film/book review Cleaning by Vinegar

[woa2]

I read a letter in Practical Classics magazine last weekend, about cleaning rusty items with Vinegar (the stuff you put on chips). The writer of the letter had cleaned surface rust from a fan he had just bought. It sounded interesting (and Cheap) so I tried it. I used 2 large washers with surface rust to use as a trial. I bought a pint bottle of Vinegar from Asda for 13p and put some in a small dish with the washers. I left them for 12 hours and then cleaned them in water with a washing sponge. I was amazed how they came up - the metal was clean and ready for painting. I will now try other items.

Some points to remember -

1. Do this outside undercover, as the Vinegar smells.

2. Wash and dry the items thoughly in water afterwards to get rid of the vinegar and prevent more corrosion.

3. It will clean light surface rust, but that is all.

4. Make sure the bowl/dish you use is big enough and has enough Vinegar to cover the items to be cleaned.

 

I am yet to try whether Brown or Clear Vinegar is best, but Brown certainly works and is cheap.

 

Try it on a test sample and see the effect - let us know how you get on.

[Rover8FFR]

This reminds me of the old test at school with dirty old pennies.

 

It has been an old tradition to clean jewellery in vinegar and I know that works.

 

It would be interesting as to how this works on small galv or zinc coated items???

 

Keep us posted on your experiments.

 

Regards :-D

[eddy8men]

top tip

don't discard the old vinegar,simply place it back in the bottle and put on the inlaws food when they visit, this also works for other unwanted guests and if you really don't like them tell them about your trick but only after they've eaten

[Tony B]

Also a very good for cleaning up glass. It is also added to some commercial cleaners.

(Actually Mrs Beaton has a lot of recommendation on the use of Vinigar)

[ferretfixer]

Also a very good for cleaning up glass. It is also added to some commercial cleaners.

(Actually Mrs Beaton has a lot of recommendation on the use of Vinigar)

 

I wonder If anyone has tried cleaning Mrs.Beaton with vinigar?..................:-D

[Tony B]

I wonder If anyone has tried cleaning Mrs.Beaton with vinigar?..................:-D

 

Naughty, naughty! :nono:

[Rick W]

Tou could try Coke that takes off light surface rust. Have a look at some of the gizmos metal detectorists use. Ive got a cylindrical tumbler, full of nails, works wonders and doesnt actually do any damage to the metal surprisingly enough.

[Stefano]

....very handy for cleaning out carburetters as well - just the ticket when you've got an amal with a blocked needle jet..

nb: wine vinegar works just as well - save the malt for chips (there's no such thing as malt vinegar in Italy )

[Stone]

Tou could try Coke that takes off light surface rust.

Coke is just dilute phosphoric acid - you can buy stronger / purer quite easily. Mostly depends on what's to hand, I suspect!

 

Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is supposed to be good for surface-prep of aluminum; not sure what you're supposed to do with the nasty wasteproduct though...?

 

Stone

[Tony B]

Can't you do electrolitic cleaning with vinegar?

[mk1mark]

Anything acidic will have a similar effect. I use the stuff sold in machine mart as brick cleaner as a bulk de ruster. Its a fairly strong solution of hydrochloric acis & works about 100 times better than vinegar.

 

When using acid to remove rust it is always essential that the component is thoroughly rinsed & then nuetralised in washing soda or something similar.

[AlienFTM]

The coaxial GPMG gets badly sooted up after converting large numbers of live rounds into empty cases. RSM 15/19H (who tragically lost his battle with cancer on Tuesday) decided we'd wear brass cap badges instead of Staybrite. Imagine our delight when we discovered that Silver Dip, as well as bringing up a brass cap badge like new, did likewise with the gas-affected parts of a GPMG.

[FWDTEXAS]

Just remember, cleaning steel with any kind of acid(vinigar etc) or sand blasting not only remouves the rust but also metal. Electric derusting only removes paint and rust, that is what I am using and it is far more enviromental friendly as the waste water can be used on your lawn and plants as a firtalizer. Check out my entries on the FWD regarding this subject. pre ww2 vehicles

[dgsadorset]

i used vineger to free off aluminium mirror arms that were into iron mountings. not sure how long it actually took as nothing gets done in a rush here.

[ferrettkitt]

Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is supposed to be good for surface-prep of aluminum; not sure what you're supposed to do with the nasty wasteproduct though...?

 

Stone

 

Stick it down the drain its the stuff in a lot of drain cleaners.

 

Caustic Soda depending on the strength of the solution used will completely dissolve Aluminium if left without being checked.

 

It also good for removing paint from steel items and can be used with a great deal of care with Aluminium.