Vinegar for rust removal

[Barncat]

I have heard vinegar shouldn't be used for rust removal. Does anyone know why? Does it take off some metal with it? I tried it on some angle plates from an auction lot, and it worked. One day later they were free of rust. After pulling them out of the vinegar, I put them in a baking soda solution to attempt to neutralize the acid, then rinsed, dried, and oiled. They really soaked up the oil.

 

[savarin]

I believe its to do with hydrogen embrittlement.
I believe someone here de rusted a set of spring calipers and the spring broke/shattered.
I use vinegar for derusting mild steel.
It may be worth experimenting on some spring steel to see what happens.

 

[hermetic]

I make very crude apple cider vinegar from windfalls, and it is a most ecellent rust remover!

 

[MarkDavis]

Vinegar is acid, other mild acids also help clean up metal, I use citric acid for cleaning brass.
Too much exposure is not a good thing.

 

[Janderso]

It will take off material including rust.
I’ve used it, it works, you wouldn’t want to use it on something you care about.
Evaporust is outstanding but it’s pricey.

 

[RobertB]

Too much exposure is not a good thing.

That is the key point.

Watch the Tubalcain videos on vinegar rust removal (and all of the other methods that he compares). It works great, but too long of a soaking and it starts to eat away at the good metal.

 

[RJSakowski]

I believe its to do with hydrogen embrittlement.
I believe someone here de rusted a set of spring calipers and the spring broke/shattered.
I use vinegar for derusting mild steel.
It may be worth experimenting on some spring steel to see what happens.

I believe it has more to do with the rust creating micro fissures which are high stress points. I have observed this many times with rusty springs failing.

 

[Moper361]

Quite outstanding what vinigar can be used for apart from putting it on chips along with loads of salt.I remember when i was a youngen my father want a new steel for sharpening knives .his method was to put about an inch of vinigar in a tall beer bottle and then hang a brand new round file inside the bottle just of the vinigar .After quite a long ting time ie weeks that vinigar would eat away at the file and after cleaning up would still have very fine lines left leaving quite a nice steel behind .

 

[randyjaco]

There is a large group of folks that feel that only Evaporust can be used to remove rust. I tried it once and found it no better than white vinegar at about 1/8th the price. For delicate items, vinegar is hard to beat.
Randy

 

[NortonDommi]

Any Acid will remove rust some faster than others the drawback is you have to monitor progress. Acid attacks sound metal as well as rust.
My favourite is dilute water/Molasses mix at 40-60:1. Basically foolproof and you can leave stuff in indefinitely. It is not fast but it works and works well. Trick is de-grease before soaking. This is a good video about it:

I think 'Project Farm' did a comparison test with Acid and Evaporust as well.