Rust Removal

[Mike]

Since the flood last year, I've had to prioritize cleaning and repair work. After spending most of my time rehabbing the interior of the house, I'm finally getting around to cleaning up the smaller ticket items in the garage. That includes rust removal from hand tools,which is what this post is really about.

I've tried several ways to clean up the rust, wire wheel brushing works well, as does vinegar and salt. Having never tried the vinegar and salt method, I was surprised at how well it works. It works so well it removed the chrome finish from some of my Craftsman wrenches, leaving nothing but gray steel. That will rust in short order, so I'm trying to find the best solution for protecting the bare steel.

Any ideas? I have a few, but I want to see what others say before deciding.

[Phillbo]

Baking Soda

[Independent Voter]

Can they be re-cromed ?. If not or to expensive, i would suggest a rust preventive paint and a close watch on them.

[Wannabe]

Mike, I came by a bunch of rusty tools. There were combination wrenches, saws, hammers, ect. I put them in a vinegar-salt solution and let them sit for about a week and you have never seen such a nasty mess. I rinsed them off and put them in a baking soda water solution to kill the acid and left them in the baking soda water. Got my propane torch ready and would pull a tool out of the baking soda solution and heat it with the torch until it was dry. As it dried it turned rust brown. When dry i put it in a container of transmission fluid (because I had a bunch of cheat tranny fluid on hand) and when my oil container filled up I would pull a tool out and let it drip back into the container then wipe it down. The tool will turn out black but rust free. It is labor intensive but when you are retired, what is time?
Or if you can get it, knock the loose stuff off with a wire brush and paint phosphoric acid on the tool and it will also turn black. Under certain conditions, it will also produce a white powder on the surface. Just brush it off. This stuff will turn iorn oxide into iorn sulfate. Use it on a swing set or steel fence as a primer and paint. When I was a tow boat captain I had a 25 gal drum of it to use on rust.
Hope that helps

[Honda]

First I have no idea but I will say Craftsman wrenches have lifetime warranties for any and all perils they are full warranties so if you can find a Sears open somewhere you can probably get them exchanged even though I know that's probably not what you want to do

[wacojoe]

Does Naval Jelly work?

Didn’t Sears sell their Craftsman brand (a milestone marking the sad state of retail!), so do they still honor Craftsman warranties?
I saw an ad this last week in which Home Depot is now selling Craftsman stuff.