Has anybody ever used molasses/water solution to remove rust from blocks etc? I have heard great things about it, and the price can't be beat. I am planning to try this out but I have been told that regular molasses wont work, it requires 'horse feed' or 'sulphated' molasses. Any thoughts? Also where does a city boy find horse feed molasses?
Alan (BuickAl) has what you want. Check out this thread:Alan's Rust Remover and this earlier one: Rust Removers
A city boy would find sulphated molasses at a feed store. You may have to run outside town a bit, but I am sure one is reasonably close to you. Here is a little hint, if you can heat the mixture a bit it helps get the reactions going, just like any chemical reaction.
Thanks Blown, One more question if I may. What is the best mixture ratio? I have been thinking somewhere in the range of 5 parts water to 1 part molasses, but have been told that it will also work at a 10:1 ratio, any thoughts?
Bump... I would like to know what ratio too. I did buy a $90 bucket of AL's stuff but after about 75% of the "water" evaporated it was useless and kind of a waste. He did say you can add water as needed so I didn't worry about the evaporation but adding water didn't work for me and another $90 is not in the budget. [Never got my first $90 worth out of it.] Matt uzzled:
From another post about molasses "And I found this on this website. http://www.lametalsmiths.org/news/page9.htm 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. Ben Selinger, Department of Chemistry, Australian National University. Ben Selinger is the author of Chemistry in the Marketplace and Why the Watermelon will not Ripen in your Armpit (Allen & Unwin) Looks interesting! "
ok folks-----we need some follow through on this thread. Has anyone actually called around to a feed supply place to locate this stuff??? I called one here and all they had was a powdered form and they didn't know #$*# about sulphated, etc. Can someone do some checking in their area and see: 1) what form this stuff comes in-liquid/powder/etc 2)Get a product name I'll try that other website and some more web searching. We need to find out where to get this stuff ----if someone will get me some info I'll get the stuff and TRY IT OUT AND POST RESULTS ON THIS BOARD. These ideas are great!!!! We just need to follow through and publish results. I will do that with some help. THnx very much. Patton Glade
Still looking for a source locally, called one place and they had NO CLUE. Talked to a friend that has a good friend with cattle operation in S. Texas and he said they have a guy that comes in and fills a whole feed trough w/molasses that the cattle eat (used to get them to eat older grass)--he is supposed to check that out. Went to a local natural food store and they have "unsulphured" molasses so somewhere out there is the "sulphured or sulphated" type. The stuff being sold here frankly does not go very far---it works but the solution stops working pretty quickly....With 2.5 gallons I was not able to get a lot of stuff derusted. Patton
I got a question, what do you do with the stuff when your done with it?? I've got a septic system and I don't know what it would do to that. Probably find a horse that could use a little iron in his diet!!! Lou
