Cleaning rusty tools

Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 at 9:49PM :

I have sort of a general question. I recently bought an old lathe, which included about 2 buckets full of tools, wrenches, toolholders, gears, etc, plus the chucks, all of which are pretty rusty. The lathe itself is fine.

I think the right way to clean the tools is on a wire wheel and then oil them, but I'm looking for a quicker solution. I know if I soaked them in a bucket of muriatic acid, it would clean the rust off real well, and then they'd start to rust the moment they dried. I've never been able to get a good oil finish on anything that's been pickled in acid.

Any suggestions?

Follow Ups:

• Electrolytic derusting - Franz 2:08PM 02/14/2002
  • Re: Electrolytic derusting - Tom J. 11:55PM 02/14/2002
    • What do you use? - Lonnie Jordan 5:39PM 02/15/2002
• Use a tumbler ! - Tom @ Snake River 11:21PM 02/13/2002
  • Re: Use a tumbler ! - Lonnie 1:52AM 02/14/2002
• Re: Cleaning rusty tools - HWooldridge 10:52PM 02/13/2002
  • Re: Cleaning rusty tools - David Sherman 11:27AM 02/14/2002
• Coke classic will eat that rust off. - Allen Patnode 10:07PM 02/13/2002
  • How long do you soak them? - Lonnie Jordan 12:25PM 02/14/2002
    • day or two. ntxt - Allen Patnode 3:19PM 02/14/2002
  • Right..because it has phosphoric acid in it. NTXT - Jr. 11:29PM 02/13/2002
  • Imagine what it does to your stomach!! NTXT - Mark Davis 11:22PM 02/13/2002
  • Re: Coke classic will eat that rust off. - MoparNorm 10:28PM 02/13/2002
    • Alternative remedy - WK Irish 1:47PM 02/14/2002

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