Fun with acid,,day trippin

[roncoinc]

Boredom and the willingness to experiment can sometimes bring about disater or success..
today was one of the good days..
experimenting with acid was something i thot i left behind in the late 60's but i took it up again today
in another thread about restoring a stock Stihl bar with the impressed logo i showed the results of what acid can do..
with a q-tip and muratic acid and almost no labor the bar now looks pretty darn good..but that was not the end of my experiments..
heres a couple pix of before and after then on to the rest of the story

before..........

after,,well 1/2 way..

after lightly polishing with steel wool i couldnt take a good pic because it was TO shiny !!

While i had the acid out i decided to work on a cyl that had some aliminium transfer...
took the q-tip and acid and swabbed it on and waited,,,,,,,,,,,,rinsed and felt with fingernail and still some there...so to dry it before more acid i set it on the woodstove to dry,and forgot about it
went to pick it up and needed a hot pad to get ahold of it...
now i'm thinking it may be TO hot and remembered the thread on ultrasonic cleaning and how it works better with heat...
so on the bench it went hot as hell and when the q-tip with acid hit that hot metal and the FUMES !!! wow !!...when the air cleared a few second later all the aluminium was GONE !!..that was it ! gone !..in a matter of seconds...
rinsed the cyl and felt NOTHING ! smooth as a babies behind
next time you have a problem getting the alumn of,,remember this..
PS: dont breath the fumes..

 

[volks-man]

looks good!

on the bar:
straight muriatic swabbed on with a q-tip?
how long on the bar?
rinse with water?

 

[Banacanin]

very cool

 

[roncoinc]

looks good!

on the bar:
straight muriatic swabbed on with a q-tip?
how long on the bar?
rinse with water?

Yes,straight muratic swabbed on with Qtip..by the time i got to the end of the bar the first part was done,rubed it a little with more acid and Qtip and rinse in water..as soon as dry a little yellow color from the acid but paper towel polished it off..whole bar gets done about as fast as you can spread it on and rub a little..
you can WATCH the transformation

 

[blsnelling]

Both tips are excellent! Thanks for sharing. I will be trying both. Rep time.

 

[7oaks]

:agree2:

 

[JohnnyBoy1986]

great information, i cant wait to experiment a bit myself!

 

[clearance]

Looks good, interesting.

 

[uncurtis]

Where do you get your muriatic acid and what concentration/percentage solution do you use?

 

[blsnelling]

And here I just cleaned up two scored cylinders last night.

 

[roncoinc]

Where do you get your muriatic acid and what concentration/percentage solution do you use?

Hardware store for the acid..
straight from the bottle..
remember it IS an ACID !!.. use precautions when working with it..it does gives off harmfull fumes and when used on a HOT surface even more so..ventalation and keep lungs clear..you will see smoke when it's doing it's job and when hot even more so..water is a nuetralizer,,flush well..and flush again,and again...on the cyl may leave a dull looking finish but no problem,just a natural reaction and will polish up once engine is running..
for re-application make sure piece is completely dry,and as i have found out warm or hot is even better..
i was surprised when i used it on the HOY cyl the amount of fumes,had to leave the house,so be forewarned..the good part is it worked so QUICK and clean !!
i would suggest prep a place outside with a bucket of water,,heat the piece up HOT and take it outside and treat it and then in the bucket of water..
going to try outside of cylinders next with some scrap ones to see what can be done for cleaning and apperance..usually a dull grey appearance after acid but i should be able to interupt at a point to get a shine..
good luck and be CAREFULL with acid !!..

 

[uncurtis]

Hardware store for the acid..
straight from the bottle..
remember it IS an ACID !!.. use precautions when working with it..it does gives off harmfull fumes and when used on a HOT surface even more so..ventalation and keep lungs clear..you will see smoke when it's doing it's job and when hot even more so..water is a nuetralizer,,flush well..and flush again,and again...on the cyl may leave a dull looking finish but no problem,just a natural reaction and will polish up once engine is running..
for re-application make sure piece is completely dry,and as i have found out warm or hot is even better..
i was surprised when i used it on the HOY cyl the amount of fumes,had to leave the house,so be forewarned..the good part is it worked so QUICK and clean !!
i would suggest prep a place outside with a bucket of water,,heat the piece up HOT and take it outside and treat it and then in the bucket of water..
going to try outside of cylinders next with some scrap ones to see what can be done for cleaning and apperance..usually a dull grey appearance after acid but i should be able to interupt at a point to get a shine..
good luck and be CAREFULL with acid !!..

Thanks for the info! I look forward to picking some up and testing on a few old cylinders I have laying around. I will make sure to experiment outside and use good sense.

 

[roncoinc]

Both tips are excellent! Thanks for sharing. I will be trying both. Rep time.

Brad,,very pleased you found this stuff interesting..
after all you have contributed and all i have learned from you and this site and everybody else helping fellow members and myself a small contribution on my part is very small payment in return..

NOW !!!!!

if it wasnt for all you dadburned saw nuts i wouldnt have 50 dadblamed saws filling up my dadblamed shed and taking up all my dadburned free time when i could be doing usless mind numbing crap like watching TV instead of learning stuff and having a good time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
fun aint it ??

 

[Trigger Man]

Ron, so do you just ask for muriatic acid or is there a product name used. I've tried to get some and I'm not having much luck. Is there a designer name for the stuff?

 

[roncoinc]

Thanks for the info! I look forward to picking some up and testing on a few old cylinders I have laying around. I will make sure to experiment outside and use good sense.

If you search the site you will find lots on using muratic acid to take aluminium transfer off cylinders....the only thing i did was heat up the cyl really hot,resulted in more of a reaction from the acid to to alumn..of course as alumn get hot it gets softer so that may be the reason the acid worked as quick as it did..plus the acid got hot on contact maybe helping also,..i also used some very fine wet/dry sandpaper in the wash on the affected area gently..
safety first,the fumes from acid hot or not are not good..when hot will be a LOT more fumes quick !!.. be prepared..
let us know of your results with hot cylinders,,try cold first,then hot and report..tnx all.

 

[roncoinc]

Ron, so do you just ask for muriatic acid or is there a product name used. I've tried to get some and I'm not having much luck. Is there a designer name for the stuff?

THIS should answer your question..

 

[pioneerguy600]

Muratic acid is easily found at hardware stores or building suppliers, it is commomnl used to remove mortar from brickwork.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Trigger Man]

Thanks Ron! Yep big help! Yes now that I know what uses it has it will help describing it to the hardware store. Thanks Guys.

 

[kr5258]

Klean Strip muriatic acid from Lowes.
If you can't find it at your local hardware store, try the local masonry supply.

 

[roncoinc]

Klean Strip muriatic acid from Lowes.
If you can't find it at your local hardware store, try the local masonry supply.

man you QUICK with that camera !!