Barkeeper's Friend Powder as a de-rust soak - From the TIL thread

It's cheap and makes a great rust remover soak. Find it where you find Comet in your local Hardware store or Mallwart. 

It has no smell and is a LOT cheaper than molasses, vinegar, or some sort of specialty rust remover dunk. It's also not especially harsh to the un-gloved skin. I've been trying it on some smaller tools in a little tub with room temperature water. Seems to work overnight if you don't mind giving the parts a brush down every so often. I've just been grabbing the little parts with my fingers and rinsing my hands off after. No issues. 

The active ingredient is oxalic acid.

I’m going to try this on a rusty tailgate handle. 

What temp do you heat the water  for best results ?

Thanks

californiamilleghia said:

What temp do you heat the water  for best results ?

Thanks

I didn't heat the water at all. Just a room temperature soak. I did start with hot water though to help the powder dissolve. I am finding the water saturates pretty quickly. Second try was less powder for the same amount of water and I still had some powder in the bottom that didn't dissolve. I'm going to check the shed for something really far gone to give the solution a good test, but the little wrench and screwdriver bits came out fine after an overnight soak. 

EDIT - I found some sort of garden implement and stuck it in a bucket of hot water and "BKF" I'll check on it tomorrow.

In reply to akamcfly :

Any "after" pics?

I've had my latch handle soaking for a couple days and the bubbling has been minimal. I had the liquid barkeeper's friend, so I need to stop and get some of the powdered stuff.

Greg Smith said:

In reply to akamcfly :

Any "after" pics?

 

It's still chewing on it. The part is quite pitted and corroded. I'll take it out later for a during pic. I have some CX500 parts and I'll set up another run tonight or tomorrow. It's pretty cool how deep the pits are on this part though. looks like it was stabbed all over multiple times with a soldering iron.

dculberson said:

I've had my latch handle soaking for a couple days and the bubbling has been minimal. I had the liquid barkeeper's friend, so I need to stop and get some of the powdered stuff.

It's the powder I'm using. I'm not sure if the liquid works as well or at all.

WOW! So, I started with this:

which is the hatch handle for the Suzuki Sidekick. It was so badly rusted that you could barely get the handle to move, and if you tried to open it from the outside, then you couldn't unlock it and it seemed like everything was bound up tight. Using the liquid barkeeper's friend diluted with water, I started the soak:

and let it soak for a few days. Honestly I kind of forgot about it for the most part. It was sitting in my unheated but attached garage, so temps in the upper 40s at the highest. I was not getting the heavy bubbles seen earlier, but thought I would just let it do its thing just in case it worked. A few days later I went to check and the water was very dirty.

Ugh! Well, I pulled the handle out and CHECK IT OUT!!!

HOLY CRAP. I rinsed it off, dried it thoroughly with paper towels, and then soaked it with tri-flow lubricant. It went from fully non-functional to fully functional. I have a 100% working hatch on the Sidekick and it cost me $0. Excellent! Thank you for the tip, and yes apparently the liquid stuff does work it's just not as dramatic. I imagine I ended up with a more dilute solution than using the powder.

Me again. I have the front axle and a foot peg assembly from the CX500 (well, they were in the "basket" I got with it). I just got home from a short tip and I'm going to look in a few minutes. But first coffee.

EDIT - coffee time has ended!

Before

And after 1 week in the bath.

Seems one could dump parts removed in the bath Sunday evening and spend the week doing regular boring grown-up stuff.Come Saturday morning, they're ready for a rinse and coat of paint or grease or whatever. No power consumption and no stink. 

Also, I found that Scotchbrite works better than my little wire brush for de-scaling. There was some brown on the peg when I took it out, but after a very brief rub and rinse, it came out like the pic.

I'm led to believe there's a fair bit of abrasive powder in the mix and what I thought was saturation of the acid, is merely the abrasive settling out. So I dumped in extra powder to see what happens. Basement temp is low to mid 60s this time of year.

I also think I might look for a big crock pot at the Sally Ann to see if and how the heat might help more stubborn stuff. I might, as I don't exactly have a shortage of crap already...

I know I'll try it in my Harborfright Ultrasound cleaner.

Old Shopsmith Mk5 left out in the shed for too long.

We begin with this.

Then a minute or two with a sponge and BKF

Then a few minutes with a brown Scotchbrite strip and more BKF

About 15 minutes invested.

I'll be soaking a BP crankshaft this spring 

In reply to captdownshift :

Don't be shy with the powder. Much of it is there as an abrasive and will settle to the bottom of the tub. It still goes a long way - I wouldn't doubt it if 1/2 a container would do that crankshaft in a few days of soaking and light wipe-down with a brown Scotchbrite pad once a day to remove the loose stuff. Or about a US dollar's worth of powder if you're keeping track. 

I've got a few old wrenches  and clamps soaking now. How do I keep them from rusting agsin?

I've got a few old wrenches  and clamps soaking now. How do I keep them from rusting again?

I cleaned up a set of hand chisels with BKF and some Scotch pads. it's pretty amazing stuff. 

As far as preventing future rust? Maybe a light coat of 3 in 1 oil or similar? Just a few drops on a shop rag or towel & wipe them down...

To prevent rust, I rub my tools using an oily rag before storing them.

Thanks! I tried wd40 and it works ok. I'll dig out the 3in1 and try that.

I have experimented with rust prevention.  I used to use Break Free CLP.  I have found that Hess Gun Oil works superior to Break Free at preventing rust, at least in the somewhat humid NW AR environment.  I still use Break Free to clean and lube guns, but use Hess Gun Oil on steel based gun parts as a surface protectant.

Hess Gun Oil:

   When you change your oil, take the empty fully synthetic oil jug and turn it upside down and let it drain into one big jug.  A funnel may help draining one big jug into another.  When you have enough fully synthetic motor oil in the collection jug, take an empty bottle of something like shampoo, etc., clean and dry it out, put a mark on it half way up.  Fill the bottle to the half way mark with the fully synthetic motor oil.  Fill it up the rest of the way with regular (not slow) mineral spirits based paint thinner.  Shake (optional).  Done.  I then fill smaller bottles from the big bottle and leave the smaller bottles around where they might be needed.  Put Hess Gun Oil on whatever bare metal you want to protect and wipe it around.