"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
Harold & Susan Vordos wrote:
... If you've not put any steel in HCL, perhaps you should do so ...
... my personal experiences as well.
... consider the reality of the situation at hand. ... It would
be highly unlikely that any salt would have been formed.

My PERSONAL EXPERIENCE is this: I found a charge-driving nail gun at
the dump. Nice, but badly rusted. I took it all apart and put it in
HCl. I then neutralized with lye (or maybe TSP). I rinsed really well,
oiled it, and reassembled. I couple of days later I noticed quite a bit
of rust. "Dang!", I thought, "I guess that I didn't neutralize well
enough." I repeated the entire process and was _really_ careful about
neutralizing. It rusted again, badly.

Bob

Hard to argue with that, Bob. I know from experience that HCL cleaned
steel is quick to rust, in fact it does so as you're rinsing. I may have
to rethink my position.

Harold