Thread: Rust removal with molasses.

DON'T place Any none ferris metals in molasses as you wont get it back. It converts allay and brass to a horrible sandy mess in the botton of the tub.

hodgo

I'd be interested to see how these come out - keep us posted on the progress...

Cheers - Gav

Originally Posted by hodgo

DON'T place Any none ferris metals in molasses as you wont get it back. It converts allay and brass to a horrible sandy mess in the botton of the tub.

hodgo

I'll be testing that. There are the remnants of some rivets in the parts I've put into the bucket.

That is a pretty strong brew Mick!

1 part molasses to 10 parts water is usually strong enough. Quite often one can see the outline of the part in gas bubbles on the surface

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by chazza

That is a pretty strong brew Mick!

1 part molasses to 10 parts water is usually strong enough. Quite often one can see the outline of the part in gas bubbles on the surface

Cheers Charlie

Molasses is cheap. Less than a medium Big Mac meal deal.
There was a lot of rust.
Do you think I should dilute the solution?

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Molasses is cheap. Less than a medium Big Mac meal deal.
There was a lot of rust.
Do you think I should dilute the solution?

Used to be cheap. 200 l for $25 direct from Nambour Sugar Mill.

Damn site more expensive than that now.....if you can get it.

20 Lt tub from my local stockfeed/hardware store was $32 last weekend but I'm a long way from where any sugar cane is grown.

Regards,
Tote

Gleamed from another site:

Question
I have a friend who uses molasses to clean rust off old iron items collected from the bush. The rusty iron article is placed in a jar of molasses solution (nine parts water, one part molasses) and left for two weeks. After this time, the article comes out clean and almost shiny. What is happening here?

Answer
Molasses contains chelating agents. These are made of molecules that are shaped a bit like the claws of a crab--the word chelating comes directly from the Latin word chele, meaning claw. They can envelop metal atoms on the surface of an object, trapping them and removing them. Molasses owes its properties to cyclic hydroxamic acids which are powerful chelators of iron.

More of these compounds are found if the molasses is derived from sugar beet rather than cane sugar. The plants from which molasses is made presumably use these chelating agents to help them extract minerals from the soil. Interestingly, there are aerobic microorganisms that use similar cyclic hydroxamic acids to scavenge iron. So plants and microbes appear to use the same chelation strategy to obtain their daily ration of iron.

The same process is at work when you clean old coins with Vegemite or cola. The power of chelating agents also explains why the insides of tomato tins need to be lacquered. The citric acid in the tomatoes would dissolve the metal of the container if the lacquer were not present. Household cleaning agents, especially detergents and shampoos, also rely on chelation. These soften water to make it more effective during the cleaning process.

Chelation has its uses in medicine, too. EDTA or ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid is used as a chelating agent to control levels of calcium in the body and can reduce the effects of mercury or lead poisoning.