Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion BEST WAY TO GET RUST OFF OF SCREWS

I noticed pumps have many special screws, that you can not buy at menards or places like that. I have organized all the screws, and but they are rusted and I need to get the rust off of them. I am using CRL, but it is only getting half the rust off.

anyone have any ideas. thanks

I know kerosene or diesel fuel works.

thanks

I have a wire wheel on my grinder and of coarse the sand blast cabinet works very well too. If the screws are too small to hold with vise gripes, I wear exam/surgical gloves when using the wire wheel. Takes some practice but grinding down the gloves is better than my skin. I have sent screws flying across the shop so be careful.
Mike

Soak them in a can of Coke.

Evaporust from auto zone I was amazed how well it worked!

Chuck them into your cordless drill and rotate while applying steel wool, emery paper or whatever abrasive you wish. I polish the screw heads on my restorations this way.

I use pool acid [muritic acid] in a plastic cup/bowl in a Well Ventilated area [Outside] & wear protective Glasses & Gloves. Sometimes have to leave overnight, pour off acid then use Baking Soda & water mix to Neutralize the acid. Quickly dry w/ a torch or heat gun.
Also works great to remove concrete from bases.
NEVER use on Alum, Pot Metal or Galvanized Metal

I use a tumbler. It takes ALL of the rust off and leaves the screws just like new. You can pick one up fairly cheap at harbor freight or its equivalent.

Speaking of screws that you find in gas pumps,I always try to reuse the original ones also. However sometimes you have to buy new ones. Today I got a big surprise. In the midwest we have a large chain of stores called "Farm and Fleet" where I buy bulk quanities. They no longer carry ANY, slotted head screws of any size, and the clerk told me that they would not be carrying phillips head screws much longer. They had a few of those sorry combination slotted/phillips left.No demand for them any more. Ace hardware had a few left, but not a lot. A sign of the times.

I second the wire wheel, and agree that you have to be careful.

Wonder what 'they' plan to use once screws are gone? Pixy dust and unicorn tears??

Those new combo screws look just wrong on pumps. Not sure what I will use next time as I have the same problem trying to find just straight slotted screws also as our local hardware stores do not carry them anymore either.

...surely there is an online source for this stuff?...

I order my screws online. I like to use stainless. Tring to find slot screws these days is hard. Here is the place I order from. They have pan, oval, round and flat head slot screws.
http://www.bosunsupplies.com/products2.cfm?product=F-MS-SP