Metal Shear restore - using electrolysis

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Dad gave me an old shear and I wanted to restore it before putting it to use. Having read about electrolysis but never done it, I thought this would be a good project to test it out on. It's a safe, non-destructive method to remove rust and have no impact on the good metal. Here's what I did.

Started with a trip to Walmart to pick up the supplies, a 98L storage bin and a box of Arm and Hammer Washing soda (not baking soda which is sodium BIcarbonate, you need sodium carbonate). Total cost of a whopping $16.

Next I bent 4 pieces of 1/8" scrap and hung it over the sides of the container. This is what the + side of the battery charger will be connected to.

I sacrificed an old extension cord and stripped the copper wire to connect it all together, first the + sacrificial anode....metal strips.

Here's a pic of the shear disassembled, I'm only doing the base for now. The rest of the pieces will be done in round #2.

Continued........

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

I estimated that I had 20 gallons of water and mixed in 25 tablespoons of the sodium carbonate (1-2 tablespoons/gallon, more is not better). Here we are ready to go!

Within 10-15 minutes you can tell that somethings happening.

The battery charger is set to 12 volts, 2 amps, the meter reads about 1/4 of the way up.....just a trickle. this is what you have at 12 hours. I'll leave it in for 2-3 days.

Never being someone to leave well enough alone, I decided to "pimp my shear handle". the original was just a piece of pipe. I replaced that with a smaller piece of 1/4" wall crs that I hit with a flap wheel first. The bottom was cut off the original and welded to the end to slip over the shaft on the cutter and a gas fitting was chopped up to give me a brass cap on the end.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Here's the progress report (41 hours). First a pic of the brew, the additional 2 anodes are on the ends and seem to be doing their job as you can see the pile of crud coming off them. I pulled it out and had a look. Seems to be covered in a blackish/grey crud, the paint is quite wrinkled and looks like it will brush off easily.

I bent up some coat hangers (after sanding the paint off them) and got the second batch ready to go. Found the remains of a wire basket that will work well for the small pieces. I plan to put an additional anode on the bottom when I drop this in.

Finally I finished off the handle and gave it a coat of paint.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Here we are at the 62 hour point. The reaction seemed to be slowing down so 2 1/2 days later it was time to come out. Here's a pic after I scraped the worst of the gunk off and wiped it with a dry rag. It did a great job, the rust is totally gone and the old paint just wiped off. Second pic is after I took a wire brush to it and gave it a coat of WD40 to prevent rerusting while I finish up the rest.

The old brass tag looks good after a clean up with hand cleaner. I found a BRITISH STEEL marking (top of 1st pic) that I couldn't see before, along with another 1940 stamp, and a larger cHAM ENGLAND marking. A better pic of the cleaned up weld...

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Here's the latest, after hanging an 8' fluorescent light over my bench I moved on to the shear. First up, a pic of the clean small pieces. These sat in the tank for about 3.5 days (didn't get a chance to do much with it). A day before I took them out, I pulled the anodes and wiped them off, seemed to greatly improve the reaction. They look great after a quick clean up with a wire wheel.

The base after painting, I used a Tremclad spray bomb, probably should have used something tougher but it was what I had on hand.

Here's the smaller pieces drying after paint

Here's one of the used anodes, There is a significant amount of pitting and deterioration after the second batch. If you try this, the anodes are worth paying attention to. Use lots of them, properly placed (remember the "line of sight" thing) and if they crud up too much wipe them off.

All that's left is to get it back together again.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Got it all put together, I lubed it up with anti seize. The blade was clear coated instead of black, it looks great with the brass accents. Does it work....take a look at the last pic!

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Quick summary, from this to this....yup it was worth it! I have one favor to ask, if anyone knows anything about the history of this shear, East London Engineering Works or British Steel, I would appreciate hearing it.

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

British Steel presumably refers to the British Steel Corporation (BSC) a nationalised company over here, until Maggie Thatcher decimated it. I think Google will be your friend for more info.

Google found this This although I guess you may already know about it LOL

Picture #4 gave me a fright - I thought you'd set fire to it.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

Thanks rtbcomp, I searched and found BSC but couldn't find any history of the company back to 1940. Found nothing at all about East London Engineering. Yup, you caught me, I've been reading quite a bit on your forum lately and see lots of rust repairs so I thought I'd share it here too. There is a second thread on WeldingWeb that has the restore process.....same as what I just posted.

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

Found in the 1940 London phone book

East London Engineering Works Ltd., 486 High Road E.11 LEYtnstn 1081

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=51.558825~0.007087&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=486%20High%20Road%2C%20Leytonstone%2C%20London&encType=1

cobminor · Oct 15, 2008

You could have done the same by pickling it in Jenolite for a few hours without the battery involvment.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

rtbcomp said:
Found in the 1940 London phone book

East London Engineering Works Ltd., 486 High Road E.11 LEYtnstn 1081

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=51.558825~0.007087&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=486%20High%20Road%2C%20Leytonstone%2C%20London&encType=1

That's great, thanks for the info!

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

Should add, they're not listen at Companies House so they would have gone out of business many years ago.

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

They appear to have been in business between 1936 and 1950 from that address

Hitch · Oct 15, 2008

rtbcomp said:
Found in the 1940 London phone book

East London Engineering Works Ltd., 486 High Road E.11 LEYtnstn 1081

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=51.558825~0.007087&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=486%20High%20Road%2C%20Leytonstone%2C%20London&encType=1

We get a new one put through the door every year :whistle:

Nice resto job :clapping:

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

Hitch said:
We get a new one put through the door every year

That was hanging in the carzy.

SWells · Oct 15, 2008

rtbcomp said:
They appear to have been in business between 1936 and 1950 from that address

Thank you again rtbcomp, I appreciate it.

drivewasher · Oct 15, 2008

Hitch said:
We get a new one put through the door every year

Nice resto job

Ha! Yeah what was the phone number?

PS They might sell gaurds for your mini grinder lol..................

rtbcomp · Oct 15, 2008

drivewasher said:
Ha! Yeah what was the phone number?

............

LEYtnstn 1081. They had an additional line in 1950 LEYtnstn 1252

cobminor · Oct 16, 2008

rtbcomp said:
That was hanging in the carzy.

I thought it was Kahzi

Metal Shear restore - using electrolysis

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Moderator

Member

Moderator

Member

Member

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Member

Member

Moderator

Member