Vinegar to remove rust

This isn’t strictly window cleaning, but in case you’ve got some tools that are getting rusty, I learned on YouTube that you can use white vinegar to remove it. It’s cheap and nontoxic and the results are pretty good. Just remember to stop the chemical reaction with baking soda after you’ve soaked the item for a day.

Unfortunately i forgot to take before pictures. The items weren’t rusted to the point of being unusable, but it was making them harder to use.

Soaking:

This was what came off:

This is pre-steel brush scrub:


And after, with some white lithium grease:

We’ll see how they hold up now.

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Cool. Is that just straight white vinegar…no mixing with water?
I try to use lithium spray lubricant on things that will rust…slows the rust down a little bit. Works great for locks like that.

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Yup, just white vinegar undiluted. And going forward I’ll be using the lithium spray. Although, truth be told, I don’t get how a manufacturer of a product like that doesn’t design it to be stainless steel to begin with. Maybe they figure the price would be higher than most would pay. Personally, I’d rather have paid double for the ladder locks if they were stainless and didn’t rust.

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I’ll have to try this rust removal trick, thanks. I think you’re correct about it being price.

Attach a picture of the ladder locks installed, i’d like to see how it works. Without seeing how they work…I’m thinking you could get the right sized black hose to cover the non-threaded portion of the hooks. Use a little wheel bearing grease to get it on. Wouldn’t stop it from rusting but it would help cover the rust and keep your ladders cleaner. Maybe there isn’t enough room for a hose?

http://m.autozone.com/plumbing-hosing/rubber-hose/armor-mark-pcv-and-emission-hose/13692_0_0?location=

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Yep, vinegar is some amazing stuff. To get that stubborn brake dust off of your wheels dip some fine steel wool or brass wool in a bowl of vinegar and scrub away that mess. Works way better than any store bought stuff I had tried. Cleans up well with soapy water.

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I’ve used to soak my concrete trowels in vinegar to get off an excess concrete.

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I just take an angle grinder to those. MUCH quicker. Lol

I ment to say this was in between jobs. my trowel bucket was vinegar and water. alittle more vinegar.

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Because that would reduce how frequently your purchased a new one if the same one lasted for 25 years, the reason stuff doesn’t last like it did back in the 50’s is only due to return customers.
In the 50s the army developed magnetic braking systems that slowed down the drive shaft .No moving parts nothing to wear out , but you don’t see it these days unless its in the mag lift type systems where they are priced so expensive that you need millions to install them. but that was designed as a braking system over 60 years ago but discontinued due to the fact of having no serviceable parts therefore no form of generating $$ after installation.

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It’s terrible how many things are like that. Even video games! Not too long ago you paid for a game and it was done. Now, you prepay for a game that’s not done, and then they charge you repeatedly for new content. Everyone needs money, and it’s nice to even have a lot of money…but greed is ruining everything.

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I know I’m late to this party, but I remembered the post and thought I’d share. I typically use a wire cup chucked into a drill or a drill press to remove rust because I’m impatient, but I found this stuff recently called Fluid Film. I started using it on the tools I use for the pressure washers, trailers, and locks. It works AWESOME! No more wire brushing every couple weeks!

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Thanks for the tip!

Hate to live in the past here, but remember how I told you how awesome Fluid Film is? Well… I found something 1/3 the cost of Fluid Film and dare I say it works better. Lol

I put these dollar store pliers made out of the cheapest steel you could probably imagine, coated it with this stuff, and left it under the downspout. As luck would have it, we’ve had 3 huge storms over the last month. Like flooding and power outages and trees on houses storms.

Anyway… I couldn’t believe how well this stuff works. $3 at menards.

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Sweet! With this revival of the past, you have just impacted the future.

(Although there’s no menard’s out this way. :frowning:)

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Amazon has it for $7 which is still cheaper than Fluid Film. I’m curious to see if Home Depot or Lowe’s has it.

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You can also use Bar Keepers Friend in powder form. It has Oxalic Acid in it. Or use some Coca Cola…

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