I know this has been shown many times but just thought i would do it again for anyone who has'nt seen it yet cause it is pretty cool. Anyway white vinegar is an awesome and safe rust remover. When i have afew thing i need to clean up such as trowels,stake drivers, pliers, traps,the list goes on i just put a gallon of white vinegar in a 5 gallon bucket and then fill with water. Put the rusty items in and when they are done hose them off real good and i will even clean them with gas or something to get all the vinegar off. As you can see half the trowel and driver are rust free unlike the other half which has yet to be soaked. That was only a 20 hour soaking also.

So what's next. Are you going to spray'em down with rustoleum?

Good guess danny

You sure you won't skeer them Georgia Dogs away. I hate to see refusals.

You wont see them from over there in bama lol

yeah, the ol vinegar soak works ok on small batches

Possum just wondering why you are soaking those new quick links? To get the shiny plating off maybe? Yes it does work wonders on anything rusty but they do come out all black and slimey and dull looking. I have found tho if you hose them off then clean them up with the sos pads with the soapy stuff in them it shines it back up looking like new. By the way does anyone know what the black stuff is? Is it steel that has been removed or just whats left from the rust? I usually clean up my traps with the stuff every year because i can't stand a rusty trap and i have seen no negative things yet such as spring strength etc.

yeah Butch ... I found that I had better luck with my dip stickin and stayin if I remove the thin plating ... just another "me" thang

that black is the result of the chemical reaction ... better left to be explained by someone smarter than me ... any second grader should do ... lol

Never knew what it was but i know its easy to clean off with a brush or the sos pads. And like i said it does'nt seem to hurt anything. I remember the first traps i done "a pile of #330 belisles" and they came out all black and dull. I about flipped out till i cleaned them up lol!

i have done the same.....lol

Would this work to clean up some rusty cast iron pans? If so, how long should they soak and should the vinegar be diluted or not?

Here is a rusty mb-550 i put in the vinegar bath this morning and took it out afew minutes ago and cleaned it up....

ah Butchy ... that first pic looks just right & ready for dippin ... tsk tsk tsk ..

xlang - nah, me personally I wouldn't go the vinegar route on cast iron skillets etc. ... I have sand blasted them though ... you might just wanna give'em a lil elbow grease ... then cure them several times til it gets just right and ready for cookin

Another good use for white vineagar, drain your vehicle cooling system, pour in one gallon and fill the rest with water then run engine for no more that an hour, drain, flush with water and refill with antifreeze. It cleans motor and radiator better than any of that expensive junk. Ive been useing it for years in my hotrods.

Yea...I was going to go the sandblasting route...but since I don't personally have one I thought I'de try to save some hastle.

So I've got some traps and stuff I need to get some rust off of this summer. A few dozen traps and S-hooks and swivels. Let me run this by you guys and see if it would work. I know that the vinegar will lose some of the acidity after a while. What about using a gallon of vinegar to like 3 gallons of water, soak the items for a day or so and then add like half-gallon of vinegar with each batch to keep it strong. Would this work or should I replace it all after each batch?

it would most likely work, just be slower and slower each time after a few batches...

I've left vinegar in a 5 gal bucket for a couple weeks after I was finished fooling with traps and seems like it got more potent. I guess the water evaporating made the smell stronger in the backyard. I mix 50/50

Just got done with a couple doz. garage sale specials. 2 gal. of the white stuff in a 5 gal. bucket with about a half gal. of water.Did 6 or 7 traps at a time for 24 hrs. each and just rinsed them with a garden hose. What didn't come off with the hose, I just touched up with a scotch brite pad and rinsed again. If a guy had a power washer, I think there would be no labor at all. I dumped it out but think I could have done more.

I used straight vinegar on some old rusty tools and traps.Couldn't believe the results.