E-Tank / Electrolysis Tank

[Pullstart 62,851]

I figured I might want to start a thread instead of clouding up Mrs. P’s Ride Away Senior thread.  
 

A few key things here:

 

1) We are using electricity (AND WATER) to cook paint, rust, grease and grime away from metal parts.  I’m not much of a safety guy and believe that sometimes you can’t fix stupid.  Keep the fumes outside and we’ll ventilated.  Don’t shock yourself.

2) WASHING SODA is not BAKING SODA.  You want Washing Soda.  Like laundry stuff.

3) Ground your part.  Charge your anodes.  The positive charge pulls the junk away from the negative.  Like a magnet.  
4) Don’t let your anodes touch your part.

5) Continue to be amazed time and time again at the ability of this low budget parts strippper!

6) No matter how gross the water looks, it never really goes bad.

7) We are using DC voltage to cook the parts.  Direct Current.  I.E. Batteries and battery chargers or 12/24VDC power supplies.

8) More voltage = faster results!  Amperage is likely the same.

9) There is such thing as too much water.  Don’t let your ground rod be in direct contact with the water.  Only the part.

10) You can have any amount of anodes as you’d like.  Anodes prefer a “line of sight” to the part.  Any piece of the part that is not in direct “sight” of the anode is subject to lesser results.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Pullstart

[Pullstart 62,851]

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

I just pulled the wheels out and shot them with some hose spray.  No pressure washer!

 

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

I then remembered I have a 24V Hilo battery charger!  It runs on a 16 hr timer.

The difference between 12 and 24 volts is amazing!

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

This picture and all the bubbles is 12 minutes after starting the charger.

 

 

[Handy Don 12,217]

That foaming looks much better. Extra juice helps, but at this rate I would check on it every hour or less--no value in staying in the tank once the rust is off.

 

I'm using a charger that delivers 15.5v at up to 9 amps. I've been doing smaller parts are they are out of the tank in 1-3 hours.

 

Also your anodes are not going to "reach in" to the center groove where it's facing down or away. I'd try to get the wheels laying sideways and fully immersed (suspend them with the rod from a temporary arch over the tank?) so that the groove faces an anode all the way around.

[Pullstart 62,851]

 

 

[squonk 41,104]

This was my first foray into an e tank. Started with a 3 amp charger but switched to a 10 amper. This engine shroud had factory paint then some orange then some more red of who knows what kind of paint. I just let it sit in the tank for a couple of days.

 

 

 

 

[ri702bill 8,319]

Kevin:

All good info there. I did a bit ot reading on the E-tank, and one thing that stuck in my head was to have sacrificial anodes that when combined, approximate the square inches of the part being cleaned (inside and out). Better results, faster...

Bill

[Pullstart 62,851]

Great stuff Bill!  That’s way more math than I planned on this project!  

[8ntruck 6,999]

How do you dispose of the used fluid?

 

I'm also remembering something about making sure you don't put anything in an e tank that has chrome on it.  Something about the used fluid in this case becoming a regulated toxic waste because of the chrome content.  I wonder the same thing about zinc or cadmium which are common plating materials.

[Pullstart 62,851]

9 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

How do you dispose of the used fluid?

 

I'm also remembering something about making sure you don't put anything in an e tank that has chrome on it.  Something about the used fluid in this case becoming a regulated toxic waste because of the chrome content.  I wonder the same thing about zinc or cadmium which are common plating materials.

stainless steel also.  Otherwise, it’s just dirty wash water.  Like washing your shop hands a lot!

[8ntruck 6,999]

21 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

stainless steel also.  Otherwise, it’s just dirty wash water.  Like washing your shop hands a lot!

Yup.  Stainless steel has chrome in it.

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

42 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

chrome

 

Hexavalent Chromium - nasty stuff.

 

Ask Erin Brockovich about that.

[oliver2-44 9,747]

7 hours ago, Pullstart said:

 

9) There is such thing as too much water.  Don’t let your ground rod be in direct contact with the water.  Only the part.

Just curious what you mea by this

[Pullstart 62,851]

14 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

Just curious what you mea by this

When I started the e-tank on Mrs. P’s front wheels of her Senior last night, the ground rod that the wheels were hanging on was submerged partially in water.  I removed 2 gallons of water to get the rod out of the water and it increased the electric current through the part instead of through the water.  

[ri702bill 8,319]

10 hours ago, Jeff-C175 said:

 

Hexavalent Chromium - nasty stuff.

 

Ask Erin Brockovich about that.

When I started my Manufacturing Engineer job at the automotive OEM, there were 2 big things that had changed for components coming from our suppliers. One was replacing hex-chrome with trivatent chrome, the other was switching to lead free solder. Both caused manufacturing issues.The newly plated cheaper steel fasteners would not hold up in our 100 hour salt spray testing of under the car actuators, we had to use the more costly stainless replacements. Lead free solder does not flow the same as the lead solder and displays a dull finish when cooled off - the leaded version looked nice & shiny. We had to modify all our vision inspection cameras and lighting to get marginal better results - with a higher rate of false rejects....

[Pullstart 62,851]

In cleaning up the place, I found my old anode.  It’s thin as paper… except the rotor I welded to it!

 

I liked the anode being under the part, to get maximum cleaning area.  I’d like to at least lash together a couple of the rods with some scrap cut to length and some more copper wire.

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

2 hours ago, ri702bill said:

Lead free solder...

 

...5uck5 !

Luckily, I've squirreled away a lifetime supply of 60/40 Rosin Core.  

 

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Jeff-C175

[Pullstart 62,851]

 

[Pullstart 62,851]

These wheels are ready for some soapy water wet sanding, a good rinse and dry, and prime and paint!

[ineedanother 1,369]

I just had to do it!

[ineedanother 1,369]

Really works well. Soaking other pieces now but the rims are in primer.