Lye and Zinc Cleaning Method

D

davidjett

Established Users
Hello everyone, this past Christmas my wife purchased me my first metal detector and am having a blast! This past weekend I took my first outing looking for civil war relics. While I didn't find anything that was war related per say, I did find some old tools and some old railroad relics that are heavily encrusted with
rust. I attempted to use the Electrolysis method this past weekend using a 6 amp car battery charger, this worked on the smaller objects but on the large tools it doesn't generate enough current to work apparently. I'm thinking I'm going to need to buy a 30amp charger for the big stuff.

What I would like to try though is the LYE/ZINC cleaning method. I've found a good bit of info online and thru this forum of how to do it but I can't find specifics. IE, how much lye and or zinc to use with x amnt. of water.

Also, I'm having a dickens of a time trying to find items that I can use that are made of zinc. Anyone have any idea of things that I could readily puchase from a home depot or lowes store that would be made of zinc? What do you all use for your zinc base? I called around to some boat dealers about the zinc anodes but those things are very very pricey.

Thanks for all the help!!

David
 
Hopefully I can point you in the right direction. I use a 5 gallon bucket with a generous amount of zinc for the base, (what is left over and didn't dissolve can be reused), the iron you are wanting to clean on top, and finish it off with the lye. I get the Lye from Lowes under the name Roebic Crystal Drain Opener. Its a round 2lb container that is red, and yellow for around $5.00 U.S. I use 1 to 2 cups of lye and if after a few days if the process looks to be slowing down, add some more.
Zinc (scrap zinc from scrap metal yards, zinc jar lids, zinc wall anchors from Home Depote/Lowes, and zinc bars from boat dealers. I get all my zinc from friends back in South Jersey that either own marinas or have there boats at one. A fair amount of zinc can be found from the transom area on boats and most boat yards will be happy to give you any old scrap. I tried to answer your question's exactly without giving the whole process. Remember the lye solution is very caustic and can burn your skin, damage your eyes, and can be fatal to children and pets
 
Thank you SO much! That's exactly what I was looking for! Great info. Thanks for taking the time to respond! :)

David
 
Zinc source

Try a paint store. Painters use rolled zinc to place on wallpaper so that tearing it will leave an even rip.

A small piece of zinc attached to any part of the iron will cause a reaction. the zinc-lye solution will only eat away the rust but leave clean ferrous metal intact. Think the mixture is 4 parts water 1 part lye.

I've used this process succesfully seveal times to clean up rusty iron relics.

Jay-k
 
Thanks Jay, I'll have to give my local paint stores a call. I stopped and picked up the only thing I could find at Lowes that were Zinc and they were Zinc coated hex nuts. Huge hex nuts. Problem is that because they were coated the chemical reaction only lasted a short time until the coating was all used up. But hey it's a start. :)

BTW... Those fumes are a nasty thing! ;)
 
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