Two OT questions on aluminum and electroylisis

thoughts

bill tindall

>"The mag on the engine is rusted on the crankshaft." I have no idea what these words mean so I don't know what metal is corroded to what. So the rest is based on an assumption that something is rusted and electrolysing the rust might get it loose. And the question is, will aluminum be adversely affected during the process?

With the aluminum the cathode, as the rust needs to be, I don't think any harm will come to the aluminum. However, aluminum dissolves in basic solutions and the electrolysis solution is slightly basic. However, the electrolysis should at least retard if not stop dissolution. I would try a scrap of aluminum before I did the real thing. Let us know the result.

Second part Aluminum melts at a low temperature. Heating gas tanks can result in explosions if there is gelled gas inside.

Re: Two OT questions on aluminum and electroylisis

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I would think you'd want to heat the magneto instead of trying electrolysis. Can't help otherwise. Good luck. Restoring old motor vehicles is one of those activities that will make you hungry for the simplicity of fettling a $2 bench plane.

Re: thoughts

Phil Smith

>You will likely see some pitting of the aluminium. Recently I put a cast iron drill press head into an electrolysis bath to remove the rust. The casting had an aluminum serial no. tag rivited to the head which was not easily removed. After a couple of days of electrolyis the cast iron was essentially rust free but the aluminum serial plate had some surface corresion and pitting from the caustic bath. I would be very cautious of any aluminium that you put into the bath. In my case I was willing to sacrifice the serial no. tag to get rid of rust on the casting. As it turned out I had some surface eching of the aluminium plate but it is still easily readable.