Hi all,

I did more work on my phase convertor project this evening (I'll post
some pictures soon). I stripped a 230 V - 110 V transformer in
preparation for winding a new secondary to give me a 415 V output. It's
amazing how many individual pieces of iron make up a transformer core -
in this case it must be close to 1000.

Anyway, the laminations show a little surface rust. It's minimal but
still makes a mess and it would be good to clean it off in order to do a
really nice rebuild job. There are two sizes of lamination:
approximately 3" x 1.5" and 9" x 1.5" (and a third size in the centre,
which I can't yet measure). Both are about 1/64" thick.

Any ideas on how I might clean off the surface rust? They're too
delicate for tumbling in a concrete mixer, and I don't have a blast
cabinet. I've thought about electrolytic de-rusting, but haven't tried
it before. Does it work okay with a whole bunch of little components
resting in a metal basket? Cleaning 1000 laminations with steel wool
seems like an endless task!

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best wishes,

Chris