The Joy of an Acid Bath :)

Robbied196

Senior Retro Guru
Thought I'd post this for anyone planning their first restoration/rebuild project.

Not quite the same technique as John Haigh at Rillington Place with his acid bath :)

This bath is for cleaning up old rusty, discoloured chrome. I use an old coffee jar for small parts with 3 teaspoons of oxalic acid then fill the jar about 2/3rds full with warm water. Chuck in your bits and give your bits a shake every few hours :)

Depending on the state of them they'll need to soak between 6 - 24hrs. Give them a good rinse and a polish after. For larger items like chainsets I use an old washing up bowl, about 3 tablespoons of oxalic acid and then half fill with warm water.

Probably best to use gloves and don't splash it around, its probably not very good for your eyes.

Here's some I made earlier :LOL:





Just search Ebay for Oxalic Acid
 

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So how much did you spend on the Oxalic Acid ? What do you do with the 'waste' product ?

A new chrome seat clamp-set is only about £3 off fleabay,
but then you can use the acid on other parts like rusty skewers/washers etc etc.
 
Robbied196":32s9yld0 said:
Thought I'd post this for anyone planning their first restoration/rebuild project.

Top tip, thanks. As it happens I have just stripped down a bike for cleaning. Can it be used on unchromed parts that just need a bit of cheering up?

Ian Raleigh":32s9yld0 said:
So how much did you spend on the Oxalic Acid ? What do you do with the 'waste' product ?

Judging by the prices on eBay that seat clamp would have used about 10p worth. It seems you can spray bees with it and use it to clean boat hulls so it must be pretty benign, probably no worse than vinegar.
 
BobToo":35nio43m said:
It seems you can spray bees with it and use it to clean boat hulls so it must be pretty benign, probably no worse than vinegar.

So then after using it on Bee's would a Bee be a 'silver back Bee' it will be a new breed if it is :LOL:
 
Couple of non-bike related points:

Sorry to come across as some sort of "crime pedant" but Rillington Place was Reg Christie, who gassed his victims.

I work as a school lab technician and oxalic (aka ethanedioic) acid is always labelled as "Toxic"; if ingested it forms insoluble salts (chiefly calcium oxalate) in the body and those salts can accumulate to give you kidney stones. It's the same reason people are always told not to eat rhubarb leaves, which are abnormally high in oxalic acid compared with other fruit & veg. Best to wear rubber gloves when using it and wash your hands afterwards.

David
 
David B":1257ft8n said:
It's the same reason people are always told not to eat rhubarb leaves, which are abnormally high in oxalic acid compared with other fruit & veg.

TIP - Wrap your bike in rhubarb leaves to keep it all shinny
 
David B":3b0px9af said:
Couple of non-bike related points:

Sorry to come across as some sort of "crime pedant" but Rillington Place was Reg Christie, who gassed his victims.

I work as a school lab technician and oxalic (aka ethanedioic) acid is always labelled as "Toxic"; if ingested it forms insoluble salts (chiefly calcium oxalate) in the body and those salts can accumulate to give you kidney stones. It's the same reason people are always told not to eat rhubarb leaves, which are abnormally high in oxalic acid compared with other fruit & veg. Best to wear rubber gloves when using it and wash your hands afterwards.

David

I seem to have got my murderers mixed up :D

Some good advice on the health and safety aspects, I must admit it does smell quite strong when you take the lid off the coffee jar, also it turns an odd green colour after a few hours of soaking parts.
 
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