Here is a different way that I have found to take the rust off of metal.

First you need to get a few things.

The key ingredient is “Arm & Hammer WASHING Soda.” (Not baking soda)
This can be hard to find but I’m sure one of your local grocery stores will have it.



This is what you use to make your Electrolytic solution.

You will also need 2 pieces of scrap steel and some wire.
A plastic tub full of water.
A 12 volt car battery charger.

Mix ½ cup of washing soda to every 5 gallons of water in your plastic tank.

Connect the two pieces of scrap steel together with the wire. Use enough wire so they will be able to sit at opposite ends of the tank. (These will be your electrodes)
You will need to connect your battery charger’s POSITIVE clamp to the wire between the 2 electrodes.

Take the trap or traps that you want to de-rust and connect a wire to them. Place the traps in the middle of the tank of water. Connect the NEGATIVE clamp to this wire. ** Keep the clamps of the battery charger out of the water or they will corrode.***

Make sure that the wires or metal is NOT touching the electrodes or you will have a dead short.
Here’s what it should look like.




Now it’s time for the bubbling! Turn the battery charger on (I set mine on 10 amp).
This should take about 24 hrs to complete.



Here are some step by step pics that I took of an old #11 that I found on the river.
This trap was too far gone but I thought it would a good one to use in a pictorial.

Notice how bad the rust is.







Here are my scrap pieces of metal connected by wire.



Here is everything hooked up and ready to plug in.


This is after about an hour of bubbling. Notice the nasty rusty film on top of the water.



And after 1 ½ days here is how it came out.






Take a wire brush (or a power washer if you have one) and knock off the rust that is still there.
It will be really loose and takes no effort at all.

Here is our #11 after a couple of minutes of wire brushing.

Nice! Jeremy! Not to rain on your post, but why not just use vinegar?

Yepper vinegar will do the same thing in one night. It may do a better job and all you do is wash the trap in clean water and it looks great. The trap will come out of the vinegar looking kind of black looking.

The Washing soda will remove paint also, plus it only costs about $2 a box. 5 gallons of vinegar gets a little pricey.

I have used vinegar before but this seems to work better for me especially on larger items.

nuff said!

Good post,,,JeremyT


Rickey

Good post. I hope this goes to the arc.

I like it.

Good going JeremyT, how is your season going.

Jeremy, Thank you for sharing that unique creative method for rust removal.

Jonathan

I hope you guys get a chance to try it out.


Cletis, season is going good. I've been hitting the tavern creek HARD. 80 coon in 3 days plus several beaver and rats with a few mink thrown in. I'll post some pics after I pull on saturday.