DIY
WORKSHOP
HOW TO REMOVE
ANYTHING FROM METAL
Glean gleaming treasures from rusty
trash. By John Todd
I love using old machine parts for my projects; often
their workmanship surpasses that of anything new,
and you can get them cheap or even free. Find a
junkyard full of ancient, rusty industrial equipment,
and you can build almost anything — or at least be
inspired to, which is half the battle!
Photography by John Todd
But many older machine parts, especially cheap
ones, have rust, paint, or other coverings that make
them ugly and difficult to work with. Over the years,
my salvage habit has turned me into something of
an expert in amateur metal restoration. I am by no
means a metalsmith, but I have collected a library
of easy techniques that can enable any moderately
equipped hobbyist to turn neglected lumps of metal
into shiny, working components.
Rust, the oxidation of iron, takes up far more
volume than the metal it grows from, so the parts
underneath look surprisingly undamaged after
treatment. The same goes for old paint, which
protects the surfaces underneath it.
There are 3 basic ways to remove oxidation or
paint from metal in a home shop: mechanical,
chemical, and electrochemical. (Thermal methods,
and exotic techniques like dry ice blasting, molten
salt dips, and bacterial siderophores, require
specialized equipment.) Here I describe some home
methods, and how to construct one of the most
effective rust-removal tools of all: an electrolytic
conversion tank.
Make: 147
