primers, parkerizing, electroplating, and the pre-bluing etching. In all these cases the hydrogen coming from the citrate composition will be small compared to the finishing one. I'd still be careful with long soak times on high strength steel kept under load, like a loaded leaf spring.