How to clean a bucket of bolts

[rcx132]

I've got a bucket of bolts to clean up prior to plating. It's way too much to sand blast, I'll be there for two days. I've put them in hot caustic soda, aside from being very dangerous, it's leaving thick smut behind. Phosphoric acid needs to be used after caustic to get the rust and old zinc off and it also leaves smut behind.

I've heard of tumbler cleaners but never seen one. What about ultrasonic cleaning?

 

[Crater Creator]

In a steel basket and electrolyze with washing soda?
I've got a vibratory tumbler, works really well with ceramic media, takes a while depending on how bad the parts are, but gives a very nice finish. The machine itself was a bit expensive for what it is - I contemplated building one but eventually just bought one from Frost Restoration.

 

[rcx132]

The Frost tumbler is £150 + cost of media. I watched a YouTube video of it in action and it didn't look too impressive, but you're saying it works?

Electrolytic cleaning would save me time but it also leaves smut behind and the parts need a polish before they can be plated, that's if you want full life out of the plating, I'm sure people plate dirty bolts.

What I'm doing at the moment is hot caustic to remove paint and grime followed by phosphoric acid to remove old zinc and rust.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Stick your bolts in a plastic container of kiln dried sand (£2 a bag from Wickes), suspend the container with bungee cords and attach a cheap and nasty orbital sander to it for an hour.

 

[Gareth0123]

My mate made a sanding plate from an exercise vibration plate obtained from the local freecycle...... we've both used it for abrasively cleaning rust from smallish item in a box of dried sharp sand. As they are designed for people to stand on we reckon its good for a max 125kg load.

 

[rcx132]

I like the cheap tumbler solutions! I will try. I never thought of using sand, of course, no dust, no danger! Nice one !

 

[rcx132]

Have you seen how cheap Ultrasonic cleaners are? For £60 you can get one that will fit a bike carb or a spray gun

 

[awemawson]

Dry 'play sand' in a cement mixer and add your bolts.

 

[rcx132]

My cement mixer has gone back to my uncles so that option is out, but if all else fails I'll borrow one again. I looked on YouTube, lots of ideas for making tumblers, like what you lot have suggested here. But they take a long time to get the bolts 100%. But here's an idea, what about a rock tumbler? Those machines that jewellery makers use to polish stones. They are basically a rotating barrel full of media and some have paddles inside like a cement mixer. These are designed to run for hours and are a neater solution that takes less space. I'm bidding on a used one on eBay, will try.

 

[graffian]

jug of petrol and a finger nail.

 

[Monkey Harris]

Soak in strong vinegar..?

 

[rcx132]

jug of petrol and a finger nail.

That will clean but need to remove rust and old zinc prior to plating.

Soak in strong vinegar..?

The phosphoric acid does the same, but quicker.


I've already given them a caustic soda clean and stripped them in phosphoric acid. They've ended up with some residue on them, I think it might be left over grease reacting with the acid. I think the caustic soda may have been too worn out and too little. Rock tumbler should arrive today so will see if that gets the remaining smut and residue off.

 

[rcx132]

In a steel basket and electrolyze with washing soda?

Just noticed that post.... does that work? Put the bolts in a basket and clean electrolytically? So I don't need to wire each bolt up to the bus bar?

 

[123hotchef]

My mate made a sanding plate from an exercise vibration plate obtained from the local freecycle...... we've both used it for abrasively cleaning rust from smallish item in a box of dried sharp sand. As they are designed for people to stand on we reckon its good for a max 125kg load.

and the rest u seen the fatties that get on them at the gym with a thick shake

 

[Crater Creator]

Just noticed that post.... does that work? Put the bolts in a basket and clean electrolytically? So I don't need to wire each bolt up to the bus bar?

Yeah, as long as the basket is conductive, and the bolts are clean enough to make electrical contact.
Give it a shake every now and again to mix them up and expose them all to the current flow.

 

[rcx132]

My mate made a sanding plate from an exercise vibration plate obtained from the local freecycle...... we've both used it for abrasively cleaning rust from smallish item in a box of dried sharp sand. As they are designed for people to stand on we reckon its good for a max 125kg load.

K, but I think the cement mixer sounds more aggressive. The vibration cleaners don't seem that capable, at least that's how it seems on YouTube.

Yeah, as long as the basket is conductive, and the bolts are clean enough to make electrical contact.
Give it a shake every now and again to mix them up and expose them all to the current flow.

I have a stainless basket, will try.

 

[8ob]

Hot alkaline cleaning solution in big parts washers works really well, the one we have cleans everything but its very slow warming up, very expensive to run ( leccy) and really noisy. Along the same theme and wanting to clean small batches of items I was wondering if a chip fryer would work with the same cleaning solution so I have ordered one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professio...id=100005&rk=6&rkt=6&mehot=ag&sd=371089070147 Will let you know how it fairs up.

Bob

 

[Hitch]

Have you seen how cheap Ultrasonic cleaners are? For £60 you can get one that will fit a bike carb or a spray gun

I thought you were going to say 'Have you seen how cheap bolts are?'

 

[Fastfingaz]

I thought you were going to say 'Have you seen how cheap bolts are?'

Just a observation ,,,if you use a tumbling device what if anything will happen to the threads,,, ?

 

[graffian]

What are the threads like? I binned load sof bolts on my bike

Hot alkaline cleaning solution in big parts washers works really well, the one we have cleans everything but its very slow warming up, very expensive to run ( leccy) and really noisy. Along the same theme and wanting to clean small batches of items I was wondering if a chip fryer would work with the same cleaning solution so I have ordered one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professional-3L-Litre-Stainless-Steel-Deep-Fat-Chip-machine-Fryer-Brand-NEW/252101202278?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao=2&asc=43782&meid=d4be74f552354136bf08e247c671c1ac&pid=100005&rk=6&rkt=6&mehot=ag&sd=371089070147 Will let you know how it fairs up.

Bob

I use a deep fat fryer with truck wash and lashings of added caustic. Con rods look like new forging after being fried.
What really is amazing is the hardoated[?], cast of some sort of **** that you would expect casutic to eat, doesn't get eaten by the caustic.