I have a couple of small pieces of chain that I want to paint, but they have rust on them. I also have a small cement mixer, and was thinking that I could use it to clean up the chain, but what medium to use. Would regular gravel work, or too big? I wish I had some pea gravel to try, but do not. Any ideas out there? miles

Got any sand?

My vote too

Drag them down a sandy road behind your truck.

Throw em in a 50/50 solution vinegar and water for a day or two.

wonder if chem dip would work.

That's three votes for sand!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^This is what we do.

Try soaking them in vinegar or diesel for a few days, then wash and tumble in sand if needs be....

No sand, no sandy road. Just about 18 inches long for each one. miles

I cleaned up a couple of old spanners a few years ago by soaking in diesel and I was surprised who well it worked.

You'd probably need to degrease them afterwards though...

Miles, are they rusted? or just dirty from oil and dirt ?

If you have a cement mixer, toss them in with any abrasive. Sand, dirt, etc. It only takes a few minutes.

This. It'll take the rust off nicely.

any chain drug behind the tractor any distance, and we don't really have a lot of sand, will become mostly clean and shiny...... can soak in vinegar or even ospho after that...

I tried vinegar on some old planter parts a few years back but was not too impressed. I used straight vinegar though. These pieces of chain just have some spots of rust, but some inside the loops where it is hard to get to. This was just an idea that I came up with while wire brushing the parts the chain goes onto. Torsion bars for my camper hitch. miles

this.

and be suprised now much asphalt will make a dragging safety chain disappear

As mentioned, tumbling it with sand would work great. If you have no sand, try ashes.

Tie them to a rope, tie the rope to you bumper... drive anywhere.

Put them in the mixer with with about anything.

Buy new (they are only 1.5' after all).

Not trying to be rude, but unless they are sentimental or something this will all fix enough to be able to paint and reuse.

Naval jelly would work too. There is also stuff (ospho?) that converts light rust to a paintable primer.

I like the idea of using the mixer with some type of abrasive medium. You get to playing around with it and you might end up with everything on your place that will fit in it cleaned up.

I worked for a company that made a lot of flame cut parts, to clean and deburr them they put them in a cement mixer with a couple of coffee cans of kitty litter or speedi-dry oil adsorbing compound. Worked great, parts came out clean and ready to prime and paint.

Is there a Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart, etc., within reasonable driving distance? If so they usually stock a clean play sand in good size bags for kids sand boxes and such.

Being a little lazy around the edges, if I wanted a couple of 18 inch pieces of clean chain I'd probably just go out and buy new.

I've actually done that with big tow chains....it works great but you need to tie 20-30 feet of rope between the truck and chain....

I could probably buy a couple of pieces of chain for the price of the sand. If I buy new chain, then I got a couple of pieces of chain laying around in the way.

I went over in the field where I had disked a fire lane and got a bucket of the sandiest ground that I could find. Got it in the mixer as we speak. Waiting on the before pictures to load to photo bucket. Threw in a wrench and an extension too. Will have to buy the U-bolts that hold them on, as they were worn pretty bad and one twisted off when trying to remove it. miles

Muriatic acid would clean them up lickity split.

and will clean old gunked up carburetors also

We would just drag it behind the ship and let the salt water clean it up. Worked great but I doubt it would work well where you live.




I thing sharp sand would work pretty well in your cement mixer.

As a side note I accidentally threw a shell holder in with some brass I was cleaning. When I found it and saw how nice it cleaned up I threw the rest of my shell holder in the tumbler.

If the above doesn't work, Google electrolytic derusting.

Well, my sandy ground was too fine to do much so after a bit I went and got some gravel from the road and will see how that works. Tried to screen out some smaller pieces but that was a lost cause. miles

The gravel worked good on the chain but the tools kept getting hung in the holes where the slanted stirrers are, and just went around and around. One side got clean but not the other. miles

I use a product called PolyZag or PolyZ as it's known or Alumabrite for derusting my traps and snares. It eats the rust off without hurting the metal.

Miles, stretch them out on the ground, pour a mixture of bee honey and pine sap on them, and leave them there for a day or two. Then, turn them over and do the same thing again on the up side.

The armadillos will come in at night and lick them clean, rust and all - those critters have raspy tongues - better than a tough wire brush or a bassturd file.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but who paints chains???

Damn it, I was hoping this was a thread about cleaning gold chains.

Not frikken rusty ass old steel chains.

Yup, four fuhcking pages.

Lordy Lordy!

Bead blast the sumbeech and be done with it!!

Soak overnight in muratic acid .

Go skid some firewood. ....they clean right up.

Painting the hitch and torsion bars on an RV and did not want to leave the chains rusty. Got it clean, now to paint. miles

Damn Paul. I wish that I had known this sooner as I have been at war with armadillos here and have them about wiped out. miles

Just trying to make do with what I have around, and did. miles

Typical 'fire thread, multiple pages, same answer repeated over and over with a measure of off topic nonsense thrown in for good measure. This place has gotten to be a playground for idle minds with nothing better to do, surprized nothing political has been mentioned yet.

I kinda like the nonsense, but was kinda disappointed in the ones trying to send me to the store to buy something. Makes me wonder if a lot here are not merchants of one sort or another. miles

Try a can or 2 of regular Coke, seen that work before.

Miles - understood what you were wanting to do and am glad that you got 'er done. But, do try that honey/sap method sometime.

gunswizard, why not put that idle mind to work - which Pres candidate reminds you of a rusty 18" chain - or a cement mixer - or an armadillo?

As per CCCC...

rusty 18" chain - Hilliary

cement mixer- Trump

armadillo- Cruz


idle mind here...

I see Hitlary as more of a go round in circles after the topic was studied for 2 years, $2b in EPA studies and 2,000 guberment jobs were created.

Going for 10 idle mind pages.

Dump it in a bucket with apple cider vinegar, but be ready to paint it the minute you take it out and wash it off or rust will come back very quickly.

Get "the Works" bathroom cleaner....

Wish I'd seen this thread sooner! I sent out a 358 to get blasted and coated, I coulda just drug it behind the truck and Kryloned it!

That got a little trickier than expected. After going to several hardware stores, I got on the net and looked around. Got some ordered and just hope they are the correct ones. Diameter is correct and they are for attaching chains to a swaybar hitch. No other size in the order place to check against what I have. Cheap enough, but still a gamble. miles

One time I mixed coke and vinegar in a bucket and tossed in an old rusty log chain. I forgot about it for 3 weeks, when I finally remembered and pulled it out of the bucket, it was a rope.



Does anybody know how to un-rope a [bleep] chain?

Always wondered how rope was made, but that don't seem correct somehow. miles

Hardware store closed? A few links of chain should run you about $5.

Already been explained. You sometimes need to read the whole thread. miles

It is possible someone pulled a switcharoo on me....

There certainly has been a lot of pulling the chain here lately. Who's pulling whose chain....wait...what...oh...cleaning the chain...never mind..

Next step. This has me thinking about another project. I have a metal can that popcorn came in that I think will just about fit in the mixer. If I install a few "bars" to keep things from sliding to the bottom and tumble, I could convert this thing to a brass tumbler. Now what would be the best media? Walnut, ceramic, stainless pins or another? miles

Miles,

I think the best method to clean your chain would be steel wool. About 30 minutes per link works well for me.




Travis

Sorry bud, but you blew it and this is all that I see again.

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miles,

Please give me a second chance. I just want to help as best I can with your chain restorations.




Travis