Electrolysis...........

[Spider-F5]

Mans other best friend? At least in the metal detecting world, I'd have to say yes. lol I'd never gave the word a second thought until recently and I'll share a lil' story that leads up to how the word and i were finally properly introduced.

I've only been dirt fishing for a very short while and up until recently have confined my detecting to the immediate area around my house (to develop good habits, technique and to get an overall feel of the sport) which consists of about two acres or so. I've found quite a bit of interesting things over the past few months that range from Clad, older coins, brass fittings old paper shot shells, nails, a broad range and variety of pull tabs.you get the idea? well, my property and the adjoining properties around me have been in the family for over a hundred years and has quite the history, and over the Thanksgiving holidays i decided it was time to venture out a bit and begin to dirt fish in larger wooded areas that begin just beyond my yard. taking it slow and taking sections at a time, griding as i go along. i have stumbled on what I'm convinced are a couple of what was once old structures.... barns, sheds, shops. I'm really not sure but i uncovered quite a bit of iron in and around each location ranging from old "tin" sheet metal that was used as roof material, plow attachments, hinges, plow harnessing tackle, milk glass mason lids, elongated link chains ect ect. as luck would have it, i contracted a severe case of poison ivy shortly after that and it's taken me a bit over a month to get over it. in the meantime i took a break from detecting and was faced with what/how to deal with all of this neat stuff that I'm pullin out of the ground and that's when i started researching "Electrolysis". after watching several online videos and reading a bit from different sites, i decided it was time to apply what I've learned and go out and purchase everything that is needed to proceed. attached are a few before and after pics of what Ive done thus far. hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

HH<Spider

 

[Spider-F5]

the neatest thing i found is what i believe to be an old step for a horse drawn buggy or carriage. im really not sure so if anyone has any thoughts knowledge of this. please chime in.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Wow, im impressed..you did a very good job cleaning up that iron..very good job...now would be the best time to put some kind of preservative on them..... any details on what you used to make your electrolysis unit out of and how long it took for the results you achieved?

 

[Spider-F5]

Thanks BH. It's amazing how well this works. I've sprayed the pieces I've done so far with penetrating oil. Works purdy good but would like to try something that's more oil based in the future. The things I acquired to do the electrolysis was a 7 to 8 gallon storage tote/container, a box of arm and hammer washing soda, an old school 6-12 volt charger that has 2 to 6 amps of charge, a spool of bailing wire, some heavy duty wire end clips from Ace Hardware, a 3 foot long adjustable wood type clamp (to suspend parts from over the vat of water), some scap iron to use on the positive side lead. The process on most whole parts only takes about 2 to 3 hours but varies depending on the amount of rust. The parts that take the longest and most tedious are those that have multiple sections as the part I posted that has the big ring to it. I had to pain stakinly perform the process on each piece.
There are plenty of "how to" vids on you tube.
Hope this helps

HH<Spider

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Thanks for the feedback...