User Instructions

RUST CLEAN can be used on tools, guns, antiques, old toys, artifacts, car parts, equipment, engine parts, machinery, structural steel, and cast iron. The solution will not harm rubber, glass, plastic, wood, or vinyl. In many cases, assemblies do not need to be dismantled to remove the rust from the iron or steel components. RUST CLEAN can also be used as an excellent coolant system flush: contact us for details. RUST CLEAN will not remove rust stains from objects not made of iron or steel (ferrous metals).

BASIC INSTRUCTIONS – The product comes ready to use, no dilution is required. Here are basic usage instructions, please read all detailed instructions attached as this product has a variety of applications.

1. Pour correct amount of RUST CLEAN into suitable size plastic or metal container that allows parts to be processed to be completely submerged.
2. Place rusty parts in solution for 30 minutes. Heavily rusted items, leave longer, up to overnight. Check progress occasionally. If parts are real dirty, greasy or oily, pre-clean with hot soapy water, and water rinse well before placing in solution.
3. Remove objects and rinse with water. Heavily rusted items can be brushed with soft brush during rinsing to remove accumulation. If rust remains in deep pits, place part back in solution. Base part will not be harmed being left in solution.
4. After water rinsing, dry part immediately with warm air or exposure to heat. Finished parts are now ready for paint, oiling or other finishes. Or parts can be dipped back in RUST CLEAN, then allowed to dry, for short term rust protection.

PRECAUTIONS – Use of this product removes many of the hazards associated with previous acid based corrosive type products that have been used to remove rust. General precautions include keep away from children and pets and do not swallow. (If swallowed, give victim two glasses of water, and induce vomiting by placing fingers at back of throat. Avoid eye contact. While the solution will not cause irritation to eyes, the rust particles held in solution will. If eye contact occurs, immediately flush eyes with running water.

SETTING UP YOUR TANK – The container or tank used to hold your solution can vary from a small plastic container to a very large metal tank based on part size. For small applications, use an inexpensive plastic container of suitable size. A 5 gallon pail works well filled with 4 gallons of solution. Be creative! For example, to do a long part like a gun barrel, select an appropriate diameter and length of PVC pipe, and install a cap on one end. Then fill tube with solution to cover the barrel. Larger industrial applications are best handled by a plastic or stainless steel tank of the appropriate dimensions. Typically, you wish to calculate filling your tank to about 80% capacity with solution to allow for displacement once parts are added.

Locate your tank in a warm area near rinse water. For homeowners and restoration trades, this may be a sink, laundry tub, or in warm climates, an outside water hose. If your chosen location does not have a water supply, fill a second tank or bucket to be used as rinse water. Industrial users may use a second large water rinse tank or spray water, followed by warm forced air drying for production.

EVAPORATION - Over time, the water portion of your solution will evaporate. For this reason, when you set up your tank, mark the level of solution. As water evaporates, replace with clean tap water to maintain the correct mixture. If your tap water is especially hard, use distilled or ionized water.

We recommend using a loose cover on your tank to retard water evaporation. The cover should be loose to provide air circulation. If your plastic tank came with a tight fitting cover, simply drill a few holes to provide circulation. Do not tightly seal used product or return to sealed container. Since this product is biodegradable, bacteria will form in an oxygen free environment with used product. This is not harmful but will cause the product to have an unpleasant odor and shorter life span.

TIME REQUIRED - The time required to remove all the rust from your part will vary from 30 minutes to 24 hours based on the severity of rust, temperature, and type of steel. Typically parts are pulled occasionally to check the progress. There will be no damage if a part is left in longer than needed. New steel with flash rust will come off very quickly. See temperature below to increase speed for production work.

PRE-CLEANING - The solution contains a surfactant to assist in removing dirt and grease, but adding this waste to the solution will shorten its life span. Also grease will seal rust areas making it difficult for the solution to properly wet them. For these reasons, pre-cleaning of soiled parts is a good idea. Use any pre-clean type product or just hot soapy water which always works well. It is important that you rinse all detergent off the part before it is immersed in RUST CLEAN. Introducing detergent to the solution will rapidly reduce its effectiveness.

AFTER PARTS ARE CLEAN- After parts are removed from the solution, and water rinsed, they should be dried immediately with warm air or exposure to heat. You must realize it is the nature of the cleaned metal to begin rusting again! After the water rinse and drying, you may go direct to prime & paint, welding, powder coat, or a variety of coatings. Some items lend themselves to a light coating of oil, grease or wax.

If delay is needed for the next step, parts may be dipped back in RUST CLEAN, then dried, which will provide short term rust prevention. Parts will only need to be rinsed with water when you are ready for the next step. Cleaned parts should be kept in a dry warm location until processed by the next step.

PRODUCT COLOR - The solution when new will be a blue-green color. As you use it, color will change to a darker green, then to black. This color change is caused by the iron oxide and other products held in suspension. Continue using RUST CLEAN until its performance drops off. When product is totally exhausted, the color will be a dark black.

OPERATING TEMPERATURE – The solution works well at typical room temperature. As it gets colder the performance drops off, at approximately 50 degrees F, it will stop removing rust. As the temperature increases, the product works faster. The fastest rust removal will occur at approximately 120 degrees F, although evaporation will also increase. Using at higher temperatures is usually only done by our large industrial production customers to increase cycle times. Flash rust off new steel may be done in as little as 15 minutes. Do not allow product to freeze.

PAINT & COATINGS – The solution will not remove good paint that is firmly attached. If paint has corrosion occurring underneath, then the paint will be removed. RUST CLEAN will remove coatings such as bluing and Parkerizing. The solution will not harm chrome, powder coat, and most permanent finishes.

CLEANING-- Use RUST CLEAN for cleaning wood and years of accumulated grime and stains off vintage items. For these applications, check progress frequently, using soft nylon brush if needed. Many times leaving remaining original paint is desired. To completely strip metal parts, leave in solution longer, using a brass brush if needed.

WELDING – Customer testing has shown superior results in welding and brazing objects cleaned with RUST CLEAN. Sample parts were cleaned by our solution, and sample parts were sandblasted. After welding together, there was virtually no spatter on the RUST CLEAN side and moderate spatter on the blasted side. More importantly, the side treated by our solution showed much better heat transfer, resulting in a stronger better penetration weld.

HARDNESS – When a harder type steel part such as tool steel is left in the solution for long periods, you will see a black coating on the part. This is carbon coming to the surface. This may be left or removed by brushing with a stainless steel brush during the rinsing process.

PARTIAL DIPPING Usually the entire part should be submerged in the solution. You may rotate a large part doing sections at a time, but this will result in edge lines. This is not a problem on an item to be painted, but might be objectionable on an exposed part like a gun barrel.

ALTERNATE WAYS TO USE - While this product is typically used by immersing the part, for large parts, other methods may be used. There are two alternate ways that RUST CLEAN can be used. The primary consideration is that the surface to be treated must remain wetted. The solution may be continuously sprayed over a rusty area by means of a pump and capture tank This can work very well on some applications. It must be noted that the water evaporation rate will be higher and the solution level should be checked occasionally in the capture tank, adding tap water as needed. Another method is to liberally soak an absorbent material such as paper towel, apply to rusted area, and seal with plastic sheeting, by taping the perimeter. In this approach, care must be taken that the absorbent material in in complete contact with the metal to be cleaned.

DISPOSAL- For disposal of spent RUST CLEAN, only the iron content of the solution will dictate disposal method. If solution is used to clean iron and steel, the primary component added to the pH neutral solution will be iron oxide, a naturally occurring non-hazardous product. In most cases, the liquid portion of the solution may be rinsed into your drain or sewer system. Or you may wish to dilute 20 to one with water, and use for an excellent fertilizer for your lawn. The sediment portion containing most of the iron oxide solid is a non hazardous product safe for landfill disposal.

Our larger industrial customers may send large volumes of spent product into their waste disposal systems as non hazardous material. Always obey all local, state, and federal guidelines for your operation.