Vinegar, a useful and cheap product for all kinds of things!

[Janderso]

I've used vinegar in the past but be sure to use pickling vinegar as its 10% acetic acid as opposed to regular vinegar which is only 5 %

I had no idea. So the pickling vinegar probably works faster? Better?

 

[Aaron_W]

Ospho contains phosphoric acid, you can get it at Ace Hardware for $14 / qt. Several people have recommended it to me to help get rid of the rust on the truck I bought.

http://www.ospho.com/

 

[MarkDavis]

Citric acid can be purchased near the dish washer soap, labeled "Lemishine".
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lemi-Shi...MIjZCcn4mx3wIVEh6tBh01pwF_EAQYBSABEgJrUPD_BwE

 

[hermetic]

I brew my own cider vinegar from windfall apples, just press them and leave the juice bottled in 4 pint milk plysu's with the lids slightly loose. Used it on the sump of a grinding machine, and it took it back to bare metal over a couple of days, and that was cold! Also saved some old thread guages that I thought were too far gone to do anything with. It is surprisingly good!

 

[Janderso]

I have several vise grips by Irwin.
They clean up and work fine. I just need to replace the springs.
I don’t think this one sat in vinegar very long.

 

[mickri]

Have you tried to remove any of the parts off the lathe like the chuck? What about other chucks and stuff that that you had. If you had any of those rolling tool boxes how did the stuff fair that was in them?
I have used vinegar to remove rust. Works ok as you have found out. Sometimes mixing with molasses helps. Or lemon juice. I get my lemon juice from Costco.