First attempt at layering & tool box save...

[Cal 393]

Morning folks,

My neighbor inherited several old rusty tool boxes and was preparing to throw them out.  He gave them to me and I set about seeing what I could do.  Electrolysis removed most all of the rust and then I painted them up and oiled the hinges.  One was too rusty to save, I gave one back to the neighbor and I salvaged the rest.  I thought I had taken a "before" pic, but apparently not.

 

For my first attempt at layering vinyl I thought I would play around with the Craftsman box and fix it up for the trunk of my car.  The various decals are red on white, white on red and blue on white.

Thanks for looking,

Cal

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Nice

[rlvied 292]

Nice job on the boxes and vinyl

Bob

[mabscotthandyman 1,410]

I will bet the recycled tool boxes will last longer then the cheap plastic junk you buy now. I have a couple carpenter tool chest like the first photo that are close to 40 years old and still in great shape. Nice work on the refurb and the vinyl both.

[Cal 393]

Thanks fellas.  The neighbor was sure surprised to see how they turned out too!  But he watched the process as he will be restoring an old car soon.  This method of rust removal will work for him on some stuff.

For my vinyl works, I used it as a skill builder and will be ok with trying other projects that need layering.

Cal

[sandman 5]

Those look really nice.

 

Care to explain the rust removal process you used?

[Cal 393]

sandman - no problem, a pretty simple process actually.

I used a plastic 30 gal. trashcan, filled most of the way up with water and dumped in about 3# of baking soda and stirred it up so it was all dissolved.  It mixes readily, so this is easy while the can is being filled.

Suspend the part to be cleaned up by a wire and have all or as much as will fit in the water.  I used a broomstick to bridge the can and suspend the toolbox from.

Suspend a sacrificial rod (electrode) by another wire.  Again, I used another broomstick and suspended the electrode so that most of it was in the water.  Do not allow the project and the electrode to touch.  I used a short piece of iron pipe I had laying around for this rod.  It will get eaten up by the process (although it would take a lot of time, and a lot of rusty parts to eat it complete).

Hook a battery charger up.  Negative to the project wire, positive to the electrode wire.  Set it on 2 amps and plug it in for a day or so.  

It will remove most of the rust and any paint that is on the part.

It works on a "line of sight".  The face of the project facing the electrode will be cleaned up.  With my tool boxes I had to move the electrode around every day or so in order to do the whole box.

On a long piece, like the big Klein box in my picture, I did one end and then flipped it around to do the other end because it was so long.

You can do an online search of "rust removal by electrolysis" and get more detailed instructions - but that is really all there is to it.

When I did some car parts a few years ago, I used a 5 gal. plastic bucket.  You only need a container big enough to get your part in and have room for electrode(s).

Cal

PS - your water heater has a sacrificial electrode in it too...