I thought I'd post the results of a little test I was doing to see just how good vinegar was at getting rid of rust. So when I took of this exhaust clamp from my bike which was simply a lump of rust I through it straight into my big tub of malt vinegar. This is what it looks like after 2 weeks of my doing nothing to it. I haven't scrubbed it or done anything other than give it a rinse, you can see from the pitting just how bad it was. Quite impressive really.
Rescued attachment CIMG1859.JPG

and the other side...
Rescued attachment CIMG1860.JPG

Certainly impressive - as good as electrolysis but without all the faffing.

Very impressive,
But with all the vinegar smells you will have to change your user name to Mr Chippy
Steve.

hmmm? is that off a 2 stroke?

Blimey that is rather impressive.

It does work - but make sure that you REALLY rinse it off when you've finished, then either paint it or oil it, as it'll rust as you watch!

It's also really good for getting the scale off black steel.

It certainly works ery well, if a little pungent! At least there's no possibility of any of the nasty by-products that can occur with electrolosys.

I did my rear caliper brackets, scrubbed them off daily and kept them in the vinegar for a week. Once the rust had gone, I washed them off, baked them in my gas BBQ for 20 mins (the get the water out of the porous metal) and gave them a going over with the wire wheel. Nice and shiney (at the time, but they've oxidised again by now).

Would coca cola do the same trick? Worth a bash.

Why use Coke? Malt vinegar is 17p a litre in Tesco

I have used malt vinegar with salt dissolved in the vinegar until no more will dissolve. It may speed up the process, not sure how.

I believe it has been known in the model engineering groups for some time.

Adrian

Vinegar & salt is good for cleaning copper and brass - I believe that the salt speeds up the action of the vinegar.

Not sure I'd want to put anything made of steel into a salt solution...

unlike electrolysis, it'll also attack clean steel surfaces like bearing seats and such like.

not bad for unmachined bits like that though.

tom

Suprising what a little mild acid will do, just think about that the next time your enjoying your fish and chips.

When i was an apprentice i did a spell in one of the production QA labs. The lads in there were mad as hatters. One of them was bust restoring a RS2000. He brought the suspension arms in and was going through powerfile belts like they were going out of fashion (it was in the Black & Decker factory so there was a plentiful supply). The lab was filled with brown dust. Then he decided a far better idea was to use the acid they normally reserve for testing hardness depth. Cant remember exact type but rather strong sulphuric seems to ring a bell. The parts did not take long for rust to be removed with that stuff. A quick rinse off and trip through Workmate paint plant (back in the days when they were black) and they were as good as new.