On Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:44:56 -0500, Ignoramus11951
wrote:

I need to clean 60 lbs of rusted 5C collets. They are not badly
rusted, but they are rusted. At first I thought to hire a kid to do
it, but now I think that it would not help much with their insides,
anyway.

My current plan is to just dump them into a bucket of diluted muriatic
acid,then quickly washing in soda solution, then in hot water, then
letting them dry under the hot Illinois sun.

I wonder what you think about this approach.

i
================
How about electrolytic de rusting? There was a thread on
this NG a while back or see.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/ru..._derusting.htm
Electrolysis is a technique for returning surface rust to
iron. It uses the effect of a small low voltage electric
current and a suitable electrolyte (solution). It has
advantages over the old standbys like vinegar, Coke,
muriatic acid, naval jelly, wire brushing, sand blasting,
etc. Those methods all remove material to remove the rust,
including un-rusted surfaces. With many, the metal is left
with a "pickled" look or a characteristic color and texture.
The electrolytic method removes nothing: by returning
surface rust to metallic iron, rust scale is loosened and
can be easily removed. Un-rusted metal is not affected in
any way.
snip
http://www.spaco.org/Blacksmithing/R...cDerusting.htm

http://www.instructables.com/id/Elec...val-aka-Magic/

and a bunch more on google electrolytic derusting produces
about 9.7k hits.