Good rust removal trick

skiptooth13 · Jul 12, 2014

The best trick off all is removing rust by soaking steel part in vinegar for 24 hours ( sometimes a little less time), then scrubing with a good brass brush, then wiping or soaking in oil ( AFC 50, lubricant and corrosion preventative) Works awesome on skiptooth chains. Most of the time the vinegar eats the rust out of the stuck links. Since brass is softer than steel it wont scratch it, and leaves a yellow ( brass) tint to it. I think the brass transfer to steel part also helps prevent the corrosion from returning. Be carefull not to soak in vinegar for to long, it can damage the steel. Once I left a skiptooth chain in the vinegar for 3 days & while cleaning it the chain links started breaking apart. Notice in this picture the chain, wheel nuts, and other hardeware are yellowish from that procedure.

You can see the chain, nuts, skiptooth cog, and kickstand brassed in this picture.

B607 · Jul 12, 2014

Super nice Higgins. Looks absolutely mint. Good job! Gary

Nagant · Jul 12, 2014

Super bikes you have.

I have been using vinegar against rust for a number of years now. As best I can remember I started using it with rusty vintage military gun parts and expanded my use from there. You are right, it is great for bicycle chains. Length of time to soak depends on the acidic % for the vinegar being used. Some are more acidic than others.

Mike G · Jul 13, 2014

Hey another trick I've been using is generic Real Lemon juice. I like the vinegar trick too but I found the dollar store had the big bottles of the lemon juice... stinks awfully after the parts have been in there!

Now with the vinegar are you using "cider" or "white" vinegar? Dollar store only had white vinegar but I'd never heard of anybody using anything but cider variety...

Nagant · Jul 13, 2014

I'm sure lemon juice works as well or maybe better if it has a higher acidic %. Myself, with vinegar I have used both apple cider and white. The acid % is the most important factor. The higher the acid % the faster and usually the better it works. At the moment I can't remember what is typically the highest acid % number found for typical vinegar types. I would have to look at some of the jugs of it around here.