so my shower drain is kinda cloged and my landlord wont do anything about it and i want it fixed should i dump some of this stuff down there and turn the water on and let her eat? lol
Ok.....I'm only an FNG here and haven't even done a proper intro..BUT: My advice is to get rid of this crap as quick as you can! My day job is running a small waste treatment plant for an E-Coat paint line. We use 50% caustic soda in our treatment process. There is NO way in hell I'd EVER have this stuff around my house!! It will eat your ass in a heartbeat! Sorry if this seems a little strong but, I'd rather be laughed at than not try to warn someone about something that could make the rest of their life a living hell. Marty
that's what it was designed to do, the drain cleaner stuff at Walmart is caustic soda, in liquid or crystal form
good advice. I would not keep a vat of caustic soda around, too dangerous- if it spilled on someone, or a kid or pet fell into it, it would be a disaster- someone could end up blind or worse. A 50/50 mix of muriatic acid and water is relatively much safer. That muriatic is only 36% pure from the bottle, when cut again with water it's only 18%- so it works slower but is much safer/easier to work with- and may actually will work better on rust than the caustic soda. keep in mind, the soap you use at home everyday, is merely caustic soda mixed with fat/lard and watered down some. Get some in your eye or mouth, see what happens, it will burn like hell- dish soap or hand soap or bath soap- I accidentally inhaled suds from shampoo once, it burned my throat for like 45 minutes really bad. Any soap is just a watered down caustic soda, in reality. So is lime for your garden. It's all relative. if you're going to use this stuff, the key is attention to safety procedures- people paint cars daily, with urethanes and imron and polyurethanes that are deadly if applied without precautions- the key is respirator, protective clothing/headgear, no open flames/sparks, and adequate ventilation- then it's just painting another car. the same goes for using acids or caustic sodas (actually sodas are a strong base) to clean/degrease/derust- it's not something I'd want to do full time for a living, no doubt there are health issues working with it, per previous posts from people who worked with it- but nothing in moderation will hurt you
Apart from being dangerous, its a bitch to clean up. I dunked a bootlid in it once. After that I couldn't stop little white crystals from forming where the skin was overlapped. No matter how much washing. I ended up selling it like that, but never did figure out how I was going to get paint to stick to it. Any chemical or electrolytic rust removal has the potential to cause embrittlement. As does rust itself. Use due caution when it comes to stressed components. Wikipedia has great info on it.
If the parts are relatively small .something you can put in a bucket , use swimming pool acid (muriatic acid) . Must be grease free first but that will take off all the rust and is pretty cheap and readily available .Works very fast too . Most parts will be clean in less than 15 minutes . For larger parts I have used old rags or towels soaked in acid . doesn't work as well as you have to keep it wet . WEAR SAFETY GLASSES !!! and gloves
Vinegar has been mentioned before and it is cheap, easy, effective, and easy to dispose off. I have a friend who does restoration work at his home shop. I told him about the vinegar and he tried it on some small parts door hinges. he just bought a gallon and put it in a bucket an put the hinges in for 2 day. He was so impressed, he cut a 55 galon drum lenght wise and now uses it for most everything steel. He says he hasn't used his blast cabinet since using the vingar. He has also cut down some of the plastic jusg with drain holes for keeping small stuff together. vinegar is acetic acid, the stuff you buy at the store is about 5%. Cider vinegar is a bit stronger 5 to 8%. If you have a wholesale food place go there and they will have some stronger stuff 10% or so. Soaked pieces will develop a black substance that easliy wire brushes off, a rinse with water is all you need but some oshpo will keep the surface rust from forming. Slow but effective, and once the rust is gone it stops working, so if you forget a part, it no big deal. It doesn't remove paint but it will soften it to make removal easier. Muriatic acid works but stinks bad. vinegar smell like salad so most family types won't have a problem when used in the garage. To dispose of, strain out the solids and flush it when it looses it strength. You can get is for about 90 cents a gallon less at the wholesale place.
Caustic Soda is good for removing organic stuff, grease, pine pitch, skin, etc. Little effect on rust. For rust the best and fastest is dilute Muriatic acid. After neutralizing, oil the piece lightly immediately to prevent flash rust. Obey ALL safety precautions when using either of these.
I have used it a lot. Some for de-gunking a block, some for the electrolysis (gets rid of paint), some for just soaking greasy parts. Yes, be careful. Be don’t be afraid to use it. It was and is still used for making soap at home, as well as soaking lutefisk in. None of these women ran screaming from it when they had to use it. If you want it to remove rust, heat it HOT with part in it, add zinc, and let it fester. Part comes out rust free, with a nice rust proof coating as well. Done that as well Yes, it will burn you if you have a strong concentration. Was working on a bentonite plant and some was on a torch hose I was cooling up. After 10 minutes or so, my hands were nice and pink, and had no fingerprints. Also have a scar on my elbow where it performed a meat delete. That stuff was strong.
Prime reason why threads that are dead over a set period of time should be locked and only able to be opened by the original poster. Especially when basically a spammer reopens the thread. This subject is pretty much obsolete in the US because caustic soda is normally not available in most areas anymore. for the unknowing, it's the eat your skin powder that was put in hot tanks to clean engine blocks. How about it moderators? Time to lock this one up for further posts.
We used caustic soda to remove old baked on sludge from heads and blocks in the machine shop. It didn't do much for rust, though.
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