1950s scooter resto

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:21 am
Got a 1950s scooter that I am restoring

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I have disassembled and been stripping in preparation for a urethane red/cream paint ob
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have sandblasted in my cabinet most of the parts. the original paint has come off quite easily, however several paints have been done in enamel more recently and are extremely slow to come off even with 30/60 garnet with my current setup. I know pressure feed would be better but my cabinet is siphon
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so I decided I should work smarter rather than harder and so set up an electrolysis rig to strip the paint grease and rust from these panels

so far has been working great and only been running for 5-6 hours

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this blistering was after 2-3 hours... paint just falls off... now the paint is just flaking off in the electrolyte.


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its my first time doing electrolysis cleaning/stripping/rust removal, I realy like how clean/contained/non toxic/simple it is, it doesnt require my time I just set and forget... I think seeing how well it has worked I am going to use it to strip the paint from the frame, hood and leg shields as they wont fit in my blast cabinet and it would cost me at least $300 here in aus to get the parts blasted... I will build a large electrolysis pool and power it with a computer atx power supply, maybe 450+watt (puts out 30 amps at 5v an 20amps at 12v approx - compared to my trickle charger with 2 amps.

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looking forward to getting to paint!

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 7:36 am
very nice! Amazing how well the electrolysis process works. Keep us posted.



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:48 pm
duplicate post
Last edited by s900t8v on Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:11 am, edited 1 time in total.



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:50 pm
the madness continues

made a mini bath up - free wooden pallets from hardware store, and $10 worth of builders film. I bought 6 meters of 20mm wide 3mm thick mild steel flat bar for $8 I bent it into the shape of the inside of the box, so the anode surrounds the frame completely to encourage even electrolysis.

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frame in first!

gone heavy duty with the power source. $15 second hand 550w power supply, can supply 12v 17 amps. (amp draw determined by how close anode is to workpiece, and how much electrolyte in solution) - this is way better than using a 12v battery charger as most dont do more than 10a... my curretn multi charger (6/12v) only does 3-4 amps max.

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nice and frothed up!

I have to the frame, hood, leg shields and front guard.. probably take a week all up but thats ok as i'm flat out at work and dont have a shed to paint in yet.
I will have to key all the metal before paint as its pretty smooth...



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:47 am
I use this method often, it is so delicate it won't even hurt the finest of inscriptions or texture. Keep any tools or metal you don't want rusty, well away from the rig, the gas is corrosive.



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:57 am
I have done this once to clean an engine block and it worked well to clean out the water jackets.
I forget what chemicals and ratios I used.. Care to share your 'recipe'?



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 4:10 pm
I just use sodium carbonate or washing soda/soda ash pool ph stabiliser. sodium carbonate is mild ph an wont burn you to death, people do this with sodium hydroxide (drain-o) I would not advise this due to how dangerous it is.

you can convert sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate by baking it at 250c for a few hours

the ratio is 4:1 but I just use whatever, the more electrolyte you use the higher the current draw. positive lead to the sacrificial anode and negative lead to the workpiece.

the only downside is hydrogen liberation and the potential for hydrogen embrittlement which is negligible for mild steels based on my understanding.

dont electrolysis high tensile/strength steel and dont use stainless for your anode you'll create hevavalent chromium

if you do use electrolysis on high strength steels then just stick them in the oven at 200c for 2 hours to bake out the hydrogen you'll have to put a coating of something on them to stop them flash rusting.



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PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:19 pm
Yea I also use plain bicarb...

If you want to bake it, cover the container with foil, it stops greases and stuff from condensating over it unless your oven is very clean...

You can dry out the red residue and use it as ferric chloride I think... I'm lazy I just buy ferric when I need to make circuit boards.

PS it is great for loosening rusted shut nuts and bolts.

After washing with water I rub things down with a paraffin rag,before it starts dryuing and flash rusting. Then you can store it for few days or just proceed to degreasing before paint.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:29 am
can not wait to see it finished,i remember doing a couple of scooters ,so many parts,never again
fail to prepare ,prepare to fail.



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PostPosted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:48 am
I agree! WAY too many parts...

not only will the priming sanding and paintng be massive but then getting all the fasteners cleaned etc... I am thinking of just buying all new fasteners to sve a step... so much work.. .

I have only a few parts left to get cleaned up... to make myself less overwhelmed about how much work I have to do I have been polishing aluminium parts/stripping on the bench - its nice to see something looking less cruddy lol

I am going to try to turn my sandblast cabinet into a vaporblast cabinet (seal up all the gaps with silicone) and fil it with water and fine glass beads and see if I can get good results polishing/shining up aluminium with it!

once I get a rolling chassis painted I will feel like I am getting somewhere! assembly is easy
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