Going through a 150 year total collection of old tools, mine my older brother's and my father's. Many have severely rusted and I want to save/restore them as much as I can. I've used vinegar to derust some in the past but they rust again quickly. Vinegar, dry quickly and throw them in some kerosene until I can work on each one sound like a reasonable idea ? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Some of these tools I used were dad's and I used on my first cars 60 years ago. Yes I have newer but using the same tool that we all used over the years means a lot to me. Have wire wheels, polishers etc so that's no problem.
Wash your parts in a baking soda and water mixture after the vinegar, this will stop the acid reaction. Then soak or spray with boiled linseed oil. They won't rust and have a nice finish
Get a jug of evapo-rust from Advance, Autozone, etc. Works like magic, doesn't hurt good metal. Let 'em soak as long as you want, rinse, done. I keep my bucket covered and when the solution evaporates, I just add more water, and use it again.
This is what I do, it works great. Vinegar is an acid, so besides removing rust it also attacks the metal and has to be neutralized afterwards. After they're cleaned up, put a vapor phase corrosion inhibitor emitter cup (vpci) in your toolbox - they do a real good job of preventing rust. There are a number of brands, one good one is Bull-Frog: https://www.bull-frog.com/products/#emitters
Had a crusty old ratchet that was rusted so bad it wouldn't turn. Put some marvel Mystery Oil in a container. Dropped in the ratchet and forgot about it for maybe a month. Came out with no rust and turns great like new. Still use it and just in my toolbox and no rust ever came back.
Soak in molasses and water solution, 9 x parts molasses & 1 x part water. Rinse in clean water and dry with compressed air. Treat with something to inhibit flash rust from exposure to air. Boiled linseed oil sounds good however I've never used it.
use transformer oil. linemen use it on old pliers.. like a pair of 9 inch Kleins. Sent from my SM-G970U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Doesn't anybody use naval jelly anymore ? Removes rust & leaves a phosphorus coating that lasts a year or two ....
Citric acid bath for a day or two and then a wire wheel. No need to do a measurement, I just pour a little of the powder in Water and mix. Citric acid is cheap and it works wonders. I’ve never had it ruin a part.
Molasses works great if you are not in a hurry. I would not use in a ratchet unless it was disassembled. .
Definitely Evapo-Rust. It was recommended to me a couple months ago, had never heard of it, thought Snake Oil. I now keep it on the bench for constant use. As I'm lazy, i also keep a gallon parts wash can from NAPA, and if the tool, part, widget, etc doesn't have some strange plastic stuff, in it goes after being wiped off from the Evapo-Rust can. These valve seat cutters were rusted on all the steel surfaces and looked unusable. Over night soak in Evapo-Rust then into parts cleaner and all the screws are free, the cutters are able to be used, and best of all as they were free with a batch of valve grinding equipment, I can now do my own valve jobs...
Evapo-Rust seems to come in $29/gallon "original formula" and $15/gallon "water based formula". Which one works better? Or do they work equally well? Can you put it into a larger bucket with a basket/strainer in it, soak stuff in it (lid on I presume), remove parts, recover, and reuse? Do you need to wear rubber gloves when handling parts that just came out of the vat/bucket?
I've got a jug of Evapo-rust That I have used on several rusty tools and a lot of smaller rusty parts. I have a couple of plastic containers with lids from Dollar Tree that I stick the tools in, pour the Evapo-Rust in on and let it soak for as long a needed and fish the parts out and pour the liquid back in the jug.
I prefer oxalic acid, wood bleach, to citric but both work. Need to neutrailze after baking soda works, or, any dishsoap is basic on PH scale and will neutralize. Remove grease before acid treatment.
To stop them from rusting again, after the citric acid or the vinegar bath, I rinse the tools with water. If I'm in doubt that I got all of the prior solution off I throw them into a water / baking soda bath, then I dry them and oil them with baby oil (aka mineral oil). They will rust quickly if not oiled. 'Boiled' linseed oil is usually not boiled, but processed with cobalt and manganese and one or two other interesting and troubling substances. Mineral oil seems to be the least problematic of the options. If I don't need the tool or the drill bit or the end mill for a few days, I'll let it soak in the mineral oil for a day or two or three, and then let it drain and just wait a few days before wiping it off and putting it away. I recently de-rusted hundreds of the above items brought home from their previous long time resting place.
You might try a spray can of PB-Blaster and if you like what it does get a yourself a gallon can of it and a plastic spray bottle. I've not found anything better for rust removal and rust prevention.