Re: old gas can restoration
Here's one from left field, I use it to remove rust for restorations, etc. <br /><br />0) Go outside to the great vented outdoors.<br />1) Fill gas can with fresh water.<br />2) Put in about 1 table spoon of baking soda for 5 gallons of water, mix.<br />3) Connect a battery charger positive lead to a scrap peice of stainless steel (Old spoon, eg).<br />4) Drop a stainless steel electrode (scrap) into the solution. Do not let it touch the sides, and do not let anything but SS into the tank.<br />5) Connect negative lead to the tank.<br /><br />Bubbles should form. Also any red rust within line of sight of the SS electrode will eventually turn to black rust, which is easily cleaned off and is water soluable, and is pretty inert. It doesn't grow like red rust. The bubbles are oxygen and hydrogen, which is an explosive combination, hence the outdoors. <br />The process takes a while, perhaps days. You may want to insulate around the neck of the can to "make" bubbles form on the wall. Remeber that it is line of sight, and insulators are "opaque" to electricity. I use a 24v charger and drop about 10 amps into a part. If you use a 12v charger, you may need to increase the ammount of soda to get an acceptable current draw. More draw = less time. <br />More draw = more heat = less resistance = more draw, by the way. Another reason for doing it outdoors.
