"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
...
I have a bucketful of half diluted (appx. 10%) muriatic acid.

I could pretty easily dip the vise in it, indeed.


What I forgot to mention is two things:

1) Rusted things look very weird when they come out of a muriatic acid
bath. I derusted a few things in muriatic acid, the key is wash them
in soda right away and then bake in oven or barbeque immediately so
they dry before rusting, then oil. Everything comes out looking very
strange, looking more like potmetal than like steel.

2) I wanted to try and see how the tumbler works. I thought that it
might make those vise parts look kind of nice.

i

Phosphoric acid is a better choice. It leaves a surface just like a primer
coat on the metal. Actually retards further rusting. its the active
ingredient in many rust products from naval jelly to rusty metal primer.
Buy it as "lime away" for $4/gal at farm fleet stores.

Karl


Well, actually Lime Away, CLR and other hard water stain removers use citric
and sulfamic acids. They are much less hazardous. Naval Jelly and many
others sold for rust removal do have phosphoric acid.