Calling all metallurgists

[ClarkGriswald]

Just a tip, if you cant find washing soda.. I have used regular baking soda right out of the box in my freezer.. works great..

It helps to use a battery as your source and then have a battery charger keeping that up.. it makes a more stable DC and works better.

[Montreux_Blue]

There is some stuff (Zep Root Kill) they sell at Home Depot to kill roots in your sewer lines. It was some blue crystals that contained copper sulfate pentahydrate. I used it and was using a hand shovel around the hole only to notice it coated it in a thin layer of copper.
Just a thought.

[dbeardslee]

Clark - Sometimes old technology is the best. The charger I've got on it is over 50 years old, and it doesn't know about variable amperage like the modern ones do. It just sits there and throws 4 amps continuosly. It'll also cook a battery if you leave it on too long If I had a newer charger, I think I would use your battery-in-between solution. Thanks for the heads-up.

Montreux_Blue (where do you guys come up with these handles?!) - How would you get it in the tank and attached to the surfaces. Does it come off the shovel handle easily, or do you have to get aggressive? You've intrigued me.

[ClarkGriswald]

Also if current drops its not working well anymore.. provided there is still rust on the piece.. you can shake stuff around or best, take out your electrodes and scrub em clean of gunk and it will fire it back up to full speed again.

[dbeardslee]

Clark - I've been pulling the anode every 2-4 hours and scrubbing it with a wire brush, and replacing it each morning with a new one, as the overnight deteriorates the coat hanger. I just dumped the old solution as I wanted to see what was going on in the tank. It's starting to look really good. After I get the inside good and clean I'm going to submerse the whole thing in a plastic tank and try the process on the outside. I just painted a tank, and had a heck of a time getting the rust out of the tunnel. I'm pretty confident at this point that this process will work much better.

One note on pulling the anode when using the rubber stopper - it builds up pressure inside the tank, so it's best to break the seal slowly and allow the pressure to escape. Unless you like getting showered with nasty corrosion filled electrolyte solution. DAMHIK I'm pretty sure I had that deer-in-headlights look on my face.

[Yahman]

Why not just put a vent tube in the rubber plug?

Larry

[dbeardslee]

Larry - Don't try and baffle me with common sense That's a great idea. Next time I change the anode I think I'll drill another hole. Thanks dude.

[Montreux_Blue]

Originally posted by dbeardslee
Montreux_Blue (where do you guys come up with these handles?!) - How would you get it in the tank and attached to the surfaces. Does it come off the shovel handle easily, or do you have to get aggressive? You've intrigued me.

Montreux Blue is the original factory paint color of my 1967 Firebird .
It is a sort of chemical version of electroplating. Considering the hand shovel and screw driver were chromed and the hose clamps were stainless, it coated them pretty good. The coating was a thin sort of transparent copper but they didn't stay immersed for very long. All it needs is water mixed with the Zep Root Kill. I'm sure it would coat the inside of the tank but don't know how long it would last.

[Montreux_Blue]

I guess it is worth a try if you have a spare tank to play with.

[gareth]

When I was a kid, one of the simple experiments in my "Salter Chemistry Set for Boys", involved dipping a regular iron nail in Copper Sulphate solution. This put a super-thin coating of copper on the nail, which I suppose is what happened with your shovel..
The "plating" rubbed off really easily though. And the next experiment in the ... Salter Chemistry Set for Boys...involved simple copper plating using a bicycle lamp battery, a penny and another nail. I got the impression that copper plating seemed to be easier, less fussy than other metals?

[Geezer]

When I was in 8th grade our science teacher had us make a simple lead acid cell and then we used it to do copper plating. That was the most fun I ever had in a science class.

I have an electroplating kit that was given to me and I'm looking forward to trying it over the winter when biz is slow.

Geezer

[dbeardslee]

I'm wondering if copper is the right material to use for a tank. You know how it oxidizes and turns green. Doesn't rust though...and thanks to my piggy bank I have plenty of copper. Come to think of it, my mom's Revereware has copper plated bottoms and they're still in good shape after 50+ years. Pennies are still made out of copper aren't they? So what's the procedure?

[Geezer]

US pennies from 1983 on are a copper washed zinc stamping. For real copper go to Home Depot and buy a copper water pipe fitting.

I don't know how hard it would be to plate the inside of a tank but your 2 cents worth should give you a nice thick coating.

Geezer

[tarzan]

I have the original tank off my special hanging on a wall.I bought another one when I got it.But the one on the wall is in great shape except for the rust inside.I've been contemplating the electrolosis for a while .Guess I'm aprocrastinator.
I dont know about copper coating,but I would like to know what they coated them with at the factory.Does anyone know?

[dbeardslee]

Tarzan - Do the electrolysis. It is too cool. Takes a while - maybe due to the surface area of a coat hanger. I've got a piece of 1" X 3/16" bar stock in the garage, and tomorrow if it's still collecting gunk I'm gonna try a piece in loo of the coat hanger. More surface area and it shouldn't corrode as quickly. When it stops collecting material I'm gonna drop a handful of drywall screws in the tank and rattle 'em around with some dry alchohol to get any loose stuff, soak up any water, and to rough it up a little so the coating will stick better. Then I'll finish it with acetone and a little toot from the air compressor.

The last time I did this I put a handful of screws in, rattled 'em around, and turned the tank over to get them out. Not one stinkin' screw fell back out the filler neck. I had to take them out through the fuel meter hole with a magnet. This time I'm going to count the little suckers before I put 'em in, just to make sure I get 'em all.

Don't know what they used or if they were even coated at the factory, but I do know the Caswell Plating material is good stuff. Gotta be patient with it and make sure the temperature is in the right range - too cool it won't flow, too hot it won't stick as well. When you pour it in try to hit as much of the tunnel as you can. To get the rest of the tank you can slowly roll it around, but for some reason getting it to go back up on the tunnel is difficult - at least for me. That's probably the stuff I'll wind up using, even though these plating ideas are worth consideration.