My handle rusted in the electro bath.

[Ian McKinley]

Good Day to every one.

I have a problem with the first electro peace I have tried. Every thing went perfectly, I suspended a clean skillet in the bath and turned it on with good results, I was removing a coppery or bronze discoloration that was on the pan when I bought it. Most of the discoloration left in the bath but not all, so I was going to leave it in over night to finish. The wire I was using for a hook was plated or coated with something to keep it from rusting and I had kept the handle out of the mix about an inch in order to attach the charger lead to the skillet  and to keep the hook out of the mix. I attached the lead to the hook and lowered it the rest of the way into the mix to finish off the handle. This morning I found the last inch of the handle (the part that had not been in the mix before) was coated with rust (it had been clean except for the copper color). Also the hook was black. I am now cleaning up a peace of steal wire to make a new hook out of and it looks like I will have a few pits in the end of the handle. I had not seen any warnings on using coated or plated hardware to suspend parts in the mix with. Can any one explain what went wrong? I always like to find out why something failed as well as why something succeeded.

Thank you

Ian

[Chuck Rogers]

Suspending pieces from a hook makes for a loose connection, and will cause the pitting on the piece. I connect directly to the piece with copper wire. I use 4 AWG stranded wire, strip the end, divide the strands in half, feed them through whatever hole there is, and twist them together very tightly with a pair of pliers. The piece is then suspended from the wire itself, which is clamped to a board across the top of the tank. The negative clamp is attached to the other end of the wire, and I turn on the charger.
    Another possibility is that your skillet was not submerged in the beginning. It should actually be 2" below the surface of the mix. That's why I use the wire, so I can keep the charger clamp out of the mix. It won't last long if it is in the mix.
    Let's see what others have to say.

[John_D]

Dont know if you can see it in this picture but I use a beam clamp welded to a rod and it screws to the pan. Got that idea right here and it works great. j

[Scott Sanders]

Hello Ian......Welcome again to the forum.  I am glad to see that you are trying out the electrolysis cleaning method.  As Chuck said, you should make a tight connection to your iron and make sure the iron is sbmerged.  As a retired electrician, I kind of have a thing about electricity and tight connections.  Although, I am sure many will say they have good success with hanging their iron on a hook of some kind, I like something with a tighter connection.  Like John with his welded beam clamp, I had some vise grips welded to some 3/8" all-thread rod.  Sometimes I'll use a small C-clamp on the iron, and then position the iron the way I want it.  Then I secure the vise grip to the body of the C-clamp.  I also do not submerge my battery charger clamps.  I attach the neg. lead to the support structure.  I will post a couple of threads for you to read through.  As you will see, you can make your system as complex as you want, or as simple as you want.  Depends how much cleaning you are going to do and how involved you want to get.  

Experiment around with your system and ask questions, and show us your successes.  Have fun.

Scott

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1131658808

Here is a thread that I had forgotten about until it was brought back to the top.  Now, this guy is doing some serious cleaning.... ;D ;D

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1199253741

Here is just one picture of my set up.  There are more in the first thread.

[Ian McKinley]

Thank you Chuck,  I did not know about the 2 inch thing, they keep saying that you can do part of the object then reverse the part and not have lap marks. I had kept the last 1 inch of the handle out of the mix so that I could clamp the lead on to the skillet. Then I found I could clamp on to the S hook. Some how I think I created a difference of potential between the S hook, the unelectro treated end of the handle and the rest of the skillet which caused the end of the skillet to become the anode for the S hook when I submerged the whole thing.

To John and Scott, when you clamp on to the skillet with a bolt or clamp does the cleaning action work under the clamp or do you half to move the clamp and clean again? The end of the S hook turned black, do your clamps and vice-grips turn black?  How about using a copper S hook and cleaning a small spot on the inside of the handle and then clamping the lead to the S hook and submerging completely in the beginning?

Thank you all

Ian

[Scott Sanders]

Hello again Ian......

I do move my vise grip or C-clamp connection point at least once during the cleaning process.  Not only does this allow me to re-position the iron a little, but like you noted, it does allow the spot under the clamp to be cleaned like the rest of the iron piece.  The C-clamps that I use are not plated, and if they were painted, I scrape some of the paint off for a good connection for the vise grip.  The vise grips are plated, probably chrome??, and they do not turn black.  They do get a coating of brown discoloration, probably from the solution, but most of it washes off with soap and water.  As for the "S" hook idea.... I usually clean off a spot on the iron, if it is really crusty, so that I have a good contact area for my clamp.  You are doing the same thing with your contact point for the "S" hook, the only difference being is that your iron is just hanging on the hook...still a loose connection, IMHO.  Did I mention I like tight connections...lol.  I think I have also seen someone's set up where they used a short length of chromed chain....it may work, but IMHO, still just more loose connections.  The fewer contact points and the tighter the connection, the better off you will be.  Keep playing around with your set-up and have fun experimenting.

Scott

[Ron_Wheeler]

Ian, My electrolysis tank consists of a 55 gal plastic drum with 1/3 of one end cut off, stainless steel lined.  I suspend my piece to be cleaned down between the stainless steel using an "S" hook through the handle hole, attached to a chain with an "S" hook on the other end that hooks on a 3/8" rod across the top of the tank.  That is just to hold the piece where I want it.  I made two 3/8" stainless steel rods with clamps on the ends to attached to the piece to be cleaned and I clamp my negative lead to that rod, direct connection to the cast iron piece to be cleaned.  All parts of the direct connect rods are stainless steel.  The cap screw allows to get a very tight connection on the cast iron.

Here are pictures of my direct connection rods:

[John_D]

In the pic I put up the clamp is above the water to get the pic. When Im cleaning, the clamp will be bellow the water and it cleans the clamp and rod aswell. j

[Ian McKinley]

Hello every one.

Success. First the Griswold skillet that had the copper or brass sheen to it is now clean and a normal light gray color. The problem inch and a half of the handle that rusted in the electro bath which was the problem that started this thread is clean also, but it has slight pitting and has lost its glossy sheen and has now a slightly frosted appearance. It is a user and I doubt it will be much noticeable after seasoning it. I want to thank all of you for your help. For now I am using a spring hand clamp to hold a stranded copper wire onto the outside of the skillet. So far no detrimental effects to skillet or clamp. Is there any reason not to use the chargers clamp in the solution? I have seen replacement clamps somewhere for sale, also large clamps at electronic and electrical supply stores.

Thank You for all your help

Ian

[Duke Gilleland]

I make my connections with solid copper wire and a small "C" clamp. Cleaning the area on the iron  where the connection is made is important.

[fatfutures]

Ian, if the piece became pitted where you attached your clamp to it, I am going to echo Chucks "loose connection" theory.



This is the handle of a Sidney fancy script skillet. I use copper tubing to suspend my pieces. It's flexible and I can bend to to ensure a good connection to the piece I am cleaning. That was my problem occured. I had developed a habit of hooking my chargers clamp to the rigs handle when not in use. Apparently, I killed the tension in the clamps spring.

When I put this piece in the bath, I noticed that the charger was pulling less than 5 amps. I didn't think much of it at the time. I just assumed that the handle was crudded up and so was not allowing a good connection to the cast iron.

When I pulled the piece out, I didn't have the rust that you described... my piece had a grey-ish gunk built up on the handle and underneath was this pitting  :'(

I think you need to look at different clamps or other method of suspending your iron.

And a note to others: if you put a piece in your tanks and notice that you are pulling far less than normal amps... CHECK YOUR CONNECTION!

[Jeff Friend]

I put a blurb about this problem in the newsletter and I think the loose connection could have caused it.  Since the newsletter came out, I have been thinking about the reports of pitting with electro and want to say again that I don't think it is wise to leave your iron hanging in the solution with the charger off and the leads hooked up.  This allows current to flow (maybe a very small current) which can result in corrosion on your prized No. 16 wide band.

I would also avoid leaving iron hanging in the solution for an extended period of time, even if the leads are not hooked up.  When two different metals are in contact and they are in a conductive medium (damp soil, sodium carbonate solution) you have set up an electrolytic cell - essentially a small battery.  One of the metals is going to be reduced and the other is going to be oxidized.  In the case of a copper lead attached directly to an iron pan handle, the iron is much more easily oxidized than the copper.  The iron becomes the anode and the copper is the cathode.  This is why zinc is used to protect iron.  It is more easily oxidized, so it protects the iron fom being oxidized.