I get many requests on how to use and make an electrolysis tank. So here's how.

You will need

-Wall charger (cell phone charger works great)
-Tub large enough to submerge your part being worked on (or half submerged)
-Copper wire
-Baking soda
-Steel rebar or plain steel rods, a couple of them atleast 4 or 5 inches in length will do

Instructions.

First take your wall charger, and cut the end off the wire, then strip an inch or two of the insulation off. Most of the time but not always, the positive wire has a white strip on it, or a red strip, something to signify it's positive. The negative is usually the single colored wire.

Next take your tank and begin to fill it up with water, enough to completely (or half) submerge the part being derusted. Approximate how many gallons your filling to the tank with, and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water. The baking soda helps give the current something to move on.



Next, lay down your steel bars or rods on the bottom of the tank. Keep them about 4 or 5 inches away from the part being derusted. Make sure all your rods are connected with one another using the copper wire, drape the extra wire off the side of the tank like so..



Then, take the part that is going to be derusted and put it in the tank, make sure it makes no contact with the steel rods and the wire they're attatched too. Here is my rusted Gew 88 barrel jacket.



Then take some more copper wire and attatch this to the part being worked on, drape the extra wire over the tank like so..



Now take the wires of the wall charger (unplugged of course) and attatch the positive to the wire leading to the steel bars, and attatch the negative to the wire attatched to the part being worked on. Just make sure they do not touch or you will short out your charger.

It should look like this when properly setup..



So just plug it in and let the electricity do the work for you. After 5 minutes here's what my tank looked like. You know it's working when you see the bubbles coming off the wires.
When the bubbles hit the surface, they are full of hydrogen gas. Not enough to start an explosion, since this is being done on a very small scale.




After 2 1/2 hours my part was done. I unplugged the charger, and removed the barrel jacket from the tank. I immediently take this part to a running source of clean water such as the bathtub or the hose, and I use 0000 steel wool to wash off the black grime that comes off the cleaned metal. If done right the rust will be all gone, leaving behind your blued finish (if left in long enough it will eventually remove bluing).

The amazing part is before putting my barrel jacket into the tank, I didn't do a single thing to it. It was covered in hard thick cosmo, grease and dirt. The electrolysis removed all of the cosmo which floated to the surface. So Electrolysis DOES remove cosmoline, how I don't know. But it does.

Here's the jacket and receiver after electrolysis

Good deal and welldone.
Great info.

Fix the photos and I will stickie it for ya.

I think they're fixed now.

Well I thought I would give Gunfreak25's electrolysis tank a try.
This is what my ATF Turk looked like when I took it out of the stock.










I only had a 4.6 volt charger so, it took a little longer but, this is what it looks like now.






If you have a rifle with some rust on it, give this a try. My 4 year old helped me with hooking everything up and thought it was so cool to watch the positive wire turn blue.

That came out nice!

Thats great. i might have to try this and it will save me a lot of time and effort. thank you for posting this.

Not only does it save time, and is perfect for busy and lazy people, but it leaves your hands free to do something else while it's working. Like go to work...or watch TV..

Key thing is remember is negative to piece being derusted (cathode). Use stainless steel kitchen spoons etc for the consumable anode. Keep in mind hydrogen and O2 is made so venting is a concern. Don't be afraid to use a automatic car battery charger of say 10 amps because you won't hurt the metal if the polarity is correct.

Yes, you 2 can perform magic! Works on swords and plowshares. Look at my Avatar, the only thing left are the pits!

I'm really having fun with this. Here is an old 12ga that I started on yesterday.





I'm only using a 4.6 volt charger. I hook it up yesterday around 6pm and this is what it looked like at 10 am this morning.

Fresh out of the tank.


And after a little steel wool and oil.



Now it's time to get to work on that stock.

Wow, when was that shotgun made?

My friend gave it to me to repair a few months ago but, old JAck's ticker gave out and he is gone now. Jack was pushing 80 and had told me that the shotgun had belonged to his dad so, I'm thinking that it is somewhere close to 100 years old.

It sounds like it has a good story behind it too. Maybe it was even used when riding shotgun on the stagecoaches. Are you going to brown the barrel?

Nope just clean and repair the stock to give to his son.

GunFreak25, excellent setup and one that can be done with a minimum of equipment. Question, how would this work on rifles with rust in the barrel?. You all know the ones that look great on the outside but somehow the light never seems to make it from one end to the other. Regards,Frank

Frank,

The tank process will work inside the barrel. If you want to do only do the inside of the barrel and not the outside just cap off the muzzle, pour in the solution and put some type of rod down the barrel and connect to the charger. For a rod I use an old antenna insulated with a couple rubber washers to prevent a short to the barrel. (check this with a VOM before connecting) The washers shouldn't be so close fitting to the barrel that gases can't escape. Also keep a closer eye on it since the solution level will go down by breaking the liquid back to H & O2

K