electrolysis question

You should see it working right away, you might want to clean a spot on the part your cleaning to hook the clips to. if its not getting a good contact it want work.

I am new to MDing but I am not new to electrolysis. I have a system set up and have restored hundreds of cast iron skillets, dutch ovens etc. A few issues/questions I have.
First off 20 amps is an ideal current to run to the electro. Any more then that and you are just heating the water and wasting energy. Less then that and it will work but it is slower. Until I came to this forum I have never heard of using salt in your water solution. I have spoke with and worked with many people in the cast iron business and everyone uses sodium carbonate. This makes the electrolyte that transfers the current. I myself use Arm and Hammer laundry powder. (Not baking soda!). You can also us Ph up for swimming pools and hot tubs.
The other issue I see is that electrolysis works kind of like line of sight. On smaller pieces you won't notice it but on a large piece you will. For example on a skillet if you use a piece of grill grate as your anode you will see the grate patteron on the skillet. It will ghost onto the skillet because the portions of the skillet in direct line with the grill grates will get cleaned more. Now I am not sure exactly what you are cleaning (shape, size, dimensions etc.) but keep that in mind. Another example is if you put a peice of square steel into your electro and hang a skillet in front of it to clean only the side of the skillet that is facing the steel will really get cleaned. My tank has stainless steel sheet metal wrapped all the way around the inside so it cleans all surfaces of the skillet.

If the piece you are trying to clean is extremely rusty you might not be getting a good connection with your negative side and it won't work. If it is hooked up properly you should see it bubbling right away. I can also tell you from experience that the large the piece you are cleaning the more amps it will draw. I use a battery charge that has a 2, 10 and 150 amp setting. If I put a small skillet in it and put it on 10 amps the gage on my charger shows it is only putting out about 4 amps. If I put a really large skillet in and keep it on 10 amps it will actually put out 12-15 amps. Here are a few pics of some of the skillets I have cleaned and my electro.


Before

After

flyin-lowe said:

I am new to MDing but I am not new to electrolysis. I have a system set up and have restored hundreds of cast iron skillets, dutch ovens etc. A few issues/questions I have.
First off 20 amps is an ideal current to run to the electro. Any more then that and you are just heating the water and wasting energy. Less then that and it will work but it is slower. Until I came to this forum I have never heard of using salt in your water solution. I have spoke with and worked with many people in the cast iron business and everyone uses sodium carbonate. This makes the electrolyte that transfers the current. I myself use Arm and Hammer laundry powder. (Not baking soda!). You can also us Ph up for swimming pools and hot tubs.
The other issue I see is that electrolysis works kind of like line of sight. On smaller pieces you won't notice it but on a large piece you will. For example on a skillet if you use a piece of grill grate as your anode you will see the grate patteron on the skillet. It will ghost onto the skillet because the portions of the skillet in direct line with the grill grates will get cleaned more. Now I am not sure exactly what you are cleaning (shape, size, dimensions etc.) but keep that in mind. Another example is if you put a peice of square steel into your electro and hang a skillet in front of it to clean only the side of the skillet that is facing the steel will really get cleaned. My tank has stainless steel sheet metal wrapped all the way around the inside so it cleans all surfaces of the skillet.

If the piece you are trying to clean is extremely rusty you might not be getting a good connection with your negative side and it won't work. If it is hooked up properly you should see it bubbling right away. I can also tell you from experience that the large the piece you are cleaning the more amps it will draw. I use a battery charge that has a 2, 10 and 150 amp setting. If I put a small skillet in it and put it on 10 amps the gage on my charger shows it is only putting out about 4 amps. If I put a really large skillet in and keep it on 10 amps it will actually put out 12-15 amps. Here are a few pics of some of the skillets I have cleaned and my electro.

Before

After

Click to expand...

You should post the instructions to build a setup like this bro.

The picture pretty much shows it all, it is pretty simple. 55 gallon drum lined with a sheet of stainless steel ($10 at local scrap yard). The board across the top has a metal strap with holes in it that hangs into the solution and I use a D ring to hook the skillets to the metal strap. Stuff without holes I use a C clamp. The positive end goes on the stainless steel and the negative end goes on top of the strap that is connected to the skillet. For my solution I use sodium carbonate (arm and hammer laundry soap). The C clamps in the picture are only there to hold the board from sliding off the top of the drum.
Electrolysis works by line of site so that is why it is important to have your donor piece all the way around the piece to be cleaned. If you hang one piece of steel on one side of the drum it will clean the side of the skillet facing the the metal. Another important thing to remember is to get an "manual" charger. If you have one of the cheaper automatic chargers they will not work right. They will think the battery is charged and not stay running. In manual mode you can keep the charger running all the time. I have never used one of the small trickle charges but if they are made to shut off or slow down as a battery charges they might not work good for an electrolysis system. I think for small coins and stuff it is not as important but for skillets and large pieces of cookware you need to have a solid piece (like my stainless steel) Some people have tried to a couple pieces of rebar or a piece of grill grate and the shape of the piece (the rebar or the grill grate) will "ghost" into the metal because it will clean the spot directly across from the metal better. I have seen skillets come out of an electro and you can see the outline of the grill grate on the bottom of it.