MTFCA Forum

Does a muratic acid and water solution for rust removal eat away at brass or bronze fittings or bushings?
I know that a sodium bicarbonate solutions and a battery charger eats away at brass fittings.

A 40% mixture of feed grade molasses and water will not harm bronze bushes. It is also environmentally friendly.

Allan from down under.

Hi Dennis,
I use Zepp calcium, rust & lime remover ( same as CLR but less expensive ) I use it for rust & tarnish, radiators, blocks & heads, "not aluminum"
I have used it on brass fire valves & other firetruck parts for 20 years. After use let it sit then poor the clean that is on top back into the jug for
future use. Get rid of the dirty. It is made for cleaning bathroom & kitchen fixtures so it can go down the drain, but check local Regs. I have a
septic system so that is not a option for me ( NOTE) It is not good for plants or fish. I reuse it for years, but the older it is the weaker.
Craig.

I have used muratic acid once to remove nickel plate from an old brass bathroom faucet. It did not eat away any of the brass but it turned the brass a copper color.

Vinegar 1: water 4. Vinegar does not attack clean metal, only corrosion.

Evaporust. Expensive, but 5 gals last a few years.

but it turned the brass a copper color

. It didn’t turn the brass a copper color, the acid ate away the zink in the brass, leaving only the copper.

Dennis_Brown wrote: ↑

Fri May 09, 2025 10:08 pm

Does a muratic acid and water solution for rust removal eat away at brass or bronze fittings or bushings?
I know that a sodium bicarbonate solutions and a battery charger eats away at brass fittings.

I’m not sure what you’re needing to remove rust from, but for rusty chrome I use a mixture of 4 oz of Oxalic acid (wood bleach) in 4 gallons of water. It doesn’t hurt paint or the metal but remove rust from anything after soaking it. Way cheaper. Typically for rusty iron, I sandblast. I put duct tape over the bushings to protect them.

i bit the bullet and have a tub with the 16 gallon mix in it. haven't used it but once so far and it worked great.
https://www.rust911.com/rust911-rust-re ... -shipping/

$80 plus freight! A sixteen gallon mix would only need 6-7 gallons of molasses.

Allan from down under.

Muriatic acid is not worth the effort or the hassle. You have to be careful to neutralize it after and storing the stuff anywhere in a closed building (even in a tightly closed container) will wreak havoc on any bare metalic parts or surfaces- AKA rust or corrode them. Just a heads up.

One other method not mentioned is electrolysis. Claimed to get at the internal rust. Made one to free up a frozen door latch & it freed it up!
Good instructions at this site https://www.instructables.com/Electroly ... aka-Magic/

I vote for Evaporust! It doesn't attack the metal, no matter how long you leave it in the solution. It doesn't harm any other parts, such as brass rivets, other attachments, rubber, plastic,etc. When it is done with the rust removal, all action stops. Also, Evaporust does not attack other alloys that may be in delicate parts like ignition switches, headlights, or other parts that have thin stampings built into them. If you just take your part out of the Evaporust solution and let it dry on the surface, it will stop any further rusting for as long as the part is kept dry. I buy it in 5 gallon buckets at O'Reilly's Auto Parts for $98, and pick the bucket up at the store near my house, so I don't have to pay for shipping. Home Depot used to have it, but they dropped it. Tractor supply has one gallon containers, and so does Harbor Freight, but both places charge a premium price for just a gallon. I have no connection to the product or the company. If you try it once, you will never use any other means of rust removal. It is absolutely superior to any other product you can buy or use. Use a stainless wire brush to wash off the residue with water, and you will swear that the part never had any rust on it at all! I watch a lot of tool restoration videos on Youtube, and it makes me groan to see those guys grinding and sanding on old tools that would have been perfect if they had just been plunked in a bucket of Evaporust for 24 hours! It's to the point now, that if I see them sanding or grinding on a tool during the restoration process, I know they don't know what they are doing and are just hacks, and I stop the video and move on to another one by someone else.

I will try washing soda, I used sodium bicarbonate used to lower the pH in swimming pools and it eats at brass.
One trick I used was to take a piece of plastic pipe and drill a lot of 1/4 to 3/8's holes in it. Then put your rebar inside it with the wire you are going to connect to the positive terminal of your battery charger coming out the top. By doing this you have eliminated the chance of your your item you are cleaning coming in contact with your sacrificial piece.