Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion The miracle of Molasses

I am sure this has been covered before, but for the benifit of the newbes like myself...

I have a badly rusted map table from a Standard Oil station. The sheetmetal is way to thin to stand up to sandblasting. I drilled out all the rivets that held the table together to get parts to a managable size.

My molasses tank is a 45 gallon trash can with a screw on lid. It is full of a 10 to 1 mixture of water to feed grade molasses. It has three eyebolts I put inside so that I can suspend parts from wires and not have to go "fishing".

As you can see from the pictures, after 3 weeks in the mix, all the rust is gone. The parts come out looking grey, you can "buff" them with a wire wheel to get back to shiny metal.

In my case, I hit them with a 50/50 mix of "The Must for Rust" and water. This develops an iron phosphate coating that will prevent rust from forming for a long time without any paint on the parts. It supposedly is also a great base for paint. You have to immediately treat the parts after you rinse them, because they will flash rust right in front of your eyes.

If you have patience and a tolerance for the smell of fermenting molasses, you can safely strip delicate steel or iron parts this way without ANY damage to the sound metal. I have heard it will disolve pot metal and bronze. Lots of websites on this if you google a bit.

Lee

Maybe after that molasses has fermented enough you might be able to use it for something else.

Jack Sim

This is my second year of using molasses for derusting, I also use a small cheap crockpot for those small bits that could find there way to the bottom of the 55 gallon barrel. Also I have a rubber mat for a lid, I don't notice the molasses smell unless the mat is off. disposal is pouring it in the garden, non hazardous waste. tt

Lee,
Thanks for the info. How long can you keep using it, or is it a 1 time use?
Thanks
Wally

It sounds like this mixture does the same as Muriatic acid if it rusts immediately upon removal from the bath. You can dilute any acid down to slow down it's process but then you have to treat it upon removal to fully stop and reverse the process.

NO Jack, It won't change the TASTE of a BBQ Texaspelican @ Iowa Gas!
Short of Cutting out your tonge to get rid of Taste.

Hydrochloric and phosphoric acids eat at the base metal too, the sugars/acids in molasses only attacks the iron oxide.
Question isn't TXpelicans better boiled in oil for a long time.....to soften him up???? <grin>

Hi Wally,

It is not a one time use, it will continue to work as long as the microbes are alive and eating the sugars in the molasses. Some people report having their tanks freeze over the winter and continue to work the next spring.

The process works due to the microbes eating the sugar. The microbes require oxygen, so once they consume all the oxygen in the water they start pulling it out of the iron oxide (rust). The oxygen in steel is too tightly bound to the steel, so they cannot pull any out, hence no damage to the steel after all the rust is consumed.

Note - The sealed tank is like a rain forest atmosphere. Any steel sticking out of the water into the air will rust AWAY if you leave it long enough. There is a story on the web about a farmer that put a model A frame into a large bath of molasses and then left on vacation. Came back and found the tank (a lined trench) had leaked that the frame was GONE.

Jack - I think you have a great idea. I will bottle some up and bring to Iowa Gas. Care to trade for some Correct Measure Ads?

I was told to mix 1gal of Jim Beam w/ 1gal of Jack Danial's Honey & marinate for a week before the BBQ. Seems like a waste of good whiskey!