12-01-2022, 10:34 AM
I rescued a huge selection of used pre war whit nuts and bolts from a guy who had restored a traction engine and replaced every fixing. I had sorted these into containers and have been using them on my steam roller as and when.
Unfortunatley a couple of the containers got wet, and remained so for some time, full of water. I ended up with two big crusty lumps, one 3/4 whit nuts. The other 3/4 whit bolts. I had some oxalic acid powder left, so just tipped the powder in with the water. That was in November sometime. I emptied the containers last week and all the crustiness has gone. And the nuts and bolts look more or less as they should. The acid disolved the crusty rust, and a lot of the paint on them, but the good steel seems totally unaffected. I just left them to dry and resorted into containers.
Unfortunatley a couple of the containers got wet, and remained so for some time, full of water. I ended up with two big crusty lumps, one 3/4 whit nuts. The other 3/4 whit bolts. I had some oxalic acid powder left, so just tipped the powder in with the water. That was in November sometime. I emptied the containers last week and all the crustiness has gone. And the nuts and bolts look more or less as they should. The acid disolved the crusty rust, and a lot of the paint on them, but the good steel seems totally unaffected. I just left them to dry and resorted into containers.