Wheel work.

dubnutty

dubnutty

Member
Well hope this works! My first time trying electrolysis. Starting with some Kelsey Hayes 16” wheels. Here is my set up.
 

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Following the YouTube instructions of one table spoon of washing soda to a gallon of water. The charger is set to two amps. It's been in the tank for five hours as of this posting but I'm assuming is going to be in there awhile.
 
My Cub Cadet wheel was extremely rusted due to calcium chloride someone used.
Two days in the tank removed all the rust and paint.
 
I a doing a set of four 19 inch wheels now. The sacrifice metal is a weight used in bar-bell sets of about 20 pounds After the first 24 hours I checked and found the weight was shiny and the wheel looked like it had grown hair along the rim. The connections were backward. Once I changed that error the process has worked OK but the rims have not been shiny like the weight was after 24 hours in the tank. The wheels come out black. Any thoughts as to why that is the case? Jack
 
I used this process years ago on tractor restorations and it worked well. I found that the anodes needed to be directly in line with the rust being removed for the best results.
I used a stainless tank, and just set mild steel bar stock around the parts, moving their positions as required to be "line of sight" with the rust.
In your setup, rotating the part position relative to the anodes, and flipping it sideways at some point may make the process go faster.
The black just wire brushes off and leaves clean steel.
I just finished some '35 wires, but tried molasses and blasting this time.
 
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This is how the wheel looks now. It does have this black coating on it but does brush off and some wire brushing. The rust and paint flake off easily but the spokes make it hard to clean every nook. I may still take them to the blasters. My glass bead cabinet is to small but would have cleaned them up nice. The next one is going to stay in there longer so let's see how it comes out.
 

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Wash the black off with a stiff brush and dish soap or spray marine clean on and let sit for twenty minutes and hose off. Then back in the tank for a couple of days and repeat until your happy with results. I've cleaned a stack of wheels and other sheet metal parts. I have found that some of the black is old paint down in the pits and becomes real gummy.
 
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From my experiences.

Carbon instead of rebar for the anodes (think they are positive, I wrote that on my container). Leaves the parts easier to clean.

Consider putting one down the center. While electrolysis seems to travel well, one down the center will help the middle some.
 
I was lead to believe that electrolysis caused hydrogen embrittlement of spring steels and whilst I have used it a lot in the past, I was always worried about its effect on spokes?
The answer apparently is to boil the item for a period of time?
Anybody got some hard facts on this issue?
Keith
 
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