Rokkit
New member
- Jul 3, 2012
- 1
thread330-288252
I was reading the last thread about soddering or soft soldering cast iron and some thoughts about deep cleaning came to mind.
For oily cast iron - I guess a REALLY hot oven works for smaller items - to smoke and carburise the oil out...
But that is another issue.
One of the things I use is a variety of solvents - like wiping and scrubbing the cast iron with gasolene because it's cheap and it cleans well. Then I can move onto OILY residue free solvents such as kerosene / turpentine and then acetone.
One of the other issues of interest is electrolytic cleaning, in an alkali bath, of weak caustic soda or sodium bicarbonate solutions, and hooking a lower powered DC supply up (battery charger), so that the cast iron is etched clean by the hydrogenation / electrolysis / caustic / ionic action on the surface, while a nearby steel bar etc., rusts away like mad. (I forget the + - / anode cathode bit - easy enough to work out anyway)
It's actually a really GOOD way to clean cast iron REALLY clean as it removes the crud OUT of the surface layer...
Follow this with a fast boiling water rinse and then hit it with the acidic / neutral fluxes and a soddering iron and heat source.
I will revise this post a little later, as the principles are sound, but I am about to build up a slide inside a cast iron drill head - and there is much to be said for the composition or PH of the fluxes, prior to soddering with a tin lead sodder as the base for a "babbit alloy" (mostly tin).
The effect of staged solvent cleaning is a proven fact, and so is the electrolytic cleansing....
I just think the electrolytic joint cleansing is an option that ought to be exercised to clean INTO the metal surface - prior to soddering.
I was reading the last thread about soddering or soft soldering cast iron and some thoughts about deep cleaning came to mind.
For oily cast iron - I guess a REALLY hot oven works for smaller items - to smoke and carburise the oil out...
But that is another issue.
One of the things I use is a variety of solvents - like wiping and scrubbing the cast iron with gasolene because it's cheap and it cleans well. Then I can move onto OILY residue free solvents such as kerosene / turpentine and then acetone.
One of the other issues of interest is electrolytic cleaning, in an alkali bath, of weak caustic soda or sodium bicarbonate solutions, and hooking a lower powered DC supply up (battery charger), so that the cast iron is etched clean by the hydrogenation / electrolysis / caustic / ionic action on the surface, while a nearby steel bar etc., rusts away like mad. (I forget the + - / anode cathode bit - easy enough to work out anyway)
It's actually a really GOOD way to clean cast iron REALLY clean as it removes the crud OUT of the surface layer...
Follow this with a fast boiling water rinse and then hit it with the acidic / neutral fluxes and a soddering iron and heat source.
I will revise this post a little later, as the principles are sound, but I am about to build up a slide inside a cast iron drill head - and there is much to be said for the composition or PH of the fluxes, prior to soddering with a tin lead sodder as the base for a "babbit alloy" (mostly tin).
The effect of staged solvent cleaning is a proven fact, and so is the electrolytic cleansing....
I just think the electrolytic joint cleansing is an option that ought to be exercised to clean INTO the metal surface - prior to soddering.
